GET OFF THE GLASS!! | Get off the Glass! Ranjit Makkuni, Mahamaya Experience

Reclaim your Analogue Life

Man in a Cage, Mahamaya Experience, Ranjit Makkuni

Get off the Glass, Robots killing humanity! Mahamaya Experience!

Ranjit Makkuni, Get off the Grid, Mahamaya Experience

This song describes our interests in humanizing computing technology, and its underlying ‘reductionist’ mindsets, the very force that creates people’s ‘addiction’ to the new, and people’s forgetfulness of past cultural wisdom. In this paradox, we could explore bridges between ‘culture’ and ‘technology’ with the goal of transforming people’s forgetfulness and addictions into a remembrance of the positive values from the past. This could provide means for people to reconnect with perennial wisdom, and in turn provide sustainable forms of employment where hand-skills based expertise will not get replaced, but rather enhanced and renewed.

Has Globalisation really delivered?

Despite the promise of a flat, equitable Information access space of equal access, Capital and Creativity rests with the few, and gravitate towards few spiky places.

The only constant today is relentless change!

“Get Off The Glass” features a fascinating mix of sitar riffs, elements of prog and folk rock (the vocals in particular has a noticeably folk-like approach to their delivery) and jazz, the latter of which appears occasionally in the form of horns. But it’s the subject matter that makes this song truly impactful, with its scornful criticism of the negative effects of the digital age - mainly our obsession with computers and the little-to-no concern shown to one’s physical, mental and spiritual well-being.

With innovation as a buzzword in the past decade, and the non stop race of the promise of the 'new', we don't have time to stop and experience the stillness and infinitude of the present moment. Instead of constantly inventing the future, or being taken by the idea that happiness is always in the future, we have the power to focus on the 'now' starting from the breath, and the feelings in the body, and a steering towards the non planning part of our mind which just dissolves in the 'isness' of the present moment.

Innovation needs a new approach where it will be interpreted as the integration of new forms into larger cultural and existential questions, and one that doesn’t produce fatigue in people. Instead it will be one that promotes a balanced harmonious existence between people and their livelihood, and their desire for connection to their communities, and to the preservation of Nature. Innovation, then, must recognize the role of the non-rational, feminine humanities -- exploring a plural imagination of a world that could be like that lies outside what is technologically perceivable through the five senses!

With rapidly expanding number of devices, users, media and the resulting media inundation, will the Techno-Hyper connected Info Man have any time to appreciate the 4 promises of life as mentioned in the Purushartha: which roughly translates as the pursuit of wealth, passion, moral conduct and the attainment of liberation? If we are in a situation of constantly chasing the 'future' where is the time to collect your thoughts, and savour one's contributions in this life time, before running out of time.

Reductionist mindset of Info society, Ranjit Makkuni

While many cultures have perceived and realised a richer representation and the experience of body and awareness, i.e., the body doesn't end at the edge of one's ectoplasm. But, computing assumes the vast personality that is 'you' can be reduced into jpgs and pngs on a screen.

Traditional societies, rooted in Nature, had explored these hidden channels of communication which extend from the ectoplasm of physical body cages to embrace nature and beings outside….One could say this was the traditional vison of the Internet…..

Here… Communication doesn't stop at the ectoplasm or at the bounding box of the body…instead haloes envelope and Energy moves beyond the body envelope and embrace all of space outside…

World is not a desk top, and people or not buttons or icons or windows!

Correspondences between technological rate of change and increase in suicides!

Addicted to updates people compare themselves with the projection of 'happiness' of their peers in the social media.

At a larger scale, the media presents comparison of ideologies, and what was once promised as a medium to unite people, has become a media of division. Research has shown that people become addicted to watching fearful and hateful presentations, and tend to scroll longer on the screens, than switch to topics of peace!

We mindlessly trample the earth, without realising hidden power of the earth and sacred geographies..

Social media is the thief of joy, as it forces comparisons and comparisons makes a lot of us miserable… and we trace the origins of this to facemash browser… in Harvard’s dorm...

And ..as the Social media browsers grew in scale the comparisons --and I might add misery-- too have grown in scale…

from the comparison of form in Harvard dorms to
comparison of ideologies now ….. The ideological competition tools ….. We have inflicted on ourselves…

and in doing so, the media has colonised our subconscious with fear and hatred, ...

Look at the contrast!

Traditional notions of connection and Modern displaced connection!

Isn't it time that social media paid royalties on the surveillance and attention monetisation back to its users!

Cancel the sugar! cancel the cookies!

Addicted to updates people compare themselves to the projection of 'happiness' of their peers in the social media. This is largely caused by a technology that monetizes comparisons.

And this at a large scale leads to the comparison of ideologies, and without knowing it, people find themselves becoming addicted to presentations on the screens that divide humanity, and not those that promote peace!

This song is a scathing commentary about the ills of the computer revolution, and our forgetfulness about love and the path of love, and how computers are stealing from people time and consciousness.

Reclaim your Analogue Life

And…With the impending AI revolution lies another tsunami of unimaginable entrapment and possibility of self extinction

If we haven’t yet designed basic tools, imagine what would happen if the expect the badly designed tools to start learning by themselves

and author and automate new tools themselves?

BUY ALBUM

Has Globalisation really delivered?

Despite the promise of a flat, equitable Information access space of equal access, Capital and Creativity rests with the few, and gravitate towards few spiky places.

Its also time to re-ask

Hey? what happened to the promise of the equitable world? The redistribution of equity and opportunity that had been promised …in the flat space?

Has Globalisation really delivered?

The only constant today is relentless change!

Here… Communication doesn't stop at the ectoplasm or at the bounding box of the body…instead haloes envelope and Energy moves beyond the body envelope and embrace all of space outside…

World is not a desk top, and people or not buttons or icons or windows!

Correspondences between technological rate of change and increase in suicides!

Addicted to updates people compare themselves with the projection of 'happiness' of their peers in the social media.

We mindlessly trample the earth, without realising hidden power of the earth and sacred geographies..

Look at the contrast!

Traditional notions of connection and Modern displaced connection!

Isn't it time that social media paid royalties on the surveillance and attention monetisation back to its users!

Cancel the sugar! cancel the cookies!

Addicted to updates people compare themselves to the projection of 'happiness' of their peers in the social media. This is largely caused by a technology that monetizes comparisons.

Can we expect the incompletely designed, error infested tools of today, to suddenly 'learn' and redesign themselves: We are heading for extinction!

Let me exit 101,

Let me exit 280!

So Its time to break free and exit the ‘valley…’

And…take a hard look at what we have built!

We may need to do a Control Z, going backwards to retrace our steps and find where we've gone wrong….….and do a Control Z in a loop back wards, to arrive back to a point in time where we lived in harmony with Nature.. So that we both learn to live on the grid, as well as learn to live by switching off the grid!

Dopamine Updates

As information updates in the web, members of the hyper-connected society stay glued to their screens anxiously awaiting updates resulting in an addiction to the “new”. The world outside the ‘glass’ screens has been dematerialized - i.e., participation of people in the analogue world of nature, blue skies, green forests, participation in rituals and mythologies; and people themselves have become disembodied as computers and devices disengage people’s psycho motor skills. People in state of device addiction, browse information oblivious of the physical, analogue world and cultural landscapes around them!

Yet, in a world of constant changes, and in a goal-centric, rationally driven world, reason and efficiency alone won’t provide health, happiness and well-being. With the rapid pace of change of technological innovation, the hyper-connected-info-man is trying to cope with the pain of modern technology induced stress, and subconscious information addiction.

In this context, people’s cultural past offers jewels of wisdom valuable in a world of ubiquitous, globalized commerce and trade, and in a world where technical innovation propels economic growth while simultaneously negatively impacting the environment.

So, …the media of freedom envisioned in the 70s, by freedom loving computer scientists, who saw technology as a spiritual saviour and an enabler of freedom….. has now entrapped us!

When the history of computing will be written it will describe the 2020s as a time when computing got sick… and how artists and healers saved computers from themselves.

TECH Fasting

Fast

While keto fasts have become popular in reducing cortisol and insulin resistance, the equivalent therapy for info-addiction would be of a dopamine fast -- a media consumption shut down-- which, can help restore hormone levels that can manage levels of stress. This also resets the dopamine 'bar' so that we can learn to create the pleasure reward neurotransmitters and feeling through analogue touch, e.g., hugs and love, and we can learn to engage in analogue conversations can be interesting and worthy of curiosity and renewal.

In traditional societies participation in many festivals and the act of pilgrimages require physical hardships and fasts in order for people to rejuvenate themselves.

We will need to study the equivalent of 'going slow' is needed for us to get rebalanced.

LEARNING from Traditional Tech

Low incidence of cancer rates in the Middle East because of inbuilt fasts in the worldview and pilgrimage experiences.

As the world becomes rational and goal-driven, and as communications exponentially speed up, and as the increasing, explosive amounts of information and distractions clutter up and inundate the attention of the hyper connected info man, we will need to explore how the arts and culture can humanize technology, provide psychological balance, in turn and support a society rooted in balance and well-being!

With an eye towards a future, where “intelligence“ as a pursuit could potentially results in loss of the skills and dignity of the human artist, we need to represent a vision for a balanced and healthful approach to innovation and development where commitments to technological progress is balanced by the need to embed technology in stable cultural practices in order to create a healthful, sane, stress-free human artist at harmony with himself and the larger society.

With the spiraling change that lies ahead of us, in terms of technology, the rapid expansion of cities inspired by data driven models, and a political economy that typically focusses on maximizing profits at the expense of ecological and societal wellbeing and health, cultural heritage preservation, if not supported, lies under threat of degradation.

This would require politicians and development planners to rethink the design of an equitable society where the fruits of Nature and the legacy of ancient wisdom can be enjoyed by the people during their limited time of their precious life on planet earth, instead of spending almost all of their time living in a world of constant learning upgrades, and fear of obsolescence!

Visions of the original Dynabook, the prototype for the lap top, invented in 1970s at Xerox PARC, envisioned technology as a saviour liberating kind so that people focused on what they do best: less work and engage in creativity and knowledge pursuit under the trees! in harmony with Nature.

What will we do with our rapidly dwindling time on Planet Earth? Fidget with more devices, or soak in the Green?

Our bodies are designed for movement, and movement creates creating a healthful culture of hormones and neurotransmitters in the brain that helps people to deal with a stress free experience of the world.

Our bodies (the biologies of the body) are not ready for taking on the stress of the rapid changes that envelope Mankind.

About

Technology for solitude

Withdraw inwards into the silent mind in order to thrive!

Over the past decade people have been the recipients of physiological and psychological stress, the effects of the tremendous rate of change created information technology in various spheres. In the past, it took sixty years for a technology to be invented, adopted and refined to remain stable. The same technology innovation and adoption cycle has now been compressed to five years today. The shrinking of time has many stressful impacts - it makes educational systems, skills, curricula obsolete in no time. People need to constantly learn and reinvent themselves. As a result, people today live in a state of tremendous anxiety and insecurity, created by a 24/7 ‘always on’ culture with no breaks for calm and solitude.

Ranjit Makkuni

Where is everybody hiding ?

Looking at the glass screens always glowing?

Arrows going down, down, down!

Screens showing the markets always sliding.

Can Growth always keep growing?

And our screens always be shining?

Never ending Growth?
Sustainable?

Sleep Debt

In all of this, Work never ends, and… the increases of the quantitative dimensions of technology have not kept its promises.. Dimensions of technology have not reduced work proportionately: neither quantitatively or qualitatively….. And as a result we owe ourselves sleep, the minimal time required for the body to repair and re heal ..

And…Ironically…This sleep debt lies proportional to the burgeoning economic debt of developing nations

And to the debt owed to humanity by decision makers in not taking decisions on ecological awareness…and as a result the world lies in a deep slumber , a suspended animation, when it comes to the decision on taking action on the status quo of climate change …

Sleep Debt

Goodbye Glass!

Humanity is reduced to a hapless spectator

Watching digital greed and drama unfold on glass screens

Even when you're dead and gone

your image lives on

And you've got no rights to be forgotten!!

Spoken: Unless, of course!! you watch their ads in heaven

No matter what the epoch is, humanity has been preoccupied with negativity!

Its time Tech paid attention to the artists and the healers. The World’s artists, performers, and health practitioners among others i.e., the creative class and the healing class can draw from their innate wisdom and re-design new devices, interfaces and experiences.