Are we at the threshold of a revolution?

This coming Thursday 14.7.11 at 18:30 Nir Lahav will lecture at the Chess House in Tel Aviv at a conference called Personality, Society and Progress on the relationship between social revolutions and technology. From these connections there are hints that today we are witnessing the beginning of a new social revolution. 

Throughout history it is possible to find interesting connections between topics that do not seem to be related. It is possible to find connections between society and social revolutions and between the philosophical views, art, science and technology of the time. In the end, there is a connection and interrelationship between all these issues and it is impossible to disconnect one issue from the other. If, for example, we go back about 600 years, we will reach the days of the Renaissance and the beginning of the scientific revolution. Suddenly the person woke up and remembered that he has tremendous potential, and realized that he is allowed to utilize and develop these abilities, even if the government claims otherwise. It was a real revolution, suddenly more and more people began to put the individual and his abilities in the center and not the religion that until then controlled society with great tyranny.

It started through the art that began to reflect these ideas (e.g. Michelangelo) and passed to the philosophers who wrote and developed these ideas (e.g. Francis Bacon and René Descartes), and the first scientists who took the idea of ​​the ability of the individual towards the ability of man to understand and explain all of nature without the need for religion and a divine revelation that will explain things (for example Copernicus and Galileo). Befitting a time that believes in man's great abilities, there is no clear separation between these areas and anyone can develop himself in all of these areas. This is how the period encourages Eshkolot people. For example, Leonardo da Vinci is both an artist, an engineer and a scientist, and René Descartes is also a philosopher who studies the essence of reality, both a mathematician and a scientist who studies nature and the human body.

The Creation of Man - an excerpt from Michelangelo's mural on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Pay attention to the symbolism in the painting. God touches man with his finger and they look straight at each other. This is the idea that man is not so different from God and that man has God's abilities. There are those who claim that the red shape in which the angels and God appear resembles the shape of the brain and not by chance. All Michelangelo conveys the idea that with the help of reason man can understand creation and God.

This wonderful period continued and at the same time as the scientific revolution, the Enlightenment period was also created. These are philosophers and revolutionaries who took the ideas about the centrality of the individual and his abilities and decided to give them expression in society and the state. Suddenly the idea of ​​democracy invented in ancient Athens is remembered and human rights, freedom and equality are added to it. A new value view is being created that tries to replace the old values ​​of religion, a view in which the ideal is no longer God and his teachings, but the realization of man's great abilities in any way that the individual chooses, primarily the way of reason and rationality. From this ideal, the basic values ​​of society are chosen, values ​​of freedom, personal freedom and equality for every person regardless of who they are.

The realization of these philosophical ideas in society happened, for example, in the French Revolution and the birth of the United States. Suddenly a state arose not on an ethnic basis, not on a religious basis and not on the basis of race, but on a revolutionary basis of man and the realization of his abilities. The American Constitution came to guarantee the basic rights of the individual so that he could exercise himself freely. In my opinion, science, democracy and liberalism are among the main successes of this revolution. Notice how throughout this revolution philosophy, science, art and society connected and influenced each other. Now the question is how does technology come into the picture?

It is interesting to discover that at the beginning of the Renaissance there was a very important technological invention, an invention that would change the course of European and human history - the printing revolution by Johann Gutenberg. Printing was still ahead of him, but he realized that the printing process could be optimized and shortened by using templates of individual letters that are filled with ink. Instead of preparing long templates for whole pages, you can prepare the requested page with the help of letter templates, change it easily and print it many times. Until then, no large quantities of books were printed but only a few individual copies kept in libraries. It was now possible to cheaply print large quantities of any book and distribute the books throughout Europe. The printers were looking for new books to print and distribute and the intellectuals were looking for ways to spread their ideas easily. With the help of the printing of the books, their ideas quickly spread throughout Europe and thus gained power and influence over increasing amounts of people. Until eventually the ideas were in the air and enough people were influenced by them to make a social revolution. To understand what a dramatic change this was, one had to see the jump in the amount of books that were in Europe. Within fifty years since the printing revolution, the amount of books in Europe increased from a few hundred books to half a million books. This is how you can reach a critical mass of people and create revolutions.

The ideas of the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment continue to influence the world to this day. It can be said that this revolution of the Enlightenment movement has not yet been completed and many movements from then until today continue to struggle in the name of the same ideal to reach a state of more freedom and equal opportunities. It is possible to generalize within this revolution the American Civil War and the liberation of the black man from slavery, the struggle of women at the beginning of the 20th century to obtain equal rights and the right to vote in elections, and the struggle of various countries to gain independence and be freed from occupiers such as the struggle of India and Israel against the British or the struggle of the countries of Eastern Europe to be free From the Soviet dictatorship towards the end of the 20th century.

Among all these movements there is another movement that tried to make a real revolution and swept after it a wide public that revolted against the establishment and the lack of freedom to realize yourself as you can. The counterculture movement and the flower children in the USA from the sixties and early seventies of the 20th century. Just like in the Renaissance, man suddenly remembers his great abilities and the need to realize these abilities, and as soon as it is impossible to realize this, they start fighting. Even in this case there was an artistic expression and most of this revolution was mediated with the help of the new rock music. Young creators saw the potential in the new style and began to express themselves and the ideas of freedom and fulfillment through music and words.

The revolution of the sixties changed Western society and marched it towards greater freedom and equal opportunities. At that time, the American civil rights movement arose, fought and succeeded in advancing the process of equality between blacks and whites. The second feminist wave promoted women's equality, old and rigid social conventions were changed, for example the rigidity around the sexual issue waned. Movements for the rights of the homosexual community appeared and ecological movements also appeared at that time. Ways of life that today seem acceptable and natural to us began in this revolution and demanded their freedom.

Demonstration of support from the XNUMXs for the legalization of abortions and for the women's right to be free to choose for themselves, without state intervention, the fate of their fetus. This is how the counterculture renews the spirit of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment and calls to give man more freedom and equal rights so that he can realize his abilities as he sees fit.

These two revolutions came out of the same basic idea of ​​realizing man's great abilities and started from art. In the first case, science and philosophy played a central role and influenced the social revolution, and in the second case, it was art that continued to set the tone and help the social revolution of those days. This revolution manifested itself not only in the establishment of new political movements but also in huge demonstrations and many student protests that ultimately led to the end of the Vietnam War and in the search for alternative life styles and the establishment of various communes.

Is it also possible in this case to find technological inventions that influenced the revolution?

If you check which important inventions happened before the outbreak of the American counterculture, one invention stands out in particular and seems very related, the invention of the birth control pill. The birth control pill entered the pharmaceutical market around 1957, a decade before the height of the counterculture revolution. In the counter-culture, they went against rigid social conventions and traditional institutions that prevented self-realization according to what everyone saw and what everyone saw. Many of these conventions concerned the rigid place of men and women in society and the holy of holies of society, the regulation of sexuality. The arrangement with the help of hiding, suppressing and controlling sexuality and the relationship between men and women, so that there are clear and strict laws regarding what is allowed and what is not allowed in the matter of sexuality. These conventions did not just emerge, they probably developed so that society could control the issue of reproduction and children and resolve conflicts. At a time when there are no effective means to prevent pregnancy, it would seem that in order to maintain an orderly society, strict restrictions and laws must be invented regarding these issues.

But now everything has changed. Once the birth control pill was invented, it was possible to obtain an effective and cheap solution to control pregnancies. We don't need more strict laws and social norms that stop a person's abilities, especially a woman's abilities. Therefore, it is not surprising that following the invention of the pill came a real revolution and liberation from restrictions on sexuality and the place of women and men in society.

In a revolution like this which is mediated mainly by art and the developing rock music, it is impossible not to mention the invention thanks to which rock music could be created, the invention of the electric guitar in 1931 and the appearance of the electric guitar as we know it in 1949. Within a decade a new musical style called rock and roll would be created which is based on the electric guitar and in the decade after that this style will develop and become music that has meaning beyond dancing, rock music that will accompany the counterculture revolution.

Excerpt from a 1968 documentary film about pop music at the time. Of course, the reference is to the rock music of the late sixties, popular music and not classical and therefore it was considered pop music. The counterculture revolution - once upon a time pop music was an art. It is interesting that already here the presenter of the program compares the Renaissance period with this period.

Excerpt from a 1968 documentary film about pop music at the time. Of course, the reference is to the rock music of the late sixties, popular music and not classical and therefore it was considered pop music. The counterculture revolution - once upon a time pop music was an art. It is interesting that already here the presenter of the program compares the Renaissance period with this period.

It was not for nothing that I chose these two examples of the connection between technology and social revolutions. You can find many more connections throughout history, but I think that these examples are relevant to our time and the revolution we may be about to embark on. Behind these two examples is the same idea of ​​realizing the tremendous potential that lies in man and following the technological inventions and revolutions we have come another step closer to the realization of this idea. Each such step is expressed in breaking old conventions and creating new conventions that reflect more freedom and equal opportunities for the individual.

The simplest connection between technology and social revolutions is expressed in the use of new technologies to quickly spread the revolutionary ideas. But the examples I gave are even more special cases. Not only are the new technologies used, but the new inventions themselves reflect the idea behind the revolution. Gutenberg's printing revolution, for example, reflects the idea that man is talented enough to understand nature on his own and develop himself as much as he can. The printed books provide the knowledge and make it accessible to anyone who has learned to read and write. In this way, a person can easily develop himself and add knowledge to the pool of human knowledge. As we have seen, the birth control pill also reflects the idea of ​​the freedom of choice of the person in general and the woman in particular. There is nothing like the electric guitar to convey the passion and power that is hidden in a single. The player's power erupts through this electrifying instrument. All these inventions use their full potential through the revolution. They are not just a tool to convey the revolution, they represent it.

What is happening in terms of technology these days?

We have all heard about the information revolution, we even take part in this technological revolution. Here I am writing a blog and spreading my opinions and here you are reading and you are reading this and even commenting. This is a tremendous technological revolution, headed by the invention of the Internet and the WWW code (abbreviation for World Wide Web) which enables convenient roaming around the Internet. The information has become digital and available to anyone with a computer and internet connection in the world. From the invention of the MP3 file and the establishment of websites where information can be shared and downloaded quickly and for free (music, movies, photos, books), and through websites where the users themselves create new information such as blogs or the youtube website where movie clips can be uploaded. Thanks to the powerful computing power that every home computer has, each and every one can become a recording studio, film editing studios, book publishing, and the like. So, apart from official movie clips, most of the YouTube site consists of original videos that the users themselves have created.

The Wikipedia site is another part of this revolution. Suddenly, you no longer need huge encyclopedias gathering dust at home, everything is on the Internet at a typing distance and thanks to the search engines it is also easy to reach the desired information relatively quickly. The revolutionary part of Wikipedia (which celebrated its tenth anniversary this year) is that they do not employ experts who write the entries of this online encyclopedia, but the users themselves are the writers. It sounds absurd to give every user the right to write and edit concepts in the encyclopedia, yet it works. I assume that most of you have already heard that the level of Wikipedia does not fall below that of Encyclopaedia Britannica. This is a revolution not only at the technological level but at the level of organization, management and government.

We are so used to a hierarchical form of organization. At the top there is a chairman or a prime minister or a commander and ideally below him experts in various positions that are subordinate to him. Beneath all these is the passive general public. Now something completely new has been created. Here is an organization where there is almost no hierarchy. This is an organization that works in a new way. In the form of a network, where each area in the network is responsible for something and all areas cooperate almost without supervision from above. There is no head to the network. Any user can read an entry on Wikipedia and decide to edit it and improve it. Later, other, more experienced users will check if the editing is good and will make the editing as needed. This is how the encyclopedia runs and develops, without a head but with a long tail of thousands of users/editors. The substitute for experts is the many discussions that the user-editors have on each entry in Wikipedia and the many renovations that the entry goes through until it becomes a high-level encyclopedia.

Here I have to insert a personal note, we are also trying to advance the wiki revolution further and stretch the revolution even further. We are a group of several friends who feature and upload a wiki-based website where any citizen can propose new bills and pass them to the relevant members of the Knesset so they can propose them in the Knesset. We call the website Wikigov or Wikigovernment in English. It will take some time for the site to go up, but in the meantime, for those who are interested, we have opened a Facebook page for Wikigov where you can like the page and receive updates on our progress (click here for the Facebook page).

This is a huge revolution, but most of it still takes place around the new technologies that are created and added at a rapid pace to the Internet world. The question is what will happen following this amazing technological revolution? Is it a prelude to a new social revolution? The first thing is to check whether today's technological revolution reflects the basic idea of ​​the revolutions from the previous examples?

Looking at the previous examples I think the information revolution is just the beginning. This is just the technological revolution. It will be followed by a new social revolution. If this assessment is correct, we are only at the beginning. We are already beginning to see buds of how these new technological tools are used to convey revolutionary ideas and organize coups and revolutions. The jasmine revolution in Tunisia, the coup in Egypt, the establishment of the state of South Sudan, riots and coup attempts in Syria, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen and Libya. In all of these, the organizers of the demonstrations used Facebook, Twitter and other social websites to organize and distribute photos and videos of what is really happening on the ground. This is how they bypassed the dictatorial authorities who tried to hide what was happening and prevent the protesters from organizing. But these are only the seeds of the revolution and not the peak of the revolution.

The reason that strengthens this assessment is that, as in the previous examples, this time too there is a technological revolution that reflects the same idea that we have already seen in the previous revolutions, the idea of ​​realizing the tremendous human capacity by striving for increasing freedom. Not only do we have new technologies with which we can spread our revolutionary ideas, but these technologies are a natural fit for these ideas, and with the help of a social revolution we will fully exhaust the capabilities of these technologies. Like the printing revolution, today's information revolution opens up the possibility for anyone with a computer and an internet connection to access any information they request, thus increasing the control and freedom of the individual. These technologies also open up incredible possibilities of self-exhaustion through creation. Each and every one can take out of themselves and create something new that did not exist before and then immediately spread it around the world with the help of computing power and the Internet.

Therefore, it seems that the information revolution is the gateway to a greater social revolution that will follow. A revolution that will already go beyond the limits of technology and affect our lives in new and unfamiliar ways. Just as science or liberalism came out of the technological revolution of printing and affected humanity in new ways. As in the previous cases, it can be expected that such a new social revolution will lead to the realization of the same basic idea and change old conventions to new conventions that reflect more freedom and equal opportunities for the individual. We are still at a very preliminary stage where the technological revolution itself is not over yet, it is still being built before our eyes. It may be necessary to wait until the time when the information revolution reaches a stable state and only then can a great social revolution arise. On the other hand, it may be that this time the revolutions will be intertwined. We will wait and see.

In any case, we are still at the beginning and even the technological information revolution is not yet ripe, because a ripe revolution is aware of itself. what do I mean? In the beginning there is the technological revolution, then it is used and little by little a social revolution is created. The first revolutionaries of the revolution are not yet aware that this is a revolutionary period. They simply take advantage of their technology and ideas and create new and revolutionary things. Only later, when the revolution is gaining momentum and more revolutionaries join the celebration, does the revolution take shape and get a name. Note that already within the revolution itself, the revolution gets a name. So the revolution is ripe, the revolution is aware of itself and its power and continues on at the peak of its power.

For example, at the beginning of the Renaissance and the scientific revolution, Da Vinci and Copernicus simply acted and created. Copernicus wrote a book in which he suggests that the sun is in the center and not as a center and waited until before his death to publish this revolutionary book. He was not aware that by doing so he was opening the scientific revolution. Only at a later stage do philosophers begin to talk about a new approach, a scientific method and a revolution that is calling for this moment. Even in the sixties, only towards the end do they start talking and writing songs about the revolution that is happening at this very moment. Long after the birth of rock and roll and the birth of rock.

Today we are still not aware of a social revolution that is calling at this moment, at most we are aware that there is an information revolution, but it is only the technological revolution, not the social one. And even in this technological part I still haven't seen technologies and web applications that are aware of the revolution. All the examples I gave before - YouTube, Facebook and even Wikipedia, are the first stage, they symbolize that there is a technological revolution, they are not aware of the revolution and do not use it to continue to create the revolution and promote it further. An interesting organization that somewhat takes this revolution further is an anarchist organization called Anonymous. This is not the Israeli organization for animal rights but an international organization that functions as a network. The organization has no head and not even a statute. The organization is made up of hackers and other users who attack through the Internet institutions and governments that violate human rights in the world. Because the organization is not structured in a hierarchical way at all and does not have a main body that makes decisions for everyone, but each vertex in the network works alone or in temporary cooperation with others, it is very difficult to stop Anonymous.

This is a beautiful example of an organization that is already aware of the revolution and is trying to take it further and expand it. But still most of the actions of Anonymous are within the technology itself (although occasionally they do do demonstrations in the outside world and then put on Gay Fox masks like in the movie Vendetta so they won't be recognized). It will be interesting to see what will happen with Anonymous in the future. We should see more and more such attempts to take the information revolution outside the Internet with the help of new methods that came from the technological revolution (such as a network organization instead of a hierarchical organization).

An informational video of the Anonymous organization that was distributed during the coup in Egypt on the YouTube website regarding the organization's expected actions against the Mubarak regime in Egypt. Please note that the voice you hear is a computerized voice and not a real voice, this is so that they cannot identify the Anonymous activists.

An informational video of the Anonymous organization that was distributed during the coup in Egypt on the YouTube website regarding the organization's expected actions against the Mubarak regime in Egypt. Please note that the voice you hear is a computerized voice and not a real voice, this is so that they cannot identify the Anonymous activists.

What is the conclusion of all this?

Apparently the world we know is going to change. It can be a rapid change that will be seen in our lifetime and it can be a slow change that will take several hundred years. The Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment took about three hundred years. In contrast, the counterculture of the sixties existed for about one decade. I think that the information revolution is a very strong technological revolution that will affect our lives for many years to come and after or at the same time we will see a social revolution that will change the conventions and social structures we know today. Apparently the change should be good. A change in the spirit of freedom, equality and the fulfillment of human ability as the individual desires. That's why you have to remember not to be afraid of the change, but on the contrary, take part in it. To be part of the change and part of the revolutions. We live in an amazing time, as the Renaissance period symbolizes the beginning of a new era, this period will be remembered for future generations as the entrance of the human race into another new era. We are lucky, we can influence and shape this era, with the help of the new technology each and every one of us has the power and ability to create, change and influence human history. Now is the time to get to know the revolution and start taking an active part in it.

Those who are interested in these topics are invited to come and listen to the discussion evening Personality, Society and Progress this coming Thursday 14.7.11/18/30 at 26:XNUMX PM at the Chess House, XNUMX Tagor Street, Tel Aviv. In the evening there will be three lectures and a panel at the end. Tickets can be bought now on the event page.

Apart from me,Roey Tsezana, owner of the successful blog Another Science, and Ran Levy, owner of the successful podcast Making History!, will also want to. I'm going to lecture on the relationship between social revolutions and technology, Roy will lecture on the question of how a particular individual can have a decisive influence on the history of humanity as a whole, and Ren will lecture on "scientists on the psychologist's couch". At the end of the evening, a panel will be held with us and with Dr. Aharon Hauptman, a senior researcher at the Institute for Technological Forecasting at Tel Aviv University and the owner of the blog The future is not what it used to be.

To Nir Lahav's blog - free and happy