Tom Lombardo, Ph.D. - · PDF fileProcess - Evolution of Evolution ... Purpose & Meaning in Life ... Intellect & Emotion; Self & Others; Unity & Diversity;

Tom Lombardo, Ph.D.

Sunday, July 5, 2015

The Psychology of the Future:Flourishing in the Flow of Evolution


The Question What is a Good Future and How Do We Create It?

Central Challenge of Human LifeCentral Question Motivating the Study of the Future


The Answer

We create a good future, defined as flourishing in the flow of evolution,

through the heightening of future consciousness, which is achieved by developing a core set of character virtues,

most notably and centrally wisdom.

Flourishing in the flow of evolution is the good future & wisdom is the means to realize it.


Evolution & the Evolution of Evolution

✦Theory of Reality: Foundation for Theory of the Future, the Good & the Human Mind

✦Evolutionary Reality: Dynamic, Creative, Progressive, Future-Directional, Interactive, & Filled with Possibilities

✦Evolution Pervasive: Hierarchy of Evolutionary Levels

✦Cosmic Evolutionary Framework of Past & Future

“Evolution is a light which illuminates all facts, a curve that all lines must follow.” Teilhard de Chardin

“Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.” Bertolt Brecht


Evolution & the Evolution of Evolution

✦ Interdependency, Reciprocity, & Co-Evolution ✦Accelerative Evolution Involves an Evolution of Evolution ✦Humans/Human Civilization Embedded in Evolutionary

Process - Evolution of Evolution (Culture & Technology) - Counter-Proposal Future Consciousness Generates Acceleration of Evolution

“Evolution isn’t what it used to be.” Walter Truett Anderson

“We are moving!” Teilhard de Chardin


The Evolutionary Nature of Human Psychology

“Evolution is the story of us all.” Peter Watson

✦ Human Nature (Human Mind) is Not a Constant but Evolutionary

✦ Developmental & Evolutionary Direction Expands Away from the Egocentric Here/Now to Cosmic Consciousness - Toward Heightened Future/Historical Consciousness - Learning & Memory Serving Anticipation

✦ Ongoing Integration of Bio/Psycho/Social Human & Tech - Evolution of Cyborg - The Extension of Mind & Body

✦ Self-Awareness/Self-Reflectivity & Self-Control

✦ Humans Envision/Engage in the Purposeful Evolution of their Minds & Ways of Life - Religion/Philosophy/SF/Psychology


The Future-Directional Evolutionary Nature of Consciousness

✦ Future Directional Flow of Consciousness - Experiential Arrow of Time

✦ Integration of Past, Present, & Future - Consciousness Flows into the Future Contextualized in Memory & Anticipation - Foundation of Narrative Structure of Mind

✦ Consciousness/Conscious Behavior is Motivationally Future Directional - Purposeful

✦ Consciousness is Individually Developmental & Collectively Evolutionary: Flows & Grows

“The past is consumed in the present and the present is only living because it brings forth the future.” James Joyce

“We exist within the flow of evolution and the flow of evolution exists within us.” Tom Lombardo


The Reciprocity of Consciousness and the World

✦Mind/World Puzzle - Ecological Reciprocity of Consciousness & Self (Self-Responsibility) within the Ambience of the World - “Ecological Cosmology of Consciousness” - Personal & Grand Narratives

✦Humans (Human Minds) Exist Embedded in Evolutionary & Interactive Reality as Participatory & Evolutionary/Directive/Purposeful Agents

✦What Facilitates & Guides this Psychological Reality?

“For things are things because of mind, as mind is mind because of things.” Hsin Hsin Ming


The Psychological Dimensions of Holistic Future Consciousness

Perception

Purposeful Behavior

Learning/Memory Thinking/Planning/

Problem SolvingIntuition/

Imagination/Creativity

Motivation/Goal Direction

EmotionPersonal Identity

Social Interaction

Knowledge/Understanding

Ethics/ValuesForesight/

Anticipation


The Essential Nature of Holistic Future Consciousness

✦Humans Engage All Dimensions of Holistic Consciousness in their Experience of the Future

✦Definition of Holistic Future Consciousness

“Holistic future consciousness is the total integrative set of psychological processes & modes of experience & behavior involved in our consciousness of

the future. It includes our hopes & fears; our planning & our goals; our visions of the future; the stories we tell ourselves about the future; & our

purposeful behaviors intended to create desired futures. It is the total Gestalt of our experience & engagement with the future.”


The Essential Nature of Holistic Future Consciousness

✦All Humans Possess, as Integral to their Overall Psychological Functioning - Imagine if Missing

✦Degrees of Holistic Future Consciousness (FC) - Can be Strengthened/Heightened

✦ (Heightened) FC is Holistic - All Factors Impact Engagement/Creation of the (Good) Future

“Future consciousness is absolutely essential for normal human psychological functioning. Without future consciousness we would be aimless, lost, mentally

deficient, passive, and reactive. We would not seem intelligent or even human.”

“Everyone is a futurist.” Alvin Toffler (?)


The Evolution of Future ConsciousnessContemporary Futurist Thought

✦FC has a Deep Bio-Psycho-Social History within the Evolution of Mind & Consciousness

✦FC Drove the Evolution of Human Civilization (Bonding/Child Rearing, Hunting, Technology, Art, Trading/Negotiation, Agriculture, Habitation, War/Conquest, Religion, Ethics/Law, & Science)

✦There are Diverse Modes of Expression/Consciousness (Primordial, Mythic, Rational, Theoretical, & Intuitive) & Numerous Theories, Paradigms, & Grand Narratives within FC (Past & Present) - Competition & Integration

✦Ongoing Evolution of FC


Future Consciousness & Purposeful Evolution

✦ Key/Central Dimension of the Human Mind

✦ Holistic Future Consciousness Drives:

✦ Purposeful Human/Civilizational Evolution

✦ Individual Development of Self/Consciousness/Mind

✦ Future Evolution of Consciousness

✦ Evolutionary/Developmental Process (Inclusive of Consciousness) is Brought Under Informed, Self-Reflective/Evaluative, Ethical, Visionary, & Purposeful Guidance Through HFC - Evolution in Evolution - Inclusive of Psycho/Social/Bio/Techno/Eco Developments

✦ Given this Vision of (Human) Reality, What is the Good?

“... the ultimate gift of consciousness is to navigate the future in the seas of our imagination...” Antonio Damasio

“We are nothing else than evolution become conscious of itself.” Julian Huxley


Flourishing: A Theory of Happiness, Well-Being, & the Good

✦ Multiple Theories of Ethics & the Good (Ethical Theories Always Assume Theories of Reality & Human Nature)

✦ Flourishing: Positive Psychology - Benchmark of Psychological Well-Being - Holistic & Dynamic/Progressive Theory of Well-Being & Ethics Commensurate with Dynamic, Evolutionary, Purposeful, Future Directional (Human) Reality

✦ Happiness is Conscious (Progressive) State Associated with Flourishing

✦ Flourishing & Happiness is an Purposeful Accomplishment

To flourish: “to grow well ...to do well, to prosper, to thrive, and to be highly productive.”


Flourishing: A Theory of Happiness, Well-Being, & the Good

✦ Directional Growth & Accomplishment/Achievement

✦ Overall (Deep) Purpose & Meaning in Life

✦ Self-Creation/Determination

✦ Transcendence (Social, Natural, & Cosmic)

✦ Emotionally Positive & Cognitively Expanding Conscious States

✦ Creativity

✦ Experience of Beauty

✦ Active Engagement & Contribution/Impact/Mastery with Respect to the World

✦ Mutually Beneficial Social Functioning & Relationships

✦ Physical Health/Vitality & Environmental Supportive Conditions

✦ What Facilitates Flourishing? Excellence/Well Being in a Purposeful, Dynamic, Future Directional, Evolutionary (Human) Reality - Heightened Future Consciousness - How Do We Describe Excellence in This Capacity?


Virtue

✦ Virtue Theory of the Good, Well-Being, & Happiness - Historical & Modern Versions

✦ Virtues are Values Internalized & Lived - Good Merges with Desire & Habit

✦ Virtues are Holistic Character Traits & Accomplishments Based on the Belief, Aspiration, & Practice Toward Excellence - Active Agency Theory of the Good/Happiness

✦ Positive Psychology: Virtues Defined as Character Strengths Can be Defined, Measured, and Enhanced

✦ Virtues as Foundation for Defining Excellence in Heightened Future Consciousness

“Happiness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself.” Spinoza

“This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get.” Confucius


The Evolving Character Virtues of Heightened Future Consciousness

✦ Self-Awareness, Self-Control, & Self-Responsibility (Empowered Personal Narrative)

✦ Realistic Idealism (Belief & Pursuit of Excellence)

✦ Self-Growth (Progressive Personal Narrative)

✦ Skill & Love of Learning (Honesty, Wonder, Curiosity, Humility, & Quest for Truth & Understanding)

✦ Skill & Love of Thinking & Multiple Modes of Understanding (Self-Reflectivity)

✦ Expansive Temporal Consciousness (History & Future - Grand Narrative - Imaginative, Visionary, & Thoughtful)

✦ Cosmic Consciousness (Awe, Global/Ecological Consciousness, Reciprocity, Justice, & Transcendence)

✦ Hope, Courage, & Optimism

✦ Love (Gratitude, (Passionate) Appreciation, & Compassion)

✦ Deep Purpose & Tenacity (Discipline)

✦ Ethical Pragmatism (Practical Wisdom)

✦ Creativity & the Adventuresome Spirit

✦ Balance & Temperance (Wisdom as Integration)


“Wisdom is the personally internalized, continually evolving understanding of & fascination with both the big picture and personal dimensions of life, and

what is ethical, & the desire & creative capacity to apply this understanding to enhance the well being of life, both for oneself & others.”

Wisdom: The Synthesis of the Character Virtues of Heightened Future Consciousness


A Future Focused Holistic Theory of Wisdom

✦Future Focused - Creative - Open & Evolutionary

✦Holistic Capacity

✦Holistic/Empowering/Ethical Vision of Heightened Future Consciousness - Integrative Set of Character Virtues

✦Highest Expression of Holistic Future ConsciousnessSunday, July 5, 2015

WisdomThe Guiding Light on Education, Evolution,

Heightened Future Consciousness, & the Good Life

✦ Ideal Because Key to Happiness & the Good Life - Flourishing as an Accomplishment Facilitated by Wisdom - Limitations in Alternatives

✦Highest Expression of Self-Development - Drives Evolution of Personal Consciousness - Ideal in Spirituality/Philosophy/Psychology

✦Preferable Future Evolutionary Direction of the Human Mind - The Wise Cyborg & the Age of Wisdom (Wise Society) - Holistic/Self-Evolving/Ethical Ideal Vision

✦Central Goal of Education

“He who searches for wisdom is wise; he who thinks he has found it is a fool.” Al-Farabi


Self-Responsibility & Self-Creation within the Ecology of Mind

✦ Self-Responsibility is the Cardinal Virtue - Virtues are Accomplishments

✦ Self-Responsibility for the Future is Critical & Psychologically Empowering - Reverse is Psychologically Depressing

✦ Will Power/Internal Locus of Control Evolves - Will Power Develops through Practice & Psychological Knowledge

✦ Exercised in Context of Selectively Guided & Constructed Environment - Ecology of Self/Self-Responsibility & World - There is No “Given Environment” - Reciprocity & Possibilities

“The evolution of man is the evolution of consciousness & ‘consciousness’ cannot evolve unconsciously. The evolution of man is an evolution of his will, & ‘will’

cannot evolve involuntarily. The evolution of man is the evolution of his power of doing, & ‘doing’ cannot be the result of things which ‘happen’.” George Gurdjieff


Hope & Optimism: Emotional/Motivational Virtues

✦ Primacy of Emotion in FC (Consciousness)

✦ Controversy over Hope: Primary Positive Anticipatory Emotion - Generates Approach, Happiness, & Enthusiasm versus Fear & Despair

✦ Broaden & Build Theory: Positive Emotions Produce More Expansive, Sensitive, Creative, & Transformational Experience/Cognitive States

✦ Critiques of Hope/Optimism - Optimists: Confident, Persistent, & Meet Challenges – Higher Subjective Well-Being – Less Negative Feelings Facing Problems – Approach Coping – Reality Focused - Self-Fulfilling Prophesy Effect

✦ Optimism is a Virtue - Requiring Sustained Cognitive & Behavioral Effort & Courage

“I am all for realism when there is a knowable reality out there that is not influenced by expectations. When your expectations influence reality, realism sucks.” Martin Seligman

“I feel therefore I am.” Antonio Damasio

“Since man is above all future-making, he is, above all, a swarm of hopes and fears.” Ortega y Gasset


Temperance & Balance: The Yin-Yang of Wisdom

✦ Principles of the Golden Mean & the Middle Way - The Balance of Yin and Yang

✦ Intellect & Emotion; Self & Others; Unity & Diversity; Humility & Commitment; Gratitude & Desire; Change/Risk & Stability/Security; Discipline & Play; Order & Chaos; Success & Pain (Creativity a Balance & Integration of Opposites)

✦ Development of Multiple Modes of Understanding (Rational/Analytic & Intuitive/Holistic) - Culturally/Gender Balanced Vision of Wisdom - Nisbett - The Circle & the Line

✦ Fanaticism as Vice & Cognitive Deficiency; Integration & Balance of Values & Virtues - Integrative Expansion of Decisional Consciousness

“The Tao that can be described is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be spoken is not the eternal Name.” Lao Tzu


Tenacity & Deep Purpose

✦Tenacity: High Self-Discipline - Passionate Persistence in the Face of Adversity - Deep Optimism

✦Tenacity is More Important than Talent - Amplifies Talent & Skill

✦Deep Purpose Drives Tenacity

✦Deep Purpose is Overarching Direction in Life (Zimbardo) - Motivational Expansive Temporal Consciousness - Connected with Transcendence (Seligman) - Self & Grand Narratives

“What you do everyday matters more than what you do once in a while.” Gretchen Rubin

"The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one's feet." Lao Tzu


The Self Narrative & the Grand Narrative

I am evolution self-conscious, purposeful, & evolving. I self-create myself through the ongoing future-directional, self-reflective personal narrative I tell myself about

myself within the context of the grand narrative I tell myself about the world.

Power of Narrative

Personal & Grand Narratives

Past & Future - Ideal Future

Narrative

Connecting Ideal Personal & Grand

Narratives

Dynamic Self-Reflective/Creative Purposeful Self


Science FictionThe EvolutionaryMythology of the

Future

Tom Lombardo

Futures Narratives Stimulating & Enhancing Holistic Future Consciousness


Futures Studies & Science Fiction: The Visions & Wisdom of Olaf Stapledon

✦ Grand Futures Narratives - Visionary: Cosmic Consciousness & Expansive Temporal Consciousness

✦ Humanity & Intelligence in Cosmic Evolutionary Context

✦ Mental-Social Evolution - Purposefully Evolving Minds (Communal/Individual/Cosmic/Aesthetic Values)

✦ Preferable Futures in Context of Reality - Wisdom Narratives (Struggles & Learning)

✦ Deep Purpose in Participants & Author (Enlighten/Inspire)

✦ Unity of FS & SF: Plausibilities, Possibilities, & Challenges with Reflection - Lessons: Stapledon & FS? Synthesis of Intellect/Imagination/Ethics - Wisdom Exemplar/Internalization - Power & Credibility

"Probably the most powerful work of imagination every written." Arthur C. Clarke


“If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself.If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world,

then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself.Truly, the greatest gift you have to give

is that of your own self-transformation.” Lao Tzu


Wisdom: HFC & Preferable

Human Future

Flourishing:Dynamic Vision

of the Good

EvolvingConsciousness

Holistic Future Consciousness

Power of Narrative

Character Virtues

Visionary ExemplarTeachers

“Be, Lead, & Teach the Vision We Want to Become.”

Exemplars of Wisdom & Holistic Future Consciousness

Evolution


The End


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Tom Lombardo, Ph.D. - · PDF fileProcess - Evolution of Evolution ... Purpose & Meaning in Life ... Intellect & Emotion; Self & Others; Unity & Diversity;