Symphrenia
#15O: Symphrenic Action, Symphrenia In Action
(Text originally posted by Hellekin on N-1.cc.[1])
Symphrenia: from the Greek prefix sym- (together, with, as in symbiosis, or same, at the same time, as in synesthesia), and the suffix -phren (the mind.)
The world day for global change, today, 15 October 2011, marks a new era in collective action. It's not the first event with a global scope, we already know the Olympics, or the Day of Peace, etc. But it's the first grassroots event to reach that scope, without--and actually, against--any support from the traditional authorities.
For that occasion, I'd like to propose a new family of words to give a clue to the other world what it is about. #15O is a symphrenic action day: like-minded people gathered the same day around the world with similar motives. Conscious of their our part in the global movement for a new democracy, they we embraced the singularity as one, united in our diversities, united in our condition of Earthlings, united in our will to change the rules of the game for all, as the too-big-to-fail have unilaterally changed the rules before to their own advantage.
As digital natives, or simply as Internet users, we tend to enjoy the thought that there is a causality between the action on the Internet and the power of the movement. As much as I am convinced, like John Licklider and Robert Taylor and other pioneers of computer science, that computers can work as mind amplifiers, I think that what we're witnessing online is a manifestation of the symphrenes: the collection of minds-using-computers to assert their our convictions as becomings-in-local-actions; that is: the Internet amplifies what is done in our daily actions, where we stand. The idea that the Internet is the engine of our success is a myth: we succeed because we do, and the Internet, by amplifying our thoughts, and our actions, and providing greater reach and wider connectivity, gives us more confidence in what we're doing, and more power to do it.
The symphrene, therefore, is the mind amplifier foreseen by the pioneers. The symbiosis between the mind and the machine, and the symbiosis between the interconnected minds, through the machines, but before that: between us. Symphrenia is the new pronoia, but not a pathological one: on the contrary, symphrenia reflects the science and sanity of the people involved, who seize the arms--of their brothers to embrace them, and brandish the weapon of the keyboard and the pen--to bring forth new cooperations--and raise the shield of the mind--against the lies and shrinking illusion of the tenants of the consumer society, or society of the spectacle.
This... is... many beginnings.