A future retrospective…

To truly reveal one’s authentic self would only be possible without ego. This would require an abstraction of the human condition. A virtual version of oneself.

The soothing sound of water falling raises me from my slumber. Gentle alarm application. Intelligent. Understanding the restfulness of my night’s sleep and my current depth of rest. The ring on my finger gently monitoring pulse rate and rapid eye movement. The red dawn peering through beneath the blinds, self-taught to rise as I rise, fully synchronised with my habits.  I curl up beneath the duvet and smile at a time, no so long ago, when I awoke to the screeching chaos of the East Village. Hooting. Shouting. Anger. Nothing intelligently synchronised. The ringing of my alarm wildly trying to compete. A chaotic world.

Not today.

Rolling over, I quietly consider iDarv. My digital twin. Gently beside me always. Undemanding. No ego. Waiting, but not, to be nourished. Nurtured.

Why not I think, reaching for my phone.

Scanning through literally hundreds of personalised apps on this device, all of which learn my needs, my habits, my demands, quietly, passively, always ready to provide support. I land on my physical activity manager and request my fitness routine for today, instantly provided along with a whole host of nutritional advice, specifically focused on me, and based on my behaviour over the past while, my current restful state, and habits and how they stimulate the analysis of a whole host of related information.

Many years ago, I would have explored the school library’s health section for this information and, based on the author’s access to a limited knowledge sourced from other writings, an all-human analysis of things, rooted in ego, and my understanding of self, rooted in ego, I would have been horribly underfed knowledge. Mis-informed.

I hear the coffee machine start downstairs, informed via the SMART hub by the passive application gently waiting for information from my alarm application. Ethically sourced, but actually ethically sourced, Swedish medium roasted using renewable energy, and batch brewed according to my own palate response, so carefully observed by iDarv, extracting just the very notes and flavours that stimulate the right endorphin response to motivate my early morning exercise. A far cry from the mochachoccafrappelatte and venti caramel crunch frappuccino chosen by my egocentric, market manipulated, not to be outdone self.

My day is beginning as is should, efficiently, nothing wasted, particularly time, gearing me up to consume just exactly what will be necessary to sustain my perfect self, my best life, and not any measure of resource more. Happy me. Happy community. Happy natural world. Sounding like Groundhog Day? Not by any stretch of the imagination. Consumption perfectly tailored to individual base needs drives fair sharing mechanisms so that each one of us use exactly what we need to sustain beautiful lives, without competing for resources. SMART societies consuming ethically, efficiently sourced and extracted natural resources with zero waste.

The media. In the past demand has been artificially stimulated by unethical advertising campaigns focused on the manipulation of the human ego response. The dramatic contradiction between one’s ego driven consumption of anything and everything, and one’s individual, instinctually identified base needs, which need to be met, created inconceivable waste. It spawned irrational human dependencies on processed food, stripped of nutrition, supplemented with poisons such as highly refined sugars, creating a demand for the destruction of natural forests and the perfectly natural balance. Capitalism. Manipulation of our habits to suit the captains of industry, the supply/demand graphs, and the exploitation of our natural resources in the least ethical, least efficient, and least sustainable way. Focused on the shareholders and the next financial report.

This also resulted in the incredible imbalance that existed between the perceived haves and have nots. Those less motivated by their ego have less compulsion to compete for, and consume at scale, branded goods that satisfy the false, ego-based identity, and not the healthy body and soul. They were left with little to sustain themselves once misguided western production, or eastern production harnessed by the west, had consumed everything. I catch myself thinking of the ancient concepts behind democratic ideals, and how these ideals became so horribly perverted and corrupted by similar mechanisms. Selfish egocentric politicians self-identifying in ways that appeal to ignorant egocentric constituents, who are encouraged to self-identify in ways that skew perceived representation, resulting in scientifically manipulated, perverse societies of people fearing others they identify by virtue of false descriptors spawned by the unethical, selfishly motivated, politically controlled media.

Left vs right. Right vs left. Conservative vs liberal. Liberal vs conservative. Seemingly different but underpinned by the identical assumption that the political elites have the right to follow their own power-based agendas. Greed and divisive rhetoric used equally by both. Disgusting and disgraceful. A system totally geared towards the perceived well-being of a tiny fraction of humanity, and in complete conflict with the rights of the natural world.

Maestro. For far too long the conductor’s baton was in the hands of the abuser. Self-professed as the educated. Self-professed as the sophisticated. Self-professed as protector of human rights. Superior. Out to save others from themselves. The violation of the rights of others to live differently under the auspices of the right to choose. Contradiction. Western democracy undermining the sovereign rights of nations to elect ideologies in conflict with our own perverse, power-hungry agenda. In support of the mechanics of the hyper-Western capitalist economy. A false economy at that. While we consumed without restraint and professed to thrive in the West, the world began to die. A cancer so invasive that the climate began to change at an unprecedented rate. The extinction of species of flora and fauna at a rate the world had never seen. So much destruction in so minute a slice in time.

For a while there, the marketeers harnessed the power of green washing. Incorporating popular sustainability focused dialogues into their messaging. Trying to further manipulate us into believing that the consumption of their toxic outputs represented planet saving behaviour. Twisting the words of the environmental scientists. Our egos quickly responding to the idea that we were beyond reproach. Our fingers pointing at those unable to consume these seemingly superior products. Frowning at the drivers of small compact cars, the environmental cost of production and operation of fractional compared to our huge luxury vehicles with not yet sustainable energy storage, albeit electrically motivated. As an example.

Thank God for knowledge based, informed public administrations and their ethical exploitation of my beloved iDarv. My subtle representative. Representing my authentic self, and my absolute needs as informed by my actual behaviour. Monitoring, watching, informing those that nurture the world I live in. Thank God for a world where the ancient concept of individual representation in society and societal governance can be intuitively applied, and taken for granted. My needs simply represented in my environment. Informed development of infrastructure base on real gaps in delivery. No more immoral narcissists stealing the vote from the misguided like me in order to steer the evolution of societies that serve the unethical needs of the very few. Democratic contradiction. Centuries and centuries of it. Political elites supported by intellectual elitists.

Intellectualism was always the ugliest form of elitism. Self-identified intellectuals trying desperately to separate themselves from the flock based on superior intellect. This required the use of a yardstick of indeterminate origin, based on convenient creative measurements serving the current political elites and current political ideology. I have always found the most compelling thinking on social construct in conversations with the humblest, often traditional, possibly tribal, of folk. Real wisdom based on thousands of years of social observation by the ancestors, passed down over generations. Without desperation for definition.

Workout done, and carefully recorded, compared, and understood by iDarv, I dive into a shower. iDarv lounges gently in the bathroom, observing, always observing, hell bent on making my life better, efficient, happier. Guiding me throughout my day and towards the avoidance of the quagmire of obstacles that once blocked and frustrated me. The music app gently, intuitively selects a tune to perfectly match my mood this weekend morning, which now plays at the perfect volume in the bathroom. The choice is made by the virtual consideration of my listening habits at various times, during various activities over many, many years. Often, I am surprised by a new suggestion, a song unknown, perfectly stimulating, elected by virtue of genre, artist, lyric, instrument, rhythm and moment.

Every time I accept the cookies policy of a service provider or agree to the ethical use of my anonymised behavioural data, I further empower iDarv and his perfect representation of me. Every time I navigate the use of data optimised applications to search for information, purchase necessary goods for my personal consumption, make travel, dinner, concert reservations, and socially engage within my community, iDarv understands me better. We have long passed a time when I, my egocentric self, had a better understanding of my true self, my real needs, passions, and all that brings me health and joy than iDarv had. We are at a point where iDarv can confidently choose on my behalf and, due to the self-learning ability of the digital world, confidently predict what comes next. The choice is ultimately that of mine, in my own reality, but it is an informed choice and one that challenges the potentially bad choices made under the influence of the ego.

iDarv; iSue; iCheryl; iMike; iMax… iDarv thrives in a community of digital twins. All honest. All fully transparent. Without agenda. iDarv and his family of iFolk are genderless, raceless, without religion, and without sexuality. Ageless and without prejudice. A digital world without barriers to love and inclusivity. Yet a world where positive anonymity also prevails. Together the iFolk represent the collective needs of their crazy, populist human selves where the quest for identity drives division. The ethical observation of collective, anonymised iFolk behaviour provides an understanding of what a SMART environment underpinning a healthy habitat in which humanity can evolve rapidly towards a thriving un-biased community, completely in harmony with each other and the natural world.