Social Media is based on the innate human need for positive experience … »of being observed by others with whom we share goals, history, context, lifestyles, preferences… and other characteristics…

∞ Our experience of ourselves, and what we call our mind… is (often unconsciously) deeply emergent »the sense of being observed and the »reasons for observation…

In carefully noticing my own behaviors, I am constantly reminded that we are not precisely distinct persons as regards our minds and our intelligence, even though we may appear so in body and form. And it matters who may be watching, who we imagine to be watching, and why. In ways that could revolutionize human intelligence. Or destroy it.

I dropped a piece of toast. Alone in my room. What happened was fascinating when examined in a stepwise fashion. A variety of muscles in my abdomen tensed, there were other sudden metabolic effects… I was hoping it would not fall to the floor, it didn’t. As I reached to pick it up, for the first time… and ever so briefly, I »noticed that I did a peripheral vision scan for observers. And that was the signal I needed.

To see the great depth and complexity of our ordinary consciousness. And how it incessantly refers to others, itself, and others. To surveillance, of a sort. To ‘a watcher that may evaluate’. And all of the potentials, opportunities, vulnerabilities and dangers this implies. If we can use this fact intelligently, we can reforge our relationships with language, nature, knowledge and meaning… in ways that would appear to our present minds to be advanced beyond common imagining.

The other option leads to disaster. Frequently, and more deeply, with each canalizing repetition.