Collaborative Heroism: An Empirical Investigation

Interactive technologies have come to define our culture, and as such, they influence and shape our modes of perception and behavior. This empirical investigation explored the public’s perception of the impact of the Internet on heroism via assessment of a sample population through a process of item generation, sampling, and principal component analysis. A robust 5-component structure emerged with consensus among participants including: 1) Collaboration expands heroic potential; 2) Internet technology expands heroic potential; 3) Heroes are motivated to protect and serve; 4) Heroes are responsive to injustice; 5) Concern for others is a required ingredient. The results extend research in collaborative heroism, supporting the basic premises of the theory, suggesting that the tools of the networked society are impacting the social construction of heroism, expanding it such that heroism is evolving to meet the demands of the 21st century

BEING VALUES AND BENEFICENT OBSESSIONS: APPLYING THEORIES FROM MASLOW AND ASSAGIOLI TO EVOLUTIONARY GUIDANCE MEDIA

Memes are units of cultural information, the symbols that shape our worldview. In seeking to create a sustainable worldview we require memes, i.e., words, images, and systems, capable of serving as evolutionary guides for societies at varying levels of development. The evolutionary guidance systems framework designed by Bela H. Banathy is one such societal meme. Its application to media resulted in evolutionary guidance media, a framework for creating media designed to promote planetary consciousness. In continuing the design of evolutionary guidance media, this paper explores the application of Maslow’s theory of “metapathologies” as a means of isolating and/or diagnosing societal ills, and examines the use of “being values” as antidotes. To expedite the healing process Assagioli’s “technique of evocative words” and the “beneficent obsession” are presented

Evolutionary Guidance Media: An Overview

Students of history are taught that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand sparked the beginning of World War I. Today, we might wonder if the students of tomorrow will be taught that 12 cartoons ignited World War III. The importance and power of media continues to expand exponentially, increasingly asserting itself as a critical factor in our lives. As the world continues to interconnect, the potential exists for media to impact the individual and global psyche in a manner hitherto fore unimagined. Creating a new guiding mythos that promotes psycho-spiritual growth is considered necessary to create a sustainable world. Utilizing evolutionary guidance systems design, evolutionary guidance media (EGM) has been designed both in context and content specifically for the purpose of promoting planetary consciousness. This paper provides a brief overview of EGM for the purpose of generating strategic and evolutionary conversations within the international community

Transception: The Dharma of Evolutionary Guidance Media

We have at the present moment, communication technology that can be as powerful, in a creative sense, as the Atomic bomb was in the destructive sense. And remarkably, our children are some of its most fluent and ardent manipulators. Unfortunately, the stories and games being created for them are encouraging many of the values that contribute to social inequality and environment destruction. It is our challenge, as their stewards, to design communication technologies that will enable them to play and learn, while offering them real-life lessons in compassion. Systems scholar, Joanna Macy, presented the similarities between the systems view of reality and core Buddhist teachings in her groundbreaking book Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory: The Dharma of Natural Systems – using the parallels Macy demonstrated as a catalyst, this paper introduces transception – cyberception infused with compassion – considered a key component in evolutionary guidance media. The development of evolutionary guidance media was one of the final areas of research supervised by the late pioneer of evolutionary guidance systems, Bela H. Banathy. Specific examples of transception are presented through introducing key components of Project Milky Way, an experiment currently underway that was encouraged by Banathy as a means to test the theory of evolutionary guidance media in action. The experiment is designed such that it will allow the most privileged children (generally those with computers) the opportunity to share their wealth with those less fortunate. And, as Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child initiative takes off, these same children will be able to communicate with children in the developing countries. Through transception, the children will be able to play, learn, and compassionately work together to become part of the solution to social injustice and environmental degradation. The paper concludes by suggesting that a generation of children who have come-of-age with transception at their fingertips would be better able to face the challenges they have inherited and more capable of making decisions that include concern for all beings, rather than those based on a NIMBY (i.e., not-in-my-backyard) mentality