Co-evolving towards a Higher Civilization (Part 5)

This is one of the most powerful questions in my coaching practice.

Surely you don't want a world in which C-Corp companies maximise profits at the expense of everything else, including your health.

Do you really believe the best we can come up with is an economic system that is based on a zero-sum game of cut-throat competition? Race to the bottom? Do you really want teenagers or social media influencers feeling they must use Snapchat filters that make them look ‘better’ because everyone else does it, and otherwise they would fade into oblivion?

This is Moloch, the god of bad incentives. Listen to giga-brain Liv Boeree on Moloch & The Beauty Wars for the bad and the ugly if interested.

I love beauty, I am a highly aesthetic person, which is one key reason why I am drawn to ↑ higher. But beauty is way more than that. Philosopher Charles Eisenstein asks what is the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible? What do you actually believe in? Is it this?

I believe in this:

• More altruism, less selfishness

• More collaboration, less competition

• More regeneration, less extraction

This is what aiming higher, together is about.

In Part 3 we explored the Realms of Reality: self, relationships, organizations, humanity, earth and cosmos. As part of my research I discovered something surprising; there seem to be trade-offs between these six realms, like force fields pulling into different directions. They are not necessarily either-or polarities, but rather competing commitments, choices that come with stark consequences the more you move to the end of one spectrum.

Coincidentally, these trade-offs are stacked vertically in my visualisation. There was that magical moment back in March 2024 when I realized how higher-aligned my work might be; the choices below indicate that the top one aims higher e.g. collaboration is ↑ than competition.

This part of the map is still work in progress, schematic, and simplified, but not simpler (Einstein). It resonates with my construction of reality and has been tested with around 100 people in IRL and URL workshops over the last four years. I am very keen to get your feedback, too, especially if you are on Farcaster. Let's dive into these competing commitments one by one.

This conundrum shows that the trade-offs are not either-or, but both-and. Babies are naturally selfish for survival. On the Titanic, most people instinctively put themselves first — life wants to live.

However, as you age, you often need to prioritise others' needs to maintain relationships, whether in personal life or at work. The key question is: are you aware of your choices? I score low on altruism in psychometric tests, but I've learned that giving first and taking later fosters meaningful relationships and feels rewarding. Being altruistic feels ↑ than being selfish.

"If ever I to the moment shall say: Beautiful moment, do not pass away!" — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

We want to hold onto beautiful moments, especially shared ones like team off-sites and weddings, even though they soon become memories. Farewells and last rounds at the bar are poignant examples.

Groups resist change because trust takes time to build, and altering the group dynamic disrupts equilibrium. The loss of a team member at work feels significant, as it potentially weakens the group. We fear the unknown more than the known, even if the new member might be better.

Romantic relationships often cling to the familiar, even when toxic. I stayed in a co-dependent marriage for 13 years, despite knowing it was wrong.

Organizations, however, prioritise adaptation over preservation to thrive in changing markets. The COVID-19 supply chain disruptions highlighted this need. In business, survival depends on the ability to adapt quickly.

As an Organisation Development expert, I am so bullish on new org life forms like DAOs, Headless Brands, and Onchain Financialised Networks because they will likely have an edge over traditional org structures.

Since change is the Single Truth (as established in Part 3) I think that over-indexing on adaptation is going ↑

Most companies engage in a PVP (Player versus Player) game, racing to the bottom in labor laws or environmental practices. These are finite games with the sole goal of winning.

Given that humans became apex predators through coordination and collaboration, it's bizarre we compete relentlessly with each other. Moloch! Crypto is a perfect example: instead of replacing outdated institutions, many still play the "my-chain-is-better-than-yours" game.

This mindset often stems from a worldview not yet at the pluralistic stage of development — only 25% of people have reached this stage, according to Ken Wilber. Up to 75% can't see that other perspectives might also be valid. US politics, anyone? Developmental stages aren't about IQ.

What gives me hope is that most people in my Farcaster feed seem to be interested in or even practicing collaboration, aiming to create more infinite games. That said, healthy competition is beneficial in sports and business as it pushes you to aim ↑

The fact that you can read this on your digital screen is because we are an extractive species. Period. That's what sometimes tests my empathy with extreme eco-warrior lefties.

At the same time, we have to regenerate our soils, water, air, bees, pretty much everything in our biosphere to WAGMI. And with that I mean ALL - all species, because without for example the bees most food baskets will collapse pretty quickly. Planet Earth is more or less a self-contained system and once we hit certain tipping points it's game over, at least for us humans. Some creature will surely survive, unless we blow the entire sphere up somehow.

Contrary to popular belief, there is absolutely no evidence that we can create a thriving society on Mars within the next 100+ years, so the 1000x more promising business case is to regenerate nature including ourselves.

I have a lot to say about regeneration and the fallacies of carbon markets, greenwashing and Colonialism 2.0 (yes, you EV driver) but I want to stay focused here. I encourage you to study ReFi OG' like Gregory Landua and the Regen Network, which does regeneration right bc from the ground up. Also, I love my friends at Regens Unite, thanks for green-pilling me.

Since I have been green-pilled, I moved into a forest, have reduced driving a car, consume less, eat local organic food (omnivore, incl. deer/squirrels shot 100 m from our house). As much as I am a Degen, the Regen in me is aiming for a ↑ level of consciousness all the time.

This trade-off is less salient for most people. I started to think about this after certain psychedelic experiences. We experience time linearly - Chronos - where the day has 24 hours and the week 168, and you can't change that. Einstein called it Space Time. Yet the Ancient Greeks also had another concept of time that is infinite - Kairos - the right or critical moment. Joe Dispenza calls it Time-Space and it has indeed no cause-and-effect a la Newtonian Physics but all possible outcomes everywhere and at once.

Why does this matter? If your cosmology is defined by boundaries then you will likely continue to play zero-sum games, which means you will likely remain more selfish than altruistic.

Embracing an infinite universe opens up your mind (and heart) to infinite possibilities. It's a true game changer because you don't have to play by the rules of gravity or mundane 9to5 work life. This worldview (which is a belief) helped me to look forward to my death, seriously. What is going to compost the essence of my stint on this lil rock hurtling through space?

We know a lot about the universe, but that only applies to about 5% of what we think there is. We only only know that dark matter and dark energy must exist, but we can't see it let alone fathom what it's purpose is.

Ultimately, modern physics tell us hardly anything about the nature of the cosmos. That reminds me of consciousness: we know that it exists, but we don't know what exactly it is, and more importantly, how it could possibly emerge from just atoms.

My laymen sense of the world wouldn't be surprised if consciousness IS dark matter for example. At the end of the day no one knows, and we are probably playing on a pretty low level of the Cosmic Game with a fuck ton of potential to go ↑

It does indeed start with your mindset, and the thoughts it utters moment by moment:

“Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.” ― Lao Tzu

Collect NFT

Hence, the purpose of life simply is to stay alive, and it seems that life likes to create ever higher degrees of complexity more; I am both the sum of the 80 billion bacteria in my gut and the host of my brain, the most complex structure known in the known universe.

Ethereum, the emerging World Computer, might create many orders of magnitude more complexity once we fix the brain-computer interface and let AI connect the dots.

Tangent: What's interesting about Ethereum is not it's degree of decentralisation, but it's roots in Pluralism. Imho Ethereum as a whole (incl. all L2s etc.) operates on a higher level of consciousness than the Bitcoin does (or Solana/Alt-L1s). I say this identifying as both a Bitcoiner AND Etherean.

Ok, so how can we all go ↑ higher today? I invite you to have a second look at the illustration above. How can you turn the dials towards the higher realm, assuming that this on balance would improve the lives in your community?

My stance is that everyone shall do this to their own ability, circumstance, information at hand. No berating others, no unhealthy comparison, just become a better version of yourself by the end of today. Compound your choices by making them more conscious. Yes, the more aware you are of your choices and their (unintended) consequences, the higher you can go.

What condition do you say again you don't like? How might you be complicit in creating them?

Don't be a victim blaming politicians of bankers for the world we live in. Believe in something. Do something. Build something. Co-create magic with your chosen collaborators and notice how that naturally regenerates your soul.

Collect NFT

This is the 5th of six planned articles. Thanks for reading thus far. Part 1-5 are based on my ongoing research and practice based on the Psychedelic Map For Change (very old site, notice the slight embarrassment)

Part 1: Crypto needs to aim for a higher consciousness

Part 2: Level up in the Game of Life

Part 3: Realizing the Realms of Reality

Part 4: Commit to the Cycle of Change

Part 6 – Idea for a higher-aligned and very different Farcaster Client

I hope this will prompt comments, critique, ideas and above all: higher ↑vibrations.

antaur.eth