When talking about the future many of us concentrate on technology. The most profound breakthroughs will probably come from innovations to how we manage our internal mind states. If you think about it, everything in our modern world is a result of the thoughts that led to actions in the minds of people. We create the world around us. That world reflects the inner state of the collective consciousness which itself is a collection of individual mind states.
Just as literacy was quite uncommon centuries ago, so too are ways of managing your internal mind state. Otherwise known as your Mental Operating System. It’s a loose analogy to a computer operating system that manages files on your hard drive. Some operating systems are more efficient than others. Some operating systems are more user-friendly…and so on. Our brains/minds are more complex than the most sophisticated super computers. Yet, very few of us have any training on how to manage this complexity. Fortunately, the knowledge exists and has existed for thousands of years. Like the spread of literacy, is it reaching the masses. It’s know by many names: a new consciousness, awakening, enlightenment, spiritualism…..a new “mental operating system” for us techies. Imagine something like a factory reset button for your mind where you remember the knowledge but let go of all the useless files, junk mail, spam, recycle bin contents, pain etc. What you are left with is a clean, efficient, more benevolent to yourself and others, internal mind state.
At the forefront of this is Eckhart Tolle. Oprah Winfrey has called him a “rock star” of sorts. Progressive companies such as Google have had him as a special guest speaker for their employees. See the talk below.
There are more in depth talks by Eckhart Tolle available on Youtube and on his site.
Happier people being kind to one another and progressing in a way with very little conflict does not make for a good scifi action movie. However, it would amount to one of mankind’s greatest achievements.
Well when you read it at first and consider the idea at a glance, it may seem a little out there, but when you really think about it it does make sense. Think about how much our minds have changed in the last couple of decades, alongside the technology as well. I just think it is this guy saying that this part of the advancement is more important to our overall future, and he makes some interesting and intriguing points here. It is a little heavy for my typical Saturday afternoon, but thanks for sharing and getting my mind working.
I don’t think our minds have changed that much. It takes a lot longer than that for evolution to kick in. Any change in our minds is merely an adaption to our environment.
Yes, but it one thinks of adaptation to the environment as an extremely important step in the organism’s ongoing survival, it’s importance cannot be overrated. And I think our minds have changed greatly over the last century. Large parts of human society as a whole no longer condemn homosexuality as evil and criminal, women stand full-square as viable, independent and autonomous citizens in many parts of the world and there has been a huge shift in human thinking towards accepting that we are responsible for the planet and can no longer just exploit it willy-nilly for our own gain. We must not underestimate what has been achieved. Much remains to be done, but surely we are getting better. And, for sure, we need our forward-looking thinkers and doers every inch of the way.
I’m with @rz3300 here. It’s heavy stuff, and definitely not something I can wrap my head around in a single sitting, but I’m definitely intrigued.
As someone who works in education and educational training, I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that different people take so many different things away from my lessons or teacher training workshops. A forward-thinking previous colleague of mine and I used to joke about the fact that talking to our students and trainees after class gave us the impression that we had been talking about 20 different things all at the same time, to different people.
Thanks for sharing this post. I’ll definitely be doing some more reading into Eckhart Tolle and mentail operating systems. Hoping it’ll help me get better at my job!
I can definitely imagine people in the future ask this kind of stuff, it’s a strange thing to think about, lol.
This is such a good idea, I mean, I am not pretty sure about our brain’s capacity, how much information can we get in our heads, and I’m pretty sure that it’s limitless. But still, there’s a lot of things that we don’t want there, and is not like information that one day was useful for us, I’m talking about traumas, bad memories and maybe even addictions. It would be a big step on psychology, I think.
Mental Operating System?
Well, I can work with that. To me, it’s not that different from computer operating systems. Computers are built with processing power. However, to access that processing power, we need an operating system, as an interface between us and the computer.
Likewise, our brain possesses tremendous processing power. So we will definitely need some kind of Mental Operating System to assess that processing power. How well we make use of this processing power would depend on the Mental Operating System we use.
Thinking is good but sometimes it’s too much. I need to stop thinking all the time. People need to stop thinking all the time.
This mental operating system – much like Androin, iOs and Windows – should be downloaded in my system. I do not think I have one yet. Or if I do, I have yet to figure it out.
There are so many thoughts in my head that I sometimes have a hard time getting my priorities straight. The only way to make the most out of this mental operating system is to clearly define it. It’s your brain after all. You should dig deeper into yourself and focus on your strengths. Map out what you want to do but give some room for errors and mistakes too. That way, you’ll have a clear idea where you want to go so that you can use your MOS to your advantage.
I hope I’m making sense.
That is a very interesting idea indeed. I am a really open-minded person so it isn’t difficult for me to accept concepts like this. I must give some it thought and maybe sleep on it so that I can make my own conclusions.
The idea makes sense. Lots of sense actually! It just feels like, well, to human is to err. The human condition doesn’t so easily remove it’s equilibrium.