Sunny guy

To chart our journey ahead, I think it’s useful to realize where we came from, physically and psychologically. When you want to visualize that, spirals are apparently the way to go.

On the physical level I’ve found this beautiful visualization of Evolution, credited to the Enclyclopedia Universalis (HT visual think map):

From wikipedia comes this three dimensional spiral:

Both try to make clear how things are speeding up at an incredible rate.

New for me was the fact that people have also used the spiral to visualize our mental evolution. Steve McIntosch does a nice job:

Where “integral consiousness” seems to have many somewhat incoherent believers, there is a rather practical approach behind this called spiral dynamics that I might have to look into in the near future. This summary in particular caught my eye:

Spiral Dynamics describes what Dr. Graves termed biopsychosocial systems along a continuum that forms an expanding spiral. The term, bio-psycho-social, reflects Graves’s insistence on the importance of a multidisciplinary, multidimensional approach to understanding human nature:

• “Bio” for the neurology and chemical energy of life and the organismic part of us
• “Psycho” for the variables of personality and life experiences, our temperaments and sense of self and relationships to other
• “Social” for the collective energy in group dynamics and culture as the interpersonal domain influences human behavior in collective settings ranging from small groups and families to corporations and entire societies
• “System” for the interdependence and action/reaction of these three upon one another in a coherent whole according to principles laid out in General Systems theory and other approaches to how things work and interact.

Sounds extremely interesting!

Let’s close with another visual, that gives a little bit more specifics on spriral dynamics:

In all cases you can click on the small images to go to a bigger one.

I’m fascinated by the idea that the earth can be viewed as a supersystem or a superorganism with humanity as it’s superbrain. Super here does not mean superior. It just means that your primary focus is at a higher level of abstraction. But can you visualise that?

I’ve included some examples for your enjoyment. Please let me know if you find others!

Knowledge maps:

Knowledge map based on clickstreams

Science citation index

On both maps you can see how far physics and especially alternative energy are removed from economics and political science.

Maps of the Internet:

Opte internet map

Chestwick internet map

Travel maps:

Travel times to major cities

90% of the surface is < 2 days travel from a city.

Artist impressions:

Monolith Studios