Mineral plant like spiders

From Anthroposophy

This topic page is about one aspect of one lecture by Rudolf Steiner, where he gave a prophetic outlook of the web and internet of things and the future of that development that awaits us, as well as its impact. The term 'mineral plant like spiders' refers to the description, see Discussion section below. If we condense Rudolf Steiner's words keeping their literal descriptives, we come to a sentence like:

The earth will be covered with these automatic mineral-plant beings who stand in their nature between the plant and mineral kingdoms (as machinery is thought poured into mineral), they will most cleverly weave into eachother intertwined like spiders in a web.

Another formulation:

Machinery is really thought poured into mineral. All modern (mineral) thoughts will become endowed with being. As the Earth today is enclosed in an atmosphere, these evil mineral plant-like spiders, weaving into each other, will cover the Earth like gnats in the air.

However the topic is expanded to the spiritual elemental beings brought forth by machines.

Positioning hindsight and foresight

20th century view

Taking a step back on a century of technological developments, shows the increasing rate of impact of innovation in the world.

  • The scientific basis laid in the beginning of the 20th century led to the development of the tube and semiconductor, which were the basis for the design of the computer in the 1940s and 1950s.
  • Communication over wires existed with the telegraph (1840s) and telephone (1870s on) and was applied to wired computer networks (1970s on).
  • In parallel the development of radio waves and wireless radio (1900 on) found its application in radio broadcasting (1920-1930s) and radar (1920-40s) and led to the development of communication technology like cellular phones and wifi wireless internet (1990s on).
  • The tremendous speed of technology innovation led to the integration of these technologies in highly portable multimedia smartphone computer devices and applications which are today an extension of a child's hand .. and soul.
  • Maybe less apparent are emerging developments such as robots and artificial intelligence (1950-90s) which can be regarded as the next step of using computer technology to steer devices to act ever more intelligently both in thought (eg GPS algorithms) and physical action (robot welding, coffee machine program, etc). Indeed future developments have already been projected in e.g. singularity, brain-machine interfaces, etc.

It's hard to qualify that one or the other technology development changed the world more than another, as they all did, but on an ever increasing scale of pervasiness of impact and rate of change. Indeed the starting point for this (ever-more-'mineral' technology) lies in the development of foundational Mineral science from the 15th century onwards (see Historical development section on Mineral science page).

This increasing pace has to be the basis for projecting foresight of where technology development in support of the materialistic worldview and way of life, will lead humanity in say two centuries, or five millenia.

  • Why the thought exercise with two centuries? Because it could be expected that the unstoppable wave of materialistic development will hit some kind of hard stop in the Future Oriphiel age somewhere between 2200 and 2600. It may also happen earlier with the Three days of darkness, a worldwide cataclysmic event that is said (in visions and predictions of the future) to end the Third World War and throw humanity back in time for centuries in terms of material or mineral technology-based culture.
  • That being said, Rudolf Steiner projects this outlook into a far future five millenia away, see next section.

Positioning this outlook

This outlook or prophecy is positioned at and after the Reunion of Moon. Suppose this takes place around the 8th millenium, then the above snapshot is still some five millenia away.

It is important to study the effect that the Separation of Moon had on the kingdoms on Earth, the plant-like Earth was more alive (see description on Hyperborean epoch and Lemurian epoch, oa of 'giant oysters') and was condensed down into the mineral hardening as the forces of the Moon started to work from without rather than from within.

Hypothesis to contemplate: With the reunion of Moon, the opposite will take place again and one can imagine kingdoms to rise for half a step. So whereas the separation of moon caused a hardening of the elementals earth, the reunion of moon will uplift the kingdoms and one can imagine elementals to be released and the substance to become more alive again.

Aspects

  • mechanistic elementals or demons
    • are produced by man-made mechanical technical machines, and gradually take on a life of their own, in such a way that despite the fact that he brought it forth from the intellect, the intellect itself can no longer comprehend it (1920-10-29-GA200)
  • effects on Man's soul life
    • key difference of daytime soul experience with waking consciousness in nature, versus in a world of man-made machines.
      • for background: sense perception is holding back: we sense-perceive only the part of the elementals we hold back, the rest streams in (re 1910-03-21-GA119 and 1910-03-28-GA119, more on the waking consciousness topic page). This explains how machine elementals stream into us and affect Man's soul life from the inside-out.
    • when Man designs, creates and assembles a complex machine from mineral matter, certain spiritual elementals are placed in them. Each Man-made machine includes an ahrimanic demonic elemental that unites at the point of fabrication of the machine; continuous useage of the machine feeds the elemental (from human mental/etheric energy). When we live around machines, we are living together with demonic ahrimanic elementals and become permeated with them. When Man then works in a world full of machines and technology (in contrast to working in nature during daytime in earlier times), he stuffs himself full completely with ahrimatic spirits (whereas in earlier time Man brough elementals of nature into their physical and etheric bodies in daytime) (1914-12-28-GA275 and 1915-01-19-GA157)
  • where this will lead to? (1921-05-13-GA204)
    • the purely intellectual thoughts of waking consciousness about the mineral physical reality around us (all kingdoms) "will become realities when the moon and the Earth will unite again. A "horrible brood of beings", between the mineral and plant kingdoms in nature will spring forth, automatons, with with very high intelligence. The concrete implication is that the intellectual thoughts, spun inwardly by human beings today, will one day (at the Reunion of Moon) cover the Earth physically like a spider's web. Human beings will become entangled in it if they are not willing to rise above these shadowy thoughts. At that time, "the earthly shall remain behind, and the human being will only direct it from outside - like a foot stool .. (Man will direct his body from outside like the group souls of animals today) .. but it is something Man is not supposed to take along into his cosmic existence". The choice for Man lies in his conscious will (re self-initation), or go down with what is described above as part of the Sixteen paths of perdition.
    • "Humanity will seek this union with the spider race" and certain groups (and their underlying spiritual forces or influences) are conscious allies to 'tie down' a segment of humanity in this way. See also: Contemporary worldview war
  • also see:

Inspirational quotes

1914-11-20-GA158

Man will... chain a second being to his heels. Accompanied by this second being, he will feel the urge to think materialistic thoughts, to think not through his own being, but through the second being who is his companion.

full quote is about ahrimanic elementals, see Ahrimanic influence on Man#1914-11-20-GA158, but the link with a smartphone is obvious, and just a first step for what is to come

Illustrations

Lecture coverage and references

Coverage overview

The lecture 1921-05-13-GA204 below stands out as one where Rudolf Steiner speaks in a very concrete way in prophetic terms. This lecture is to be taken serious and parsed and contemplated again and again, to take the warnings with the gravitude so it changes our soul and it can affect our position and actions in life. The lecture has a prophetic character, similar to prophecies by Nostradamus and Beinsa Douno.

From Rudolf Steiner's we know comes a clarity of clairvoyance and communication that combines with a certain mission and message to humanity in service of the White Lodge.

In this way, the lecture fits into a broader context that can be approached from various perspectives:

this understanding is to be made quite concrete, hence:

and reaches a personal level with

and connects with

.

Reference extracts

1917-11-25-GA178

Now I will turn again to the fact that in this fifth post-Atlantean epoch humanity will have to find ways of dealing with great life-problems which in a certain sense were veiled by the wisdom of the past. I have already called your attention to them. One of these great problems will be concerned with finding out how to place the spiritual etheric forces at the service of practical life.

I have told you that in this epoch we have to solve the problem of how the radiations from human states of mind are carried over into machines; of how human beings are to be brought into relation with an environment which must become increasingly mechanised.

A week ago I pointed out how superficially this mechanisation is treated in a certain part of the world. I gave you the example of how an American way of thinking tries to extend the realm of the machine over human life itself.

...

Where this kind of thing goes on, the wish to yoke up human strength with the strength of machines is always involved. It would be quite mistaken merely to oppose these things. They are not going to fade away; they are on the march. The only question is whether in the course of world-history they are going to be brought on to the scene by men who are unselfishly aware of the great aims of Earth-evolution and wish to shape these developments for the healing of mankind, or by groups of men who want to use them for their own or the group's selfish ends. That is the issue. The point is not what is going to happen, for it certainly will happen, but how it happens — how these things are handled.

The welding together of human beings with machines will be a great and important problem for the rest of the Earth-evolution.

I have often pointed out, even in public lectures, that human consciousness depends on destructive forces. During public lectures in Basle I twice said that in our nerve-system we are always in process of dying. These forces of death will become stronger and stronger, and we shall find that they are related to the forces of electricity and magnetism, and to those at work in machines. A man will be able in a certain sense to guide his intentions and his thoughts into the forces of the machines. Forces in human nature that are still unknown will be discovered — forces which will act upon external electricity and magnetism.

That is one problem: the bringing together of human beings with machines, and this is something which will exert ever-increasing influence on the future.

...

Whether to conquer the cosmic for mankind in a wrong, twofold way, or rightly in a one-fold way — that is the question facing mankind. From this will come a true renewal of astrology, which in its old form is atavistic and cannot survive. The wise beings of the cosmos will enter into the struggle; one side will use the morning and evening processes in the way I have indicated; the West will prefer the midday processes, shutting out the morning and evening ones; and the East will prefer the midnight ones. Men will no longer manufacture substances on the basis merely of chemical attraction and repulsion; they will know that different substances arise according to whether they are made with morning and evening processes, or with midday and midnight ones. It will be known that such substances act in a quite different way on the triad, God, virtue and immortality — gold, health and prolongation of life. When the forces of Pisces and Virgo act in co-operation, nothing wrongful can be brought into being. Men will achieve something through which the mechanism of life will be detached, in a certain sense, from Man himself, but will not give any one group power and rulership over another. The cosmic forces drawn from this direction will create remarkable machines, but only those that will relieve Man of work, because they will carry a certain power of intelligence within themselves. And a spiritual science which itself reaches out towards the cosmic will have to see to it that all the great temptations which come from these machine-animals, created by Man himself, are not allowed to exercise any harmful influence upon him.

With regard to all this, the essential thing is that people should prepare themselves for it by not treating realities as illusions and by coming to a genuine spiritual conception and understanding of the world. To see things as they are — very much depends on that! But we can see them as they are only if we are in a position to bring the ideas of Spiritual Science to bear on reality. For the rest of the Earth's existence the dead will be co-operating actively in the highest degree, and it is how they co-operate that will matter. Here, above all, a great distinction will arise. On one side the attitude of men on Earth can rightly lead the co-operation of the dead in such a direction that the dead will be active out of their own impulse, an impulse coming from the spiritual world which the dead are themselves experiencing. But from the other side many endeavours will be made to introduce the dead into human existence by artificial means. Along the indirect path through Gemini the dead will be led into human life, with the result that human vibrations will pass over into the mechanism of machines and will continue to vibrate there in a quite definite way. The cosmos will impart motion to the machines by the indirect path I have indicated.

It will thus be essential, when these problems emerge, that no improper methods should be applied to them, but only those elemental forces which belong to nature on their own account, and great care will have to be taken not to introduce improper forces into the realm of machines. In this occult sphere the human element must not be related to machinery in such a way that the Darwinian natural selection theory is used to determine the working capacity of human beings, in the way of which I gave you an example last week.

1920-10-29-GA200

... people today .. are too complacent to grasp the new and prefer to get along with the old. The machine age has arrived. Machines themselves show how much human labour they save. It is simply that 500 million people would have to do the work machines do, if their work on the earth were to be done by people.

And all this work by machines began, primarily, in Western civilization. It arose in the West and spread to the Orient very late where it did not establish itself at all in the same way as it did in occidental civilization. But that is a time of transition. And now try and grasp a thought which, however strange it may seem to you, must be taken seriously.

Let us suppose the human being in ancient times had before him a cloud, or perhaps a river, or all kinds of vegetation and so on. He did not see in these the dead nature seen by the human being of today - he saw spiritual elemental beings, up to the divine-spiritual beings of the higher hierarchies. He saw all this, as it were, through nature. But nature no longer speaks of these divine-spiritual beings. We have to grasp them as spiritual reality beyond nature and then relate them again back to nature. The period of transition came.

Man created machines as an addition to nature. These he regards for the time being quite abstractly. He works with them in an entirely abstract way. He has his mathematics, geometry, mechanics. With these he constructs his machines and regards them altogether in the abstract.

But Man will very soon make a certain discovery. Strange though it may still seem to the human being of the present that such a discovery will be made, people will nevertheless discover that (in this mechanistic element which they have incorporated into the economic life) those spirits are again working, which in earlier times were perceived by the human being in nature.

In his technical machines of the economic sphere the human being will perceive that, although he constructed and made them, they nevertheless gradually take on a life of their own - a life certainly which he can still deny because they manifest themselves to begin with only in the economic sphere.

But he will notice more and more in what he himself creates that it gains a life of its own and that, despite the fact that he brought it forth from the intellect, the intellect itself can no longer comprehend it. Perhaps people today can barely form a clear idea of this, but it will be so nevertheless. People will discover how the objects of their industry become the bearers of demons.

...

Just as the human being in ancient times beheld nature and the manifestations of nature and saw in them demonic beings; so, too, must the human being of present times learn to see demonic beings in what he himself produces in the economic life. For the time being these demons, which human beings have not diverted into machines, are still in human beings themselves and manifest as the disruptive elements (die zerstorenden) in social revolutions. These destructive social revolutions are nothing other than the result of not recognizing the demonic element in our economic life. Elemental spirits must be looked for in the economic life just as in ancient times elemental spiritual beings were sought in nature.

1921-05-13-GA204

Nowadays it may appear comparatively harmless to people when they think only those automatic, lifeless thoughts that arise through comprehension of the mineral world itself and the mineral element's effects in plant, animal, and Man. Yes, indeed, people revel in these thoughts; as materialists, they feel good about them, for only such thoughts are conceived today. But imagine that people were to continue thinking in this way, unfolding nothing but such thoughts until the eighth millennium when moon existence will once more unite with the life of the earth. What would come about then? The beings I have spoken about will descend gradually to the Earth. Vulcan beings, Vulcan supermen, Venus supermen, Mercury supermen, sun supermen, and so on will unite themselves with earth existence. Yet, if human beings persist in their opposition to them, this Earth existence will pass over into chaos in the course of the next few thousand years. People will indeed be capable of developing their intellect in an automatic way; it can develop even in the midst of barbaric conditions. The fullness of human potential, however, will not be included in this intellect and people will have no relationship to the beings who wish graciously to come down to them into earthly life.

All the beings presently conceived so incorrectly in people's thoughts — incorrectly because the mere shadowy intellect can only conceive of the mineral, the crudely material element, be it in the mineral, plant, animal or even human kingdom — these thoughts of human beings that have no reality all of a sudden will become realities when the moon and the earth will unite again. From the earth, there will spring forth a horrible brood of beings. In character they will be in between the mineral and plant kingdoms. They will be beings resembling automatons, with an over-abundant intellect of great intensity. Along with this development, which will spread over the Earth, the latter will be covered as if by a network or web of ghastly spiders possessing tremendous wisdom. Yet their organization will not even reach up to the level of the plants. They will be horrible spiders who will be entangled with one another. In their outward movements they will imitate everything human beings have thought up with their shadowy intellect, which did not allow itself to be stimulated by what is to come through new Imagination and through spiritual science in general.

All these unreal thoughts people are thinking will be endowed with being. As it is covered with layers of air today, or occasionally with swarms of locusts, the earth will be covered with hideous mineral-plant-like spiders that intertwine with one another most cleverly but in a frighteningly evil manner. To the extent that human beings have not enlivened their shadowy, intellectual concepts, they will have to unite their being, not with the entities who are seeking to descend since the last third of the nineteenth century, but instead with these ghastly mineral-plant-like spidery creatures. They will have to dwell together with these spiders; they will have to seek their further progress in cosmic evolution in the evolutionary stream that this spider brood will then assume.

You see, this is something that is very much a reality of earth humanity's evolution. It is known today by a large number of those human beings who hold mankind back from receiving spiritual scientific knowledge. For there are those who are actually conscious allies of this spidery entangling of human Earth existence. Today, we must no longer recoil from descriptions such as these. For descriptions of this kind are behind what is said to this day by many people who, based on ancient traditions, still have some awareness of things like these, and who would like to surround these ancient traditions with a certain veil of secrecy. The evolution of earthly humanity is not such that it can be veiled in secrecy any longer. However great the resistance in hostile quarters, these things must be said; for, as I have stated again and again, the acceptance or rejection of spiritual scientific knowledge is a serious matter facing mankind. It is not something that can be decided on the basis of more or less indifferent sympathies or antipathies; we are dealing with something that definitely affects the whole configuration of the cosmos.

We are dealing with the question of whether humanity at the present time will resolve to grow gradually into what benevolent spirits, wishing to ally themselves with human beings, bring down from the universe, or whether mankind will seek its continued cosmic existence in the gradual entanglement, in the spider-brood of its own, merely shadowy thoughts. It does not suffice today to set down in abstract formulas the need for spiritual scientific knowledge. It is necessary to show how thoughts become realities. This is what is so dreadful about all abstract theosophists who appear on the scene and place abstractions before people, for example: Thoughts will become realities in the future. But it does not occur to them to present the full and actual implications of these matters. For the concrete implication is that the intellectual, shadow-like thoughts, spun inwardly by human beings today, will one day cover the earth like a spider's web. Human beings will become entangled in it if they are not willing to rise above these shadowy thoughts.

The path of the ascent, my dear friends, is indeed outlined. We must take profoundly serious thoughts such as the one with which I concluded my lectures on color last Sunday where I said: The point is to lift the comprehension of color out of the abstractions of physics into a region where the creative fancy, the feeling of the artist who understands the being of color, will harmonize effectively with a spiritual scientific insight into the world. We have seen how the beings and nature of color can be taken hold of, how the artistic element, which physics with its dreadful diagrams lets slide down into the ahrimanic sphere, can be lifted up. Thus, a theory of color can be founded; it would be remote from the established thought habits of modern science, yet can provide a basis for artistic creativity, if we will only imbue ourselves with its insight. Such thoughts must certainly be taken seriously.

Another thought must be earnestly considered. What do we witness today throughout the civilized world? Our young people are sent into the hospitals and to the scientific faculties of the universities; there the human being is explained to them. They become acquainted with the human skeleton and with the human organism by studying the corpse. They learn to put together the human being logically in abstract thoughts.

Yet, my dear friends, this is no way to comprehend the human being; in this way, one only gets to know the mineral aspect of man. What we learn about the human being through such a science is something that simply and solely has significance from the moon's separation until its return, something that out of the spider thoughts of today will then turn into spider beings. A knowledge must be prepared that takes hold of the human being quite differently, and this can be done only if science is lifted into artistic vision. We must admit that science in the present-day sense of the word can reach only to a certain level. It reaches only as far as the mineral element in the mineral, plant, and human kingdoms. Already in the plant kingdom science must change into art; still more so in the animal. It is sheer nonsense to try to understand the animal form in the way the anatomists and physiologists do. And as long as we do not admit that it is nonsense, the shadowy intellect cannot really be transformed into a living, spiritual grasp of the world.

What our young people are taught in so wretchedly abstract a form in the universities must everywhere turn into an artistic comprehension of the world. For nature around us creates artistically. Unless it is understood that nature around us is an artistic creation and can be grasped only with artistic concepts, no good will come of our world conceptions. The idea should take hold that the torture chambers in medieval castles, where people were locked into the “Iron Maiden,” for instance, and them pierced through with spears, remind us of a procedure that, though more physical and concrete, is the same as the one that occurs when young people today are introduced to anatomy and physiology and told that this will make them understand something of human nature. No, they comprehend nothing but what has been produced by a soul-spiritual element of torture: The human being torn limb from limb, the mineralized human being — that part of Man that one day will be woven into the spider-cover of the earth.

Is it not sad that the power of civilization belongs now to those who consider the thoughts of truth itself, which most inwardly and intimately relate to the salvation and whole mission of mankind's development in the world, nonsense! It is tragic and we must be mindful of this tragedy. For only if we place this clearly and objectively before our soul's eye, shall we perhaps bestir ourselves to resolve to do what we can so that the intellect, shadowy as it has become, may find the way to admit the spiritual world that is approaching from the heavenly realms. Then, this shadowy intellect will be made fit for the potential it is to achieve. After all, this shadowy intellect should not be cast back into the realm beneath the plant kingdom, into a spider brood that will spread over the Earth. No, it is intended that the human being shall be lifted up, in that time when women will no longer be fertile, when the eighth millennium will have arrived and the moon will unite again with the earth. The earthly shall then remain behind, and the human being only direct it from outside — like a foot stool. It will be something he is not supposed to take along with him into his cosmic existence. Human beings should prepare themselves so that they need not become one with what will someday have to develop on the surface of this earth in the manner described above.

Mankind entered from a pre-earthly existence into this physical existence. At the time of the departure of the moon, physical birth commenced. The human being began to be born of woman. Just as this came to pass, so in the future the human being will no longer be born of woman. For that is only a passing episode in the whole of cosmic evolution. It is the episode that is to bring to man the feeling of freedom, the consciousness of freedom, the integrated wholeness of individuality and personality. It is an episode that must not be disdained, an episode that was necessary in the whole cosmic process, but it must not be retained. Human beings must not give themselves up to the indolence of merely looking up to an abstract divine principle; they must concretely behold everything connected with their evolution. For they can attain a true inner revitalization of the whole soul-spirit being only if they comprehend that great period of time — but in its concrete evolutionary configuration — through which they will live in successive earth incarnations.

This is what a true spiritual science tells us today. Yet, such a spiritual science encounters opposition. We are threatened by a conscious will that would exclude us from spirituality and unite us with the spider web of the earth. This conscious will dwells in some people, for they believe that it will be to their advantage if they train only themselves spiritually and leave the others to live in ignorance. In most cases, however, this is done in ignorance; basically, people do not have the remotest idea of the appalling earthly destiny they are approaching by uniting themselves with what an ancient spiritual knowledge called the sixteen paths of human perdition.

For, my dear friends, just as there are many ways in which we can turn with the shadowy intellect toward what can come to us as a message from the spiritual worlds, so there are variations of the shadowy intellect itself, various ways of uniting ourselves through this intellectual activity with the elements of spidery incrustation that will be spun over the whole earth in the future.

In that time, the intellect will hold sway objectively in the manifold limbs these spider creatures will possess. They will entwine and wind themselves around one another; in doing so, in these convolutions reminiscent of the caduceus, they will produce the most marvelous, clever, the most ingenious formations — ingenious in todays's sense of the word. However, by again acquiring an understanding of the artistic from within, human beings will be able to show understanding for what goes beyond the mineral and is expressed in the formation of the plant.

It is symptomatic that in the course of mankind's evolution it was Goethe who discovered the teaching of metamorphosis — Goethe, who was artistically inclined. All the pedants around him considered it to be dilettantism, and they think so even today. In Goethe, however, the artistic conception of the world and his clarity of mind in general combined with the power of vision that recognizes, even in nature herself, nature as the artist. He was not yet capable of seeing the animal kingdom in the same way, except for the formation of the vertebra and the skull. That wondrous transmutation of a previous existence of man, where the present shape of the head develops from the form of the earlier remainder of the body, that marvelously artistic transformation of the long bones of the limbs into the spherical bones of the skull — only when this will truly be perceived will a real inner comprehension of the difference between the head and the whole remaining human form result. Such is the insight we must attain if we would plastically connect the head with the remainder of the human organism.

Yet, as art, this is at the same time true science, for all science that does not rise to the level of art is a deceptive science, a science casting humanity into cosmic misfortune. Thus, we see, on the one hand, that a true spiritual science shows us the way to an artistic grasp of things. Like a great hymn, I might say, this dwelled in Goethe's soul, when, as early as 1780, he wrote “Nature” his hymn in prose: “Nature, we are surrounded and encompassed by her ...” The whole hymn weaves a tapestry of thoughts such that one would like to say: It is like the unfolding of a mighty longing to receive spirit beings from the whole universe. Indeed, to pursue and develop further the thoughts living in Goethe's hymn "Nature" would be to provide a dwelling place for those beings who are seeking to descend from the cosmos to the earth. On the other hand, the torturous concepts developed in the nineteenth century concerning human physiology, biology, the system of plants, and so on, actually have nothing to do with the true being of the plants, something we had occasion to point out during our reflections on color. These inartistic concepts neither provide real insight nor do they penetrate to the human level. Therefore, what is held to be science today is essentially a product of Ahriman; it leads mankind to earthly doom and does not allow the human being to reach the sphere that, if I may say so, is brought toward him since the last third of the nineteenth century by beings from the cosmos.

The cultivation of spiritual science, my dear friends, is no abstract pursuit. It implies opening doors to cosmic influences that have been trying to enter upon the earth since the last third of the nineteenth century. It is a real, cosmic event to cultivate spiritual science. We need to become conscious of this fact.

Thus we may say, we overlook the whole span of time from the moon's departure until its return. This moon, which reflects the sunlight to us, has indeed a profound connection to our existence. It separated from the earth in order that the human being might become free. Humanity, however, must make use of this period so as not to provide for the moon, when the latter will have returned again, the material that can be bound up with the moon existence in the earth in that new kingdom of nature, of which I have now told you a little in a more or less graphic form.

We can say that now and then there arises in human beings some kind of forboding of what is to come. I do not know what meaning has been attached by readers to what Nietzsche describes in the chapter on the ugliest man in the valley of death in his Zarathustra. It is a touching, tragic description. Of course, Nietzsche had no vision of the valley of death into which earth existence will be transformed when the above-mentioned spider brood will cover the earth. Nevertheless, at the time when this fantasy of the valley of death arose in Nietzsche, there lived in him subconsciously something of this picture of the future. Therefore, he placed the ugliest of human beings into this vale of death. It was indeed some sort of foreboding of the time to come when human beings will be carried along in the most hideous shapes by the moon existence as it sinks down upon the earth, if they continue to cultivate only their shadowy thoughts. As the ugliest of men, they will fall into this swarm of spiders and be united with it.

What would be the use of keeping these things secret today, as many people would have us do? It would mean pulling the wool over people's eyes. After all, a large part of what is disseminated as spirituality today is nothing else but throwing dust in people's eyes. Occasionally one encounters people who realize what this means, namely, not to comprehend a single historical event as it is in reality. How many people are there today who know that events of fundamental importance are taking place in our days? I have already drawn attention to these things. How few are prepared really to enter into them? People would like to close their eyes to them. They would like to say: Well, these things are really not of so much importance. Yet, the signs of the times are there, and should be understood by human beings.

This is what I wished to add to my considerations on the world of color and man's relationship with the cosmos beyond the earth. We shall continue with these studies in the future.

Another excerpt from a undated lecture is available here. The given date and contents for the lecture are incorrect (checked on steinerdatenbank.de), but the same points are made as in the 1921-05-13-GA204 lecture above.

It may seem harmless to think only automatic thoughts of mineral, plant and animal and man; today they are merely thought but should this continue until the re-union of the Moon the result will be chaos. Full humanity must be drawn into the intellect. Incorrect and unreal thoughts will receive at a blow the real truth at the re-union of the Moon.

These materialistic thoughts will then bring forth a terrible race of automatic beings who stand in their nature between the plant and mineral kingdoms. They will be endowed with great power of intellect and understanding and will enclose the earth in a kind of net or spiders web. They will enclose what man imagines without Spiritual Science. (Machinery is really thought poured into mineral) All modern unreal thoughts will become endowed with being. As the earth today is enclosed in an atmosphere, these mineral plant — like spiders, terribly evil, weaving into each other, will cover the Earth like gnats in the air.

If man will not unite with the Vulcan Spiritual Beings he will have to unite his own being as far as it is not spiritual with this spider race; he will have to live with it and continue his evolution in the midst of it.

Advanced man will direct his body from outside like the group-souls. There are people who are aware of this and yet desire to hold evolution back; they are conscious allies of these spider beings whom they know from ancient traditions. Man must not shrink from descriptions of this nature for much of this lies behind what many people say today. Our evolution cannot progress unless the veil of secrecy be withdrawn and these things known so that Spiritual Science may be accepted or rejected. Humanity will seek this union with the spider race; this means the further development of shadowy thought in cosmic existence. It is not enough merely to accept the formulae of Spiritual Science we must see how thoughts become reality: The scope and full importance of this is not realised, therefore humanity is in danger of being entangled in this web.

1923-12-29-GA233

also talks about the sub-human sphere, see also Christ Module 14 – the counterforces: Lucifer, Ahriman and Sorat#1919-11-29-GA194

We must place this picture in all clearness before us, the picture of a civilisation from which the spiritual is excluded. It begins from the time that followed Julian the Apostate, and not until towards the end of the 19th century, beginning from the end of the seventies, did there come, as it were, a new call to humanity from the spiritual heights. Then began the age that I have often described as the Age of Michael.

Today I want to characterise it as the age when Man, if he wishes to remain at the old materialism — and a great part of mankind does wish so to remain — will inevitably fall into a terrible abyss; he has absolutely no alternative but to go under and become sub-human, he simply cannot maintain himself on the human level.

If Man would keep on the human level, he must open his senses to the spiritual revelations that have again been made accessible since the end of the 19th century. That is now an absolute necessity.

19XX-GA266C

page 437-438 in DE version

Many things seem to go smoothly these days because they are done mechanically. But the development of technology is spinning away over people’s heads. It is increasingly becoming a huge force that works on its own and that people cannot stop with their own available abilities.

We can face these machine forces only by striving to bring spirituality to the extreme consequences of our actions.

That alone will make it possible to stand firm against the overwhelm of this cultural machine, that one brings spirit and love into action.

Elementals in machines

see also: Ahrimanic beings and their influences#Ahrimanic elementals in technology

A three-stage process can describe the elemental beings in technological processes. In these descriptions, Rudolf Steiner was describing mechanical machines. Computing devices work with electromagnetic forces in the subphysical domains, see Schema FMC00.084 on Spectrum of elements and ethers.

In the first stage, the raw materials which are necessary for technological processes are torn from their natural surroundings and broken down.

1914-12-28-GA275

(Schmidt 2994)

  • When we break up nature, beginning with minerals, we bring about a certain feeling of pleasure on the part of the spiritual elemental beings in it...In what occurs, the important thing is that we drive the elemental spirits which belong to the sphere of the regularly progressing hierarchies out of the kingdoms of nature which they hold together. There are elemental ("very useful") spiritual beings everywhere in nature. When we disintegrate nature, we press the spiritual kingdom of nature-spirits out of it. This is what is continually happening during the first stage. We break up and pulverize material nature and thereby free the nature spirits. We lift them out of the sphere assigned to them by the Jehovah gods, into a realm where they can flutter around freely, where they are no longer bound to their original assigned dwelling places. Therefore we can also call this first stage the expulsion of the nature spirits.
  • In the second stage we put together again what we have taken from nature and broken down, in accordance with the laws we have discovered. When we make a machine or a complex of machines from raw materials, we plant certain spiritual beings in the thing we construct. The thing we make is by no means devoid of spirit.
  • At the third cultural stage, we could say that the effect technology has on us is that we stuff ourselves full of ahrimanic spirits - we really stuff ourselves completely with them. This is how it looks from the inside. Now if we turn away from this occult side of modern life and look back to the days when a human being slept in such a way that he was only separated from nature by walls permeable to the spirit, when he worked in nature during the day in contact with the regular spirits from the Jehovah hierarchy, we have to say that at that time, human souls -the I and the astral body - brought spiritual things from nature into their physical and etheric bodies, which had a stimulating effect on their inner soul life. This is becoming increasingly rare today
1915-01-19-GA157

(Schmidt 3009)

When we sleep, our soul merges with all the mechanisms which we ourselves have constructed. But a mechanism we have constructed is something quite different from the nature around us which was built up by nature spirits. For example, when we are outside in the woods, where everything has been built up by nature spirits, we are in an entirely different environment from when we are around mechanisms which we have constructed.

For what are we doing when we take things from nature and put them together in the machines and apparatus which we use in everyday life? We are not just putting pieces of matter together.

Every time we put pieces of matter together, we are giving a demonic ahrimanic servant an opportunity to unite with the machine. We give a starting point to the ahrimanic demonic elemental spirits and servants in every machine and mechanism, and in everything that belongs to present-day civilization. When we live around machines, we are living together with demonic ahrimanic elemental spirits. We  become permeated by them; we not only become permeated by the squeaking, creaking mechanisms, but also by something that is extremely destructive for our soul and spirit...We should notice and understand that our age is characterized that we are permeating the environment with demonic beings more and more. We are increasingly dealing with things that are mechanizing our civilization.

1922-GA266C

from the esoteric youth group (p374)

to the question from one of us about where the ahrimanic forces assert themselves most strongly, Dr. Steiner answered:

"As far as I have been able to see, it is the case in the cinema and with the typewriter.

It is not that there are no other machines, with respect to their construction, that are more ahrimanic.

However, with regards the effect on the human being, it is as I have said. "

1984 - Krishnamurti

on the web, smartphones and social media:

"the entertainment industry is taking over your brain"

, see short movie in youtube (1 minute) or - better for context - the longer movie (5 minutes).

Discussion

Note 1 - Source material

Parsing the lecture allows to extract the specific descriptions given and list them as a functional description on which one can build an imaginative picture. The texts above have been merged, and the essential points extracted.

Nature

  • All modern unreal thoughts people are thinking (without Spiritual Science) will be endowed with being. These materialistic thoughts will bring forth a terrible race of automatic beings who stand in their nature between the plant and mineral kingdoms. Machinery is thought poured into mineral. The earth will be covered with hideous mineral-plant-like spiders that intertwine with one another most cleverly but in a frighteningly evil manner. As the earth is enclosed in an atmosphere of air, these mineral plant — like spiders, terribly evil, weaving into each other, will cover the Earth like gnats in the air.
    • in other words will receive a life of their own, a sort of independant consciousness or intelligence
    • mineral-plant like
    • spiders that intertwine with one another most cleverly
    • terribly evil manner
    • ghastly: unwell, causing horror or fear
    • the 'spider brood' term is used, meaning they will be breeding .. will have a certain own evolutionary stream

Impact for Man

  • Man, to the extent that they have not enlivened their shadowy, intellectual concepts, as far as he is not spiritual, will they will have to unite their being with this spider race, not with the entities who are seeking to descend since the last third of the nineteenth century, but instead with these ghastly mineral-plant-like spidery creatures. Man will have to live with it and continue his evolution in the midst of it. They will have to dwell together with these spiders; they will have to seek their further progress in cosmic evolution in the evolutionary stream that this spider brood will then assume. .. the question whether humanity will resolve to grow gradually into what benevolent spirits, wishing to ally themselves with human beings, bring down from the universe, or whether mankind will seek its continued cosmic existence in the gradual entanglement, in the spider-brood of its own, merely shadowy thoughts. Thoughts will become realities in the future .. the concrete implication is that the intellectual, shadow-like thoughts, spun inwardly by human beings today, will one day cover the earth like a spider's web. Human beings will become entangled in it if they are not willing to rise above these shadowy thoughts.
    • Man will have to unite their being, dwell together with these
    • 'gradual entanglement' between ankind and the spider brood
    • materialistic intellectual thoughts will cover the Earth like a spider's web, and human beings will become entangled in it

Conscious allies

  • this is something that is very much a reality of earth humanity's evolution .. known today by a large number of those human beings who hold mankind back from receiving spiritual scientific knowledge. For there are those who are actually conscious allies of this spidery entangling of human earth existence.
  • What we learn about the human being through such a science is something that simply and solely has significance from the moon's separation until its return, something that out of the spider thoughts of today will then turn into spider beings.
  • .. the mineralized human being — that part of man that one day will be woven into the spider-cover of the earth.
  • this shadowy intellect should not be cast back into the realm beneath the plant kingdom, into a spider brood that will spread over the earth.
  • We are threatened by a conscious will that would exclude us from spirituality and unite us with the spider web of the earth. This conscious will dwells in some people, for they believe that it will be to their advantage if they train only themselves spiritually and leave the others to live in ignorance. In most cases, however, this is done in ignorance; basically, people do not have the remotest idea of the appalling earthly destiny they are approaching by uniting themselves with what an ancient spiritual knowledge called the sixteen paths of human perdition.
  • just as there are many ways in which we can turn with the shadowy intellect toward what can come to us as a message from the spiritual worlds, so there are variations of the shadowy intellect itself, various ways of uniting ourselves through this intellectual activity with the elements of spidery incrustation that will be spun over the whole earth in the future.
  • In that time, the intellect will hold sway objectively in the manifold limbs these spider creatures will possess. They will entwine and wind themselves around one another; in doing so, in these convolutions reminiscent of the caduceus, they will produce the most marvelous, clever, the most ingenious formations — ingenious in todays's sense of the word.


Bottom line: it is a choice, consciousness is required for a free and conscious decision.

  • However great the resistance in hostile quarters, these things must be said; for, as I have stated again and again, the acceptance or rejection of spiritual scientific knowledge is a serious matter facing mankind. It is not something that can be decided on the basis of more or less indifferent sympathies or antipathies; we are dealing with something that definitely affects the whole configuration of the cosmos.

Note 2 - Commentary

2.1 - Introduction

This page is written in 2021, exactly 100 years after the 1921-05-13-GA204 lecture above.

In today's world we do not have to look far for what Rudolf Steiner was describing. The world wide web is spanning the globe, and contains all 'dead thought' material that human beings continuously poor into digital format. The internet became the web, and the IoT (internet of things, 'intelligent devices' and currently connects 25 billion computing devices worldwide. That is more than there are human beings.

Every person allmost has his mobile phone and is continuously connected and more and more 'driven' and 'guided' by the feeds that come from the machine network. Even though there are people, companies, processes at the other end .. of whose contents we are the recipients, we still give our offerings to and receive what we want from the machine network.

Physical 'things', material devices have been equipped with microprocessors, hence the 'internet of things'. What else does this mean, than that they receive a life of their own, that they have a sort of intelligence and being. The scope is truly every aspect of society, from health care to agriculture .. from our coffee machine, fridge, car, every device is being equipped with a microchip. Imagine all models of fridges belonging to a class of - machines that have some strange type of life, like machine versions of strangely alive etheric plants - and their group soul is the company programming them and pushing updates with improved intelligence down to the chips in these automatons.

Already today developments are being made to link the human brain to silicon communication and computing devices, see brain-computer interfaces.

Man is today already entangled into a world of screens and digital information, the machine network that is used for work, for leisure media, for so many aspects of life. Already today computer software algorithms are trusted more than Man in certain areas, they offer advice, take decisions on certain matters, they fly your plane. All this is just the beginning, a development of the last 20-30 years.

It is not obvious to dare and make any projections out for another 100 years. But surely it can be imagined that robots or androids will be developed with programmed intelligence, and may be linked to Man's brain stimuli. That the intelligence of computer systems will become much more encompassing in all functions of society, whereby Man 'undergoes' this and lives in, well .. a Matrix world, run by the network of machines.

What is the role, the place of Man, in such a world?

True, Man has created this machine world. Man gives birth and creates this world with a huge machine web worldwide that will 'run the show', to serve but also trace and 'manage' the small human being. Who sits at the steering wheel of what is created here? And where does it lead, what does it really serve, how does it support the development of the life of Man and Mankind?

A potential offer is described by Rudolf Steiner in certain places, such as eg 1917-11-19-GA178. Man becomes an industrial resource to serve the economic machinery. And in other lectures .. that serves the Mammon.

Regarding the 'large economical money machine of materialism', see Commentary [1] in the Discussion section on Contemporary worldview war

2.2 - Changing world: 1970 to 2020 - fifty years in hindsight

The below takes a step back and zooms out to see how the technology revolution happened in half a century, and is underlying the battle for the soul of Man.

Note: information on facts taken from wikipedia

  • The first personal computers date from the 1970s with Altair (1974), Apple (1976), Commodore (1977), Texas Instruments (1979). In the 1980 they became widespread with the IBM PC (1981 onwards). In the 1990s, portable laptops became widespread.
  • The first mobile phone dates from 1973, the first cellular network from 1979, the first commercial mobile phone from 1983. In the 1990s mobile phones became widespread. From 1983 to 2014, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew to over seven billion.
  • The internet became the World Wide Web (WWW) for public use in 1991 (after design end of the 1980s) and grew from 1 website in 1991 to 1 billion in 2016 and approx. 2 billion today.
  • In parallel, the devices were connected using newly developed wireless network protocols like WIFI (1999), and cellular data GPRS/3G (2000-2010) followed by 4G (2010-2020)
  • digital cameras were already demonstrated in 1975, but really started in the 1980s decade with the Sony Mavica in 1981, Canon in 1986 and Fuji in 1988.
  • convergence into the smartphone took place in the end of the 1990s early 2000s with mobile phone companies making upgraded phones such as the Blackberry or Nokia Communicators, and computer network enabling PDAs such as Palm, Newton, Windows PocketPC. The real birth of the smartphone was with the Apple's launch of the iPhone in 2007, soon to be copied by Android equivalents by Samsung and others.
    • Apple's iPhone yearly sales reached 200 Mi devices in 2015, and by 2020 there were over 1 Billion iPhone users worldwide.
    • Meanwhile in parallel, the company Android started in 2003 was acquired by Google in 2005. There are some 3 to 4 Billion Android users worldwide.
  • the above was for human beings directly; indirectly, devices are being equipped with microprocessors, and the Internet of Things (IoT) has some est. 30 to 50 Billion 'intelligent devices' connected.

.

Comments:

1/ In just 25 years 1998-2023, this explosive growth on a global scale has taken humanity and civilization by technology storm as never before.

Definition of a "coup": a sudden, violent, and unlawful seizure of power. The battle for the soul of Man is on as never before.

See more oa on Christ Module 14 – the counterforces: Lucifer, Ahriman and Sorat

2/ Status snapshot 2020-25

In past times, people were close with pet animals such as dog, cat, horse. Such emotional relationship creates an elemental, as Man creates elementals through his activities, passions and cravings. The elementals of nature called salamanders arise as beings from the special relationship between Man and animals (eg 1908-06-07-GA098)

The current generation growing up with smartphones is so attached to the device, that it becomes an intrinsic part of their human and soul development. It is not just addiction, one can say the development is so narrowly intertwined.

In just 25 years the world changed completely, though its preparations were on the way in the 25 years before (see above).

3/ In a period of a mere 20 years, the fine wonder of the organic human being has been soaked under in a bath of electromagnetic radiation, with in terms of high frequency radio waves alone WIFI (2-6 GHz) and 4G and 5G (600MHz to 6 GHz, but also 25-50 GHz) now all close around us.

And not just on Earth, a sign of the time is the Starlink satellite network by SpaceX, in just five years between starting 2019 and 2024, over 5300 satellites in in low Earth orbit communicating with ground transceivers, whereas some 12.000 (or even up to 40.000) are planned.

2.3 - On 1998

1998 (or 1999) was pivotal: Google was started in 1998, GPRS started in 1998 and WIFI in 1999 (enabling the connection with every human being and computer device world), the movie The Matrix came out in 1999. Music became digital with the MP3 player in 1998, the first commercial camera phone was released in 1999. Apple launched the iMac in 1998 and iPod in 2001 (preparing for the iPhone in 2007 and iPad in 2010). And a few years earlier and later .. Amazon started in 1994, facebook in 2004.

Also symbolically not unimportant, 1998 witnessed

  • the historic clash between Man and machine as IBM’s Deep Blue chess supercomputer defeated world chess champion Kasparov.
  • the first human inplant of an RFID transmitter in project Cyborg (Kevin Warwick) on direct interfaces between computer and the human nervous system

The world was being changed, a new world was given birth, as we can now look back on. At the time, it was just another year with some news.

So one has to be blind to not see the 3 x 666 = 1998 impulse (see Sorat).

Furthermore, one could reframe that the 'internet bubble' around 2000 was an introduction and celebration of the new age of ahrimanic of making lots of money (re serving the Mammon) with the digital virtual computer world that would take on and change society. As it did the 20 years after. Today the terms 'digital economy' is mainstream accepted, brick-and-mortar shops are being closed by the thousands in cities. And the Internet of Things (IoT) is everywhere around us as all electrical utility devices are all made 'intelligent' and being equipped with processors and networking.

Also, as Rudolf Steiner sometimes mentioned books as a 'sign of the times' (though of course so many books get published, still) .. the below is remarkable in context of the age preparing for, or of the incarnation of Ahriman. On 1 January 1999 a book got published: 'The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence' by Ray Kurzweil . In the book quote "about artificial intelligence and the future course of humanity", Kurzweil outlines a vision for technology progress during the 21st century.

See also: Impulses from waves of reincarnating souls#Impulse group IG06 - 21st century computer technology

When one studies history (and the impact of important individualities or events), one sometimes finds back a period of 30 years.

One such example is 1977-2007 as related to Steve Jobs personally, but also symbolically to related world events: the first Apple II as the start of the personal computer in 1977, and the launch of the first Apple iPhone in 2007.

The Apple II was a milestone that was followed in the seven years thereafter by a wave of personal computing; including but not limited to: the IBM XT (1981) and AT (1984), the Commodore 64 (1982), the Apple Macintosh (1984).

The Apple iPhone built on existing mobile phone technology but integrated computing once mobile data communications (WIFI, 3G, 4G, ..) made this possible; resulting into the wave of smartphone computing; including the Android developed by Google, Samsung and many others.

2.4 - On social media

The period 2004-2014 say the birth and emergence of so-called social media that allow people to

  • interconnect using a computer device at each end,
  • with a 'facilitating' platform in the middle.

The platform operator is not just facilitating but a commercial enterprise that tries to maximize revenue and profit, and hence is driven to develop techniques and algorithms to exploit the mental and emotional attention of its users based on interests, preferences and behaviour.

Studies have shows this has an important additive effect, especially on the youth that has not developed it's threefold human soul, which typically develops between ages 21 to 42.

The impact is especially huge on children and youngsters:

  • Gen X: generally born between 1965 and 1980
    • grew up during the rise of personal computers, cable TV, and the early days of the internet, but spent their formative years largely offline. even though they were influenced by pop culture shifts such as MTV. They experienced a balance of analog and digital, which has made them adaptable to technological changes without being as digitally dependent as Millennials and Gen Z.
    • plays an influential, bridging role between the analog sensibilities of Baby Boomers and the digital-first nature of Millennials, often acting as a grounding and adaptable presence in today's workplace and society.
  • Millennials: generally born between 1981 and 1996.
    • grew up during the rise of the internet, social media, and smartphones but experienced a mostly offline childhood. Platforms early smartphones emerged during their adolescence and early adulthood.
    • rrefer text-based communication like emails or posts, having used these methods from an early age .. and favor platforms that allow longer content.
  • Gen Z: born from around 1997 to 2012
    • digital natives who have been immersed in technology and social media from a young age. Platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram are central to their social experiences, they are highly comfortable with digital learning and communication
    • gravitate toward visual and short-form content, favoring quick, informal communication styles, such as memes, GIFs, video messages .. and are particularly drawn to tools to share quickly and creatively.

For an introduction, see the documentaries:

  • The social media dilemma (2020)
  • The Tik Tok Effect (BBC, 2023)

Messengers

First came messengers, as a foundation that eventually evolved towards whatsapp, wechat, or were embedded (eg facebook messenger)

  • 1996: ICQ
  • 1997: AOL Messenger
  • 1999: Yahoo and MSN Messenger
  • 2001: Windows Messenger
  • 2003: skype

Social media

  • 2003: linkedin
  • 2004: facebook
  • 2005: youtube, reddit
  • 2006: twitter, VK
  • 2007: tumblr
  • 2009: whatsapp
  • 2010: instagram, pinterest
  • 2011: wechat, snapchat
  • 2012: tinder
  • 2014-17-18: musical.ly -> tiktok

Useage

The top social networking sites and apps are:

  • > 2.000 million users: facebook, youtube, whatsapp, instagram
  • > 1.000 million users: tiktok, wechat, messenger


Related pages

References and further reading

  • Dorit Winter: 'Karma and the internet' (1997)
  • Uwe Buermann: 'Techno, Internet, Cyberspace : Jugend und Medien heute : Zum Verhältnis von Mensch und Machine' (1998)
  • Rainer Patzlaff: 'Der gefrorene Blick' (2000 in DE, in NL 2005 as 'De bevroren blik : De fysiologische werking van het beeldscherm en de ontwikkeling van het kind')
  • Paul Emberson, see also review
    • 'From Gondishapur to Silicon Valley', Vol. 1 (2009, 462 pages)
    • 'Machines and the Human Spirit' (2013, 141 pages)
  • Manfred Spitzer: 'Digitale Demenz' (2012), in NL 2013 as 'Digitale dementie : hoe wij ons verstand kapotmaken'
  • Andreas Neider:
    • 'Aufmerksamkeitsdefizite: Wie das Internet unser Bewusstsein korrumpiert und was wir dagegen tun können' (2015)
    • 'The electronic Doppelgänger - the mystery of the double in the age of the internet' (Rudolf Steiner lectures of GA178, edited and introduced by Andreas Neider)
  • Johannes Greiner: 'In Ahrimans Welt. Leben mit Maschinen und Medien' (2019)
  • Johannes Greiner, Anton Kimpfler: Elektronische Gefangenschaft? (2019)
  • Andrew Linnell
    • Mankind's destiny with machines
    • What software reveals
  • Nicanor Perlas: Humanity's last stand: The challenge of Artificial Intelligence: A spiritual scientific response (2018)

Developments of the materialistic technology-driven society based on the worldview of mineral science

  • books by the futurist Ray Kurzweil
    • The Age of Intelligent Machines (1990)
    • The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999)
    • The Singularity Is Near (2005)
  • the concept of the Global Brain
  • backing by investors such as Elon Musk (OpenAI, Neuralink), Yuri Milner (Global Brain Institute)

Various other unqualified

Just a few examples of the vast literature of the impact of 'internet computing'

  • Joan Atwood: 'The Effects Of The Internet On Social Relationships: Therapeutic Considerations' (2011)
  • Sherry Turkle: 'Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other (2017)
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