Dear Chris,<br><br>This intro text (my chosen excerpt first, full text below) to the film Connected seems worth sharing,<br><br>Could you publish this excerpt, with embedded trailer, to the p2p blog? any time after sept 23?<br>
<br>Michel<br><br><p>The concept of interdependence isn’t new; it’s been around since the
dawn of humanity. For two-hundred-thousand years, we’ve been connecting
through networks both natural and technological. Interdependence has
long been a tenet of Eastern philosophy and indigenous cosmologies. But
the recent addition of the Internet has added a new layer, which
connects us in a fresh way, giving the world a new type of central
nervous system. Something happens in one place, and we can see it, feel
it, and do something about it almost instantaneously.</p>
<p><em>Safety copy below the line (original URL is inconsistent)</em></p>
<p><span></span></p>
<p>Technology is clearly changing us, especially the way we connect with
our friends, families, and the world around us. It has this huge
potential. But technology has also led to some of the biggest problems
of our day. It’s accelerating our connectedness in ways we can’t even
predict or be completely aware of. Take the honeybees and their
well-documented disappearance. Albert Einstein predicted that if
honeybees were to disappear, humanity would be gone in four years.
Several theories explain why the honeybees are disappearing—toxic
chemicals being the most likely cause—but the impacts of an entirely new
grid of human-induced electromagnetic energy has also been proposed as
the culprit. New books such as Nicholas Carr’s <em>The Shallows</em> and
Sherry Turkle’s <em>Alone Together </em>highlight
studies that show how our behaviors and brains are negatively affected
by a 24/7 digitally connected world. The sociopolitical warnings in Eli
Pariser’s <em>The Filter Bubble</em> and Evgeny Mozrozov’s <em>The Net
Delusion</em> are another concern.</p>
<p>My father, Leonard Shlain, loved to quote Sophocles: “Nothing vast
enters the life of mortals without a curse.” From the beginning of time,
every new technological advancement has brought with it a complex mix
of positive and negative repercussions as well as unintended
consequences. I set out to make a film that addresses the potential of
our twenty-first-century technologies and the importance of harnessing
their powers. I also wanted to examine what can happen when these new
technologies take over and sometimes overwhelm our personal lives. What
does it mean to be <em>connected</em> in the twenty-first century? How
can we use the power of all these connections to turn things around for
the better? I titled the film <em>Connected: </em><em>An Autoblogography
about Love, Death, and Technology</em>, and I asked my father to
cowrite the project with me.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUBjnk_9n8Y&feature=player_embedded#%21" target="_blank"><strong>Connected | Official Trailer | In Theaters 9/16
[HD]</strong></a></p>
<p>[2 minutes 31 seconds]</p>
<p><strong>Overlooking the Personal</strong></p>
<p>My dad was a surgeon but also a pioneer in writing about the
connections between science, consciousness, the human brain, art, and
civilization. His best-selling books include <em>The Alphabet Versus the
Goddess</em>;<em> Sex, Time, and Power</em>; and<em> Art and Physics. </em>He
was an incredible visionary who had a wonderful knowledge of history,
and I felt he would make an enormous contribution to the film. He was
one of the people who taught me to look for connections in the first
place. He searched for patterns that gave insight into why we do what we
do.</p>
<p>His first book, <em>Art and Physics</em>, drew parallels between
breakthroughs in art and breakthroughs in science. He found examples of
this throughout history—such as the way Cubism challenged viewers’
notions about space and time right before Einstein published his theory
about space and time and the way the artist Seurat started to paint with
tiny dots around the same time that scientists were theorizing the
existence of molecules. In <em>The Alphabet Versus the Goddess</em>, he
presented evidence that showed whenever the alphabet and literacy were
introduced into a society, they overstimulated the analytic left
hemisphere of the brain and shifted the balance of power between men and
women to favor patriarchal models. He traced this pattern throughout
the centuries, finding links between the onset of literacy and the
oppression of women throughout the world.</p>
<p>For years he and I talked about making a film together, so when I
started researching all these connections and how we could use them to
help solve our problems, it was natural to ask him to be on the team. We
were researching and writing and sharing drafts, and then one day, when
I called to talk to him about the movie, he didn’t pick up. It turns
out he had been rushed to the hospital after suffering a stroke. He was
diagnosed with stage IV brain cancer and given nine months to live.</p>
<p>All of a sudden, I was asking lots of new questions. I quickly
realized that here I was, writing about all these interrelationships,
and the one great connection I had overlooked was the emotional one.
That’s when I began the difficult process of rewriting the film to
include my personal story of connection, which I wove into the bigger
story of connection throughout history and where I think we are heading.</p>
<p><strong>Technology’s Seduction—and Potential</strong></p>
<p>When I was twenty-one, I attempted my first feature film, <em>Zoli’s
Brain</em>.
I used magic surrealism to tell a story about the brain. It was my
first big failure and, as I look back, one of the most important
experiences of my life. It clearly reflected my interest in the brain.
Now, almost twenty years later, there’s so much we still don’t know
about the human brain. It’s one of the most complex biological systems
on earth, consisting of 100 billion neurons and processing 70,000
thoughts a day. We do know that the brain is designed to seek connection
with others.</p>
<p>I am especially interested in the relationship between our brains and
the addictive force of the new technologies. I found clues about this
relationship in my reading about the hormone <em>oxytocin</em>, which
the brain releases when humans connect with each other. Oxytocin
decreases fear and anxiety; creates empathy, trust, and cooperation; and
reinforces our urge to connect. The human brain is also designed to
seek pleasure because of a hormone called <em>dopamine</em>. Researchers
now know that the brain releases dopamine when new information is
received. So every click, search, text, or Tweet has the potential to
stimulate the same hormonal rush as sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll. But an
interesting thing happens with dopamine—we never feel fully satiated.
It’s called an <em>infinite dopamine loop</em>, which leaves us
constantly wanting more. The combined release of oxytocin and dopamine
when we are plugged into cyberspace helps explain humans’ insatiable
hunger for knowledge, approval, and being constantly connected. [See
David Rock’s <em>Your Brain at Work</em>.] It also explains my sneaking
off to the bathroom to e-mail and Tweet when I’m having lunch with a
friend!</p>
<p>Technology is vast and has so much potential, but it’s also a curse.
Our attention is pulled in so many directions that connecting widely can
sometimes cost us the opportunity to connect deeply. So how do we
prioritize our attention—know when to plug in mindfully and when to
unplug—because we can’t escape these technologies? [See Matthew
Gilbert’s article “<a href="http://noetic.org/blog/twittering-consciousness-part-ii/" target="_blank">A Twittering of Consciousness</a>.”]</p>
<p>I’ve started practicing what I call “technology Shabbats” with my
family. Every Friday at sundown, our whole family disconnects until
Saturday night. No cell phones, no Internet, no television, no iPads, no
multitasking. We disconnect completely—or should I say we connect
completely with ourselves and one another. I am learning that turning
off technology is just as powerful as turning it on, and that our
society needs both. Technology can be so enticing and overwhelming, but
we also need to remember how important it is both to be fully present
with the people we love and to be alone and present to ourselves. The
potential of technology, globally and personally, is exponential, but we
also need to know where the off switch is.</p>
<p>During the poignant time of making my film, I was reading my father’s
new manuscript on Leonardo da Vinci. He proposes that in every species
an occasional genetic mutation occurs that offers a unique glimpse into
where the species might be headed. He believed da Vinci himself offered
that glimpse, showing us what human beings can achieve when they
synthesize the left and the right hemispheres of the brain. I loved this
idea. All of a sudden, the answer to how we might use our increasing
connectedness to tackle our problems became clearer. Five hundred years
after da Vinci, the Internet might be giving us a glimpse into the
future of our species.</p>
<p>Even in its infancy, the Internet is helping each of us to synthesize
the two hemispheres of our brain. Clicking through the explosion of
textual information activates the left hemisphere, while linking from
page to page and video to video stimulates the right hemisphere. I
believe that the Internet is literally changing the way we think, moving
us through a constantly evolving landscape of words and images at the
touch of a keystroke, which synthesizes the two hemispheres of our
brain. If this rewiring is happening on an individual level to each
person who uses the web, imagine the cumulative global effect of this
synthesis. Today there are close to 2 billion people online. What would
the world look like if everyone on the planet could be online? It’s not
that far away. There are already 5 billion cell phones on the planet!</p>
<p><strong>The Era of Interdependence</strong></p>
<p>It’s time to shift our perspective. In many ways, we as a species are
mirroring the way we each develop as individual humans. We come into
the world completely dependent on our parents. As we grow up, we evolve
into independent adults; we live on our own, get our own jobs, and
provide for our families. But this independence brings us to a new
realization of how connected we are to family, friends, and community. I
think that as a species we are evolving to understand our
interdependence. Perhaps all these new tools we’re creating for
collaborating through the Internet are leading us to this understanding,
or perhaps the understanding is driving us to create these tools.
Regardless of what’s propelling it, thinking and living <em>interdependently</em>
will actually change our consciousness and help us create real
transformation worldwide.</p>
<p>To demonstrate this interdependence, I’ve created a new project—<em>Let
it Ripple</em>—that picks up where <em>Connected </em>leaves off. This
will be a series of six short films linked together by the overall theme
of connectedness. The first film, <em>A Declaration of Interdependence,
</em>is based on the United States’ Declaration of Independence. My
colleagues and I posted and Tweeted our <a href="http://connectedthefilm.com/interdependence/" target="_blank">new
declaration</a>
on July 4, inviting people across the world to submit videos of
themselves—whether from their cell phones, laptops, or whatever was
handy—in which they read the declaration in their native language. We
also asked graphic designers and artists to interpret the words
creatively and to submit their artwork. The submissions are blowing me
away. It’s interdependence in action. The film will be made up entirely
of these submissions, edited down to a three-minute clip and tied
together by our animator, Stefan Nadelman, and music by one of my
favorite sound artists, Moby. <em>A Declaration of Interdependence </em>will
premiere on September 12—Interdependence Day—at a special event near
Ground Zero in New York. We are also distributing this film for free,
allowing organizations and nonprofits to put their own call-to-action at
the end of it.</p>
<p>In sharing these messages of connectedness and interdependence, I
believe there will be a positive ripple effect—sparks that will help
turn what we’re talking about into action. It’s all about
connection—connecting ideas, data, and cultures from millions of brains
into a global thinking structure with infinite possibilities. Every
text, hyperlink, and Tweet is like a neural synapse firing out to
everyone we’re connected to. And with each connection, we get a surge of
oxytocin, as if the Internet were creating a global network for
oxytocin to flow. It will make us more empathetic, inclined to share,
collaborate, and connect even more. The Internet is rewiring our brains
to think interdependently, changing the way we connect to the world,
online and offline.</p>
<p>I remember what my mother taught me when she was studying
psychology—emotional connection drives everything we do. So if we can
just channel that emotional connection, we will be compelled to work
together to solve the problems we face and take humanity to the next
level. We’re at the beginning of a participatory revolution, in which
people’s ideas are free to interact, reproduce, and cross-pollinate
instantaneously, creating new hybrid ideas that combine perspectives
from all over the world.</p>
<p>As we become more connected, we’ll be able to see the cause and
effect of our actions in real time—what we buy, donate, eat, and throw
away. We’re just starting to unlock and share information about the
trillions of things that we’ve made in this world. Once we understand
the supply chains and see the links in our actions, we’ll be more
thoughtful and conscious of our behavior. I believe in our innate
ability to change for the better. Look at the end of slavery and
apartheid, the women’s rights and civil rights movements, and other
political and social transformative movements in the last few hundred
years, and you can see that we are indeed evolving. Two things make me
optimistic: human beings are curious, and we have a deep desire to
connect.</p><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Robert Steele</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:robert.david.steele.vivas@gmail.com">robert.david.steele.vivas@gmail.com</a>></span><br>
Date: Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 4:43 PM<br>Subject: Phi Beta Iota Post, Movie CONNECTED<br>To: Douglas Rushkoff <<a href="mailto:rushkoff@gmail.com">rushkoff@gmail.com</a>><br>Cc: Venessa Miemis <<a href="mailto:venessamiemis@gmail.com">venessamiemis@gmail.com</a>>, Michel Bauwens <<a href="mailto:michelsub2004@gmail.com">michelsub2004@gmail.com</a>><br>
<br><br><h2><a href="http://www.phibetaiota.net/2011/09/berto-jongman-the-emerging-global-mind/" rel="bookmark" target="_blank">Berto Jongman: The Emerging Global Mind</a></h2>
<div>Categories: <a href="http://www.phibetaiota.net/category/journal/policies/11-society/" title="View all posts in 11 Society" rel="category tag" target="_blank">11 Society</a>,<a href="http://www.phibetaiota.net/category/journal/information-operations-io/advanced-cyberio/" title="View all posts in Advanced Cyber/IO" rel="category tag" target="_blank">Advanced Cyber/IO</a>,<a href="http://www.phibetaiota.net/category/journal/information-operations-io/autonomous-internet/" title="View all posts in Autonomous Internet" rel="category tag" target="_blank">Autonomous Internet</a>,<a href="http://www.phibetaiota.net/category/journal/communities/civil-journal/" title="View all posts in Civil Society" rel="category tag" target="_blank">Civil Society</a>,<a href="http://www.phibetaiota.net/category/journal/collaboration/collintel-collaboration-journal/" title="View all posts in Collective Intelligence" rel="category tag" target="_blank">Collective Intelligence</a>,<a href="http://www.phibetaiota.net/category/journal/collaboration/culturalintel/" title="View all posts in Cultural Intelligence" rel="category tag" target="_blank">Cultural Intelligence</a>,<a href="http://www.phibetaiota.net/category/journal/collaboration/earthintel/" title="View all posts in Earth Intelligence" rel="category tag" target="_blank">Earth Intelligence</a>,<a href="http://www.phibetaiota.net/category/journal/collaboration/giftintel/" title="View all posts in Gift Intelligence" rel="category tag" target="_blank">Gift Intelligence</a>,<a href="http://www.phibetaiota.net/category/journal/information-operations-io/io-peace-deeds/" title="View all posts in IO Deeds of Peace" rel="category tag" target="_blank">IO Deeds of Peace</a>,<a href="http://www.phibetaiota.net/category/journal/training/methods/" title="View all posts in Methods & Process" rel="category tag" target="_blank">Methods & Process</a>,<a href="http://www.phibetaiota.net/category/journal/collaboration/peaceintel/" title="View all posts in Peace Intelligence" rel="category tag" target="_blank">Peace Intelligence</a>,<a href="http://www.phibetaiota.net/category/journal/training/strategy-reader/" title="View all posts in Strategy" rel="category tag" target="_blank">Strategy</a></div>
<div style="width: 135px;"><a href="http://www.phibetaiota.net/2009/11/contributing-editor-berto-jongman/" target="_blank"><img title="berto small" src="http://www.phibetaiota.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/berto-small.PNG" alt="" height="141" width="125"></a><p>
Berto Jongman Recommends...</p></div>
<p>Featured Article</p>
<p><a href="http://noetic.org/noetic/issue-fourteen-september/the-emerging-global-mind/" target="_blank"><b>The Emerging Global Mind</b></a></p>
<p><i>Noetic Now</i>, <a href="http://noetic.org/noetic/issue-fourteen-september/" target="_blank">Issue Fourteen, September 2011</a></p>
<p>by Tiffany Shlain</p>
<p>Fifteen years ago I founded the <a href="http://www.webbyawards.com/" target="_blank">Webby Awards</a>.
I was fascinated by how the Internet was connecting people all over the
world in new and unexpected ways. I have also been struck by the many
conversations about the problems of our day that view them as separate
challenges—whether the environment, women’s rights, poverty, or social
justice. It has become increasingly apparent to me that when you
perceive everything as connected, it radically shapes your perspective.</p>
<p>The concept of interdependence isn’t new; it’s been around since the
dawn of humanity. For two-hundred-thousand years, we’ve been connecting
through networks both natural and technological. Interdependence has
long been a tenet of Eastern philosophy and indigenous cosmologies. But
the recent addition of the Internet has added a new layer, which
connects us in a fresh way, giving the world a new type of central
nervous system. Something happens in one place, and we can see it, feel
it, and do something about it almost instantaneously.</p>
<p><i>Safety copy below the line (original URL is inconsistent)</i></p>
<p><span></span></p>
<p>Technology is clearly changing us, especially the way we connect with
our friends, families, and the world around us. It has this huge
potential. But technology has also led to some of the biggest problems
of our day. It’s accelerating our connectedness in ways we can’t even
predict or be completely aware of. Take the honeybees and their
well-documented disappearance. Albert Einstein predicted that if
honeybees were to disappear, humanity would be gone in four years.
Several theories explain why the honeybees are disappearing—toxic
chemicals being the most likely cause—but the impacts of an entirely new
grid of human-induced electromagnetic energy has also been proposed as
the culprit. New books such as Nicholas Carr’s <i>The Shallows</i> and Sherry Turkle’s <i>Alone Together </i>highlight
studies that show how our behaviors and brains are negatively affected
by a 24/7 digitally connected world. The sociopolitical warnings in Eli
Pariser’s <i>The Filter Bubble</i> and Evgeny Mozrozov’s <i>The Net Delusion</i> are another concern.</p>
<p>My father, Leonard Shlain, loved to quote Sophocles: “Nothing vast
enters the life of mortals without a curse.” From the beginning of time,
every new technological advancement has brought with it a complex mix
of positive and negative repercussions as well as unintended
consequences. I set out to make a film that addresses the potential of
our twenty-first-century technologies and the importance of harnessing
their powers. I also wanted to examine what can happen when these new
technologies take over and sometimes overwhelm our personal lives. What
does it mean to be <i>connected</i> in the twenty-first century? How
can we use the power of all these connections to turn things around for
the better? I titled the film <i>Connected: </i><i>An Autoblogography about Love, Death, and Technology</i>, and I asked my father to cowrite the project with me.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUBjnk_9n8Y&feature=player_embedded#%21" target="_blank"><b>Connected | Official Trailer | In Theaters 9/16 [HD]</b></a></p>
<p>[2 minutes 31 seconds]</p>
<p><b>Overlooking the Personal</b></p>
<p>My dad was a surgeon but also a pioneer in writing about the
connections between science, consciousness, the human brain, art, and
civilization. His best-selling books include <i>The Alphabet Versus the Goddess</i>;<i> Sex, Time, and Power</i>; and<i> Art and Physics. </i>He
was an incredible visionary who had a wonderful knowledge of history,
and I felt he would make an enormous contribution to the film. He was
one of the people who taught me to look for connections in the first
place. He searched for patterns that gave insight into why we do what we
do.</p>
<p>His first book, <i>Art and Physics</i>, drew parallels between
breakthroughs in art and breakthroughs in science. He found examples of
this throughout history—such as the way Cubism challenged viewers’
notions about space and time right before Einstein published his theory
about space and time and the way the artist Seurat started to paint with
tiny dots around the same time that scientists were theorizing the
existence of molecules. In <i>The Alphabet Versus the Goddess</i>, he
presented evidence that showed whenever the alphabet and literacy were
introduced into a society, they overstimulated the analytic left
hemisphere of the brain and shifted the balance of power between men and
women to favor patriarchal models. He traced this pattern throughout
the centuries, finding links between the onset of literacy and the
oppression of women throughout the world.</p>
<p>For years he and I talked about making a film together, so when I
started researching all these connections and how we could use them to
help solve our problems, it was natural to ask him to be on the team. We
were researching and writing and sharing drafts, and then one day, when
I called to talk to him about the movie, he didn’t pick up. It turns
out he had been rushed to the hospital after suffering a stroke. He was
diagnosed with stage IV brain cancer and given nine months to live.</p>
<p>All of a sudden, I was asking lots of new questions. I quickly
realized that here I was, writing about all these interrelationships,
and the one great connection I had overlooked was the emotional one.
That’s when I began the difficult process of rewriting the film to
include my personal story of connection, which I wove into the bigger
story of connection throughout history and where I think we are heading.</p>
<p><b>Technology’s Seduction—and Potential</b></p>
<p>When I was twenty-one, I attempted my first feature film, <i>Zoli’s Brain</i>.
I used magic surrealism to tell a story about the brain. It was my
first big failure and, as I look back, one of the most important
experiences of my life. It clearly reflected my interest in the brain.
Now, almost twenty years later, there’s so much we still don’t know
about the human brain. It’s one of the most complex biological systems
on earth, consisting of 100 billion neurons and processing 70,000
thoughts a day. We do know that the brain is designed to seek connection
with others.</p>
<p>I am especially interested in the relationship between our brains and
the addictive force of the new technologies. I found clues about this
relationship in my reading about the hormone <i>oxytocin</i>, which
the brain releases when humans connect with each other. Oxytocin
decreases fear and anxiety; creates empathy, trust, and cooperation; and
reinforces our urge to connect. The human brain is also designed to
seek pleasure because of a hormone called <i>dopamine</i>. Researchers
now know that the brain releases dopamine when new information is
received. So every click, search, text, or Tweet has the potential to
stimulate the same hormonal rush as sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll. But an
interesting thing happens with dopamine—we never feel fully satiated.
It’s called an <i>infinite dopamine loop</i>, which leaves us
constantly wanting more. The combined release of oxytocin and dopamine
when we are plugged into cyberspace helps explain humans’ insatiable
hunger for knowledge, approval, and being constantly connected. [See
David Rock’s <i>Your Brain at Work</i>.] It also explains my sneaking off to the bathroom to e-mail and Tweet when I’m having lunch with a friend!</p>
<p>Technology is vast and has so much potential, but it’s also a curse.
Our attention is pulled in so many directions that connecting widely can
sometimes cost us the opportunity to connect deeply. So how do we
prioritize our attention—know when to plug in mindfully and when to
unplug—because we can’t escape these technologies? [See Matthew
Gilbert’s article “<a href="http://noetic.org/blog/twittering-consciousness-part-ii/" target="_blank">A Twittering of Consciousness</a>.”]</p>
<p>I’ve started practicing what I call “technology Shabbats” with my
family. Every Friday at sundown, our whole family disconnects until
Saturday night. No cell phones, no Internet, no television, no iPads, no
multitasking. We disconnect completely—or should I say we connect
completely with ourselves and one another. I am learning that turning
off technology is just as powerful as turning it on, and that our
society needs both. Technology can be so enticing and overwhelming, but
we also need to remember how important it is both to be fully present
with the people we love and to be alone and present to ourselves. The
potential of technology, globally and personally, is exponential, but we
also need to know where the off switch is.</p>
<p>During the poignant time of making my film, I was reading my father’s
new manuscript on Leonardo da Vinci. He proposes that in every species
an occasional genetic mutation occurs that offers a unique glimpse into
where the species might be headed. He believed da Vinci himself offered
that glimpse, showing us what human beings can achieve when they
synthesize the left and the right hemispheres of the brain. I loved this
idea. All of a sudden, the answer to how we might use our increasing
connectedness to tackle our problems became clearer. Five hundred years
after da Vinci, the Internet might be giving us a glimpse into the
future of our species.</p>
<p>Even in its infancy, the Internet is helping each of us to synthesize
the two hemispheres of our brain. Clicking through the explosion of
textual information activates the left hemisphere, while linking from
page to page and video to video stimulates the right hemisphere. I
believe that the Internet is literally changing the way we think, moving
us through a constantly evolving landscape of words and images at the
touch of a keystroke, which synthesizes the two hemispheres of our
brain. If this rewiring is happening on an individual level to each
person who uses the web, imagine the cumulative global effect of this
synthesis. Today there are close to 2 billion people online. What would
the world look like if everyone on the planet could be online? It’s not
that far away. There are already 5 billion cell phones on the planet!</p>
<p><b>The Era of Interdependence</b></p>
<p>It’s time to shift our perspective. In many ways, we as a species are
mirroring the way we each develop as individual humans. We come into
the world completely dependent on our parents. As we grow up, we evolve
into independent adults; we live on our own, get our own jobs, and
provide for our families. But this independence brings us to a new
realization of how connected we are to family, friends, and community. I
think that as a species we are evolving to understand our
interdependence. Perhaps all these new tools we’re creating for
collaborating through the Internet are leading us to this understanding,
or perhaps the understanding is driving us to create these tools.
Regardless of what’s propelling it, thinking and living <i>interdependently</i> will actually change our consciousness and help us create real transformation worldwide.</p>
<p>To demonstrate this interdependence, I’ve created a new project—<i>Let it Ripple</i>—that picks up where <i>Connected </i>leaves off. This will be a series of six short films linked together by the overall theme of connectedness. The first film, <i>A Declaration of Interdependence, </i>is based on the United States’ Declaration of Independence. My colleagues and I posted and Tweeted our <a href="http://connectedthefilm.com/interdependence/" target="_blank">new declaration</a>
on July 4, inviting people across the world to submit videos of
themselves—whether from their cell phones, laptops, or whatever was
handy—in which they read the declaration in their native language. We
also asked graphic designers and artists to interpret the words
creatively and to submit their artwork. The submissions are blowing me
away. It’s interdependence in action. The film will be made up entirely
of these submissions, edited down to a three-minute clip and tied
together by our animator, Stefan Nadelman, and music by one of my
favorite sound artists, Moby. <i>A Declaration of Interdependence </i>will
premiere on September 12—Interdependence Day—at a special event near
Ground Zero in New York. We are also distributing this film for free,
allowing organizations and nonprofits to put their own call-to-action at
the end of it.</p>
<p>In sharing these messages of connectedness and interdependence, I
believe there will be a positive ripple effect—sparks that will help
turn what we’re talking about into action. It’s all about
connection—connecting ideas, data, and cultures from millions of brains
into a global thinking structure with infinite possibilities. Every
text, hyperlink, and Tweet is like a neural synapse firing out to
everyone we’re connected to. And with each connection, we get a surge of
oxytocin, as if the Internet were creating a global network for
oxytocin to flow. It will make us more empathetic, inclined to share,
collaborate, and connect even more. The Internet is rewiring our brains
to think interdependently, changing the way we connect to the world,
online and offline.</p>
<p>I remember what my mother taught me when she was studying
psychology—emotional connection drives everything we do. So if we can
just channel that emotional connection, we will be compelled to work
together to solve the problems we face and take humanity to the next
level. We’re at the beginning of a participatory revolution, in which
people’s ideas are free to interact, reproduce, and cross-pollinate
instantaneously, creating new hybrid ideas that combine perspectives
from all over the world.</p>
<p>As we become more connected, we’ll be able to see the cause and
effect of our actions in real time—what we buy, donate, eat, and throw
away. We’re just starting to unlock and share information about the
trillions of things that we’ve made in this world. Once we understand
the supply chains and see the links in our actions, we’ll be more
thoughtful and conscious of our behavior. I believe in our innate
ability to change for the better. Look at the end of slavery and
apartheid, the women’s rights and civil rights movements, and other
political and social transformative movements in the last few hundred
years, and you can see that we are indeed evolving. Two things make me
optimistic: human beings are curious, and we have a deep desire to
connect.</p>
<hr>
<p><i>Connected</i> will open this fall in major cities nationwide
beginning mid-September in the San Francisco Bay Area. For more
information, go to <a href="http://connectedthefilm.com/" target="_blank">http://connectedthefilm.com</a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/connectedthefilm" target="_blank">Connected the Film</a> on Facebook, or <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/tiffanyshlain" target="_blank">@tiffanyshlain</a> on Twitter.</p>
<p><b>See Also:</b></p>
<p><a href="http://www.phibetaiota.net/2011/09/2011/01/diversity-magic-breakthrough-possible/" rel="bookmark" target="_blank">Diversity Magic–Breakthrough Possible</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.phibetaiota.net/2011/09/2010/07/event-10-12-sept-2010-berlin-interdependence-day/" rel="bookmark" target="_blank">Event: 10-12 Sept 2010, Berlin, Interdependence Day</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.phibetaiota.net/2011/09/2011/02/event-20-oct-nyc-angel-orensanz-center-contact/" rel="bookmark" target="_blank">Event: 20 Oct, NYC, Angel Orensanz Center, CONTACT</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.phibetaiota.net/2011/09/2011/04/next-net-transitional-net-autonomous-net/" rel="bookmark" target="_blank">Next Net, Transitional Net, Autonomous Net</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.phibetaiota.net/2011/09/2010/01/review-peace-a-history-of-movements-and-ideas/" rel="bookmark" target="_blank">Review: Peace–A History of Movements and Ideas</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.phibetaiota.net/2011/09/2009/10/search-civitas-maxima/" rel="bookmark" target="_blank">Search: Civitas Maxima</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.phibetaiota.net/2011/09/2011/09/search-global-brain-human-brain/" rel="bookmark" target="_blank">Search: global brain human brain + RECAP</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.phibetaiota.net/2011/09/2011/07/tom-atlee-global-interdependence-movements-et-al/" rel="bookmark" target="_blank">Tom Atlee: Global Interdependence Movements Et Al</a></p>
</div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>P2P Foundation: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.net</a> - <a href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://blog.p2pfoundation.net</a> <br>
<br>Connect: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.ning.com" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.ning.com</a>; Discuss: <a href="http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation" target="_blank">http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation</a><div>
<br>Updates: <a href="http://del.icio.us/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://del.icio.us/mbauwens</a>; <a href="http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens</a>; <a href="http://twitter.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/mbauwens</a>; <a href="http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens</a><br>
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