Field-Native
Podcast devoted to a perspective of reality that resolves contradiction. Hosted by David Ding. Contact: ddnzpm@gmail.com
Field-Native
The Nature of Culture
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A podcast by David Ding
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The Nature of Culture and Perception
Speaker 1Okay . So this one is about the nature of culture . So culture is a very misunderstood concept and , you know , we think about culture . We often pair it with our heritage , with our ancestors , sometimes with our race , our ethnicity . But culture really is the behaviour of a human being , it's their behaviour . So your culture is a byproduct of how you interact with life , all the interactions that you have with human beings , with the environment around you . Your response to the interpretation of the signals you're receiving from your environment and your culture is how you behave in the world .
Speaker 1And so before we had before the digital age , culture is often when we zoom out and we look at the collective behaviour of a group of people and we stereotype and we say these kinds of people behave in this way , this kind of person is behaves in this way , these are the values of these groups of people . But again , these are before the digital age . These are just observations and interpretations of behaviour that we see in our environment and this is where stereotyping comes from . So if you were to imagine a massive group of people , let's say an entire race of people , now you imagine them all in all jammed into a room together and now you imagine all of those people in the room collapsing into a single human being , in a single archetype , then you would have an interpretation of the culture , of what a typical person would behave like , what their culture is like , from that group . We call that stereotyping . However , it's human nature Because with groups of people who are , who have shared intent , often shared values , and especially if it's a family or an extended family , then they've adopted a lot of the behaviour of their ancestors .
Speaker 1And the reason for that is is because of DNA . So if you inherit the DNA of your ancestors , the genes that are switched on and off , what determines whether those genes are switched on and off is the environment , the interpretation of our environment . So if we are living our life in the world , we have an experience we've never had before . Our interpretation of what that experience means can is what causes a new gene to be switched on or off , so that alters our genetic code forever , unless we have another experience that causes it to be switched off . So it's important to understand how DNA evolves and how , how adaptation works . It's the interpretation of the signals in our environment that determines whether or not a gene gets switched on and off . And so culture we don't just inherit it from the teaching and the learning of our ancestors , we inherit it through our DNA . And when we take the lineage of a man and a woman , their ancestors , then that lineage is fused together and we become a hybrid of two ancestral chains of DNA to create something utterly unique .
Speaker 1And you know , it's not unusual for there to be conflict between the perspectives of a culture of a group of people and the perspectives of another culture of a group of people , especially if the culture of where those people came from are polarized . And you know , it's kind of inevitable that those , the polarization of our lineage , will show up as conflict in our lives . To be reconciled and this is the nature of culture is that it is determined by the interactions we have with the environment around us and how we act and react to our interpretation of those signals . And this is where free will comes in . So you can , and so I want to hone in on this briefly before I go into the application of digital to culture and how this is changing it .
Speaker 1So let's say I'm walking down the street and someone's walking towards me and they've got an aggressive look on their face . It seems like they're walking straight up to me , towards me in an aggressive manner Initially . So my interpretation is that there could be a dangerous encounter in my environment . You know , within a split second of time I'm thinking of some potential scenarios that could have risk associated with them if I continue on my current path . Could they might mug me ? It might be a random act of aggression ? Maybe they're just going to ask me for money ? Maybe I'm completely misinterpreting this . So I apply a risk profile to it and I decide to continue walking until I gain greater clarity , greater certainty . However , I'm in high alert . So the biology is already kicking in . The court is always being pumped around preparing for a , preparing to a bird attack . Potentially , all this is happening because of my interpretation of the signals I'm receiving from my environment . It's all happening because of my judgment . My judgment is determining everything to do with my biological response .
Speaker 1So I walk closer and closer and I decide that it's 50-50 . This person's either gonna do something and I'll defend myself . I'm not certain enough to be the first to attack . You know , attack , in reality , is nature's way of averting premeditated attack . In fact , when you attack first , you're actually averting attack . You're averting the assumption of attack based on the perception that your environment is antagonistic , but I'll go into that on another podcast .
Speaker 1And I'm a meter away from the person and immediately I see they're just squinting in the sun . So they were screwing up their face because the sun's right in their eyes and they didn't even , they barely even knew I was there . And as I go to walk past them they realised they were walking in my path . They say , oh sorry , mate , tap me on the shoulder and we continue to walk along . So you see , the truth of the matter is irrelevant . The truth of reality in that moment , from the perspective of the person walking towards me , is totally irrelevant to my biological response to the interactions I have with my environment .
Speaker 1My perception is determining how my biological responses are occurring . My perception of the meaning of the signals I'm interpreting from within my environment are determining which genes are getting switched on or off in order to adapt to my interpretation of the environment . And so in that scenario I'm sovereign , free will . It's real , you are totally sovereign . It is your judgement that is determining the nature of how your biology is evolving . It is your judgement , it is your interpretation of the signals you're receiving from your environment that are determining the way in which you are adapting and evolving and changing and growing as a human being . It's wholly down to you and this is why it's so important to understand the words that we're using in our lives . When we speak to someone else , when we say something , the interpretation of what we're saying , that is our judgement , and we are expressing that into the environment . And if we just take a brief split second to stand back and look at our interpretation of our signals that we're receiving from our environment and we have the maturity to look at that and realise that we get to the side . So if we're full of hatred , that's on us . That's on us . If we're full of love , that's on us . If we're full of optimism , that's on us . If we're full of pessimism , that's on us .
Speaker 1You can view it from any perspective that you choose and this is why it's so important to respond from a place of harmony rather than allowing any of the aspects of your single aspect of your nature to dominate and control the other two aspects . A lot of you know I've developed a method for you know it's a form of self mastery , but it's about understanding the essential nature of all the components of your nature , in that you are binary and you are also infinite . You're binary and you are non-binary . You are singular and you are polarised , so paradox . You have a mind , you have a body and you have emotions . You can interpret your thoughts that's one way you can pass judgement . You can interpret your emotions that's one way you can pass judgement . You can interpret your impulses that's another way you can pass judgement . And you can respond from each of those individual components without considering the other two . You know , your impulses are kind of like your instincts , the animalistic aspect of your nature , your emotions , the sensations and your interpretation of what each emotion means .
Speaker 1So you can respond from there , or you can respond from your interpretation of a thought . You have a thought and then you respond and you act in response to that thought , you re-act . But what you can do is allow all of those components to collaborate so that you respond in a harmonious way . So you're not entirely oppressing one of those components or both , because you're the spokesperson Well , you're not only the spokesperson on behalf of all those aspects of your nature , you're a power to act on their behalf . So are you going to oppress one aspect of your nature , two aspects ? You're going to allow one aspect to dominate and control , or what you can do is embrace all of those sensations .
Speaker 1So let's play up that scenario again . You're walking down the road , you're walking down the footpath , someone's walking towards you , you have a response , you notice that , you have a thought . So what you do then is you gift it your attention unconditionally , and I call this choiceless awareness . So I observe that thought , I notice it , I allow it to be what it is , and until an emotion is evoked , then I allow that emotion to be what it is , with choiceless awareness . I'm not interpreting it this stage . I'm observing it . I'm giving it choiceless awareness , gifting it my presence unconditionally , and then notice if there's a response . Is there an aspect of my nature that instinctively wants to act ? And then I can give that my choiceless awareness . Just allow it completely , once I've heard every perspective .
Speaker 1The same way you run a company . Now , if you're the CEO of a company , you're the ultimate authority . The ideal scenario is that everyone has a voice . That voice is guaranteed to be heard , but you hold the power to determine and to discern the course of action . It's the same way . And so then you allow the interpretation of each of those components , either in isolation or together , and then you determine the ideal course of action using your free will .
The Power of Self-Trust and Inspiration
Speaker 1You see , now you may notice that the nature of your thought was really disempowering , that you victimized yourself , that the interpretation of that was that you victimized yourself , you turned yourself into a victim of someone who is a perpetrator . That's the story that you're telling . You may have noticed that the emotion that you felt , that your interpretation of it was that you are powerless , that you're weak , and you may have noticed that your physical response was to lash out to attack . But you govern , you're self-governed . Only you determine how you want to act . You can allow , you can give your power away to any one or three of those components , or you can choose .
Speaker 1And in reality , what happens is when you allow space for all three to be exactly what they are , without judgment , you will feel inspired , and this is this is what where I want to hone in on inspiration . I'm not going to go really deep into this , but understanding that inspiration is the kinetic energy that compels you to act , that that is in a way that is beneficial for every everybody involved , and to me , inspiration is the gestalt of all perspectives being seen and heard unconditionally , and then it's like you're given the gift of how to respond and to act and all you need to do is trust that and I would call this as being in the flow , a state of being in the flow . And if you can trust that kinetic energy in the same way that you listen and interpret your thoughts with choiceless awareness , if you can give that , give that same energy and presence to inspiration and holy and have faith on that inspiration and trust it , you begin to realize that you can always trust that , always , and this is what I call a state of total self trust . Some would call it faith , some of the more spiritual people , but in truth it's self trust . It's where you become so that the outcome of acting from that , from inspiration , by wholly vesting yourself and entrusting yourself to inspiration , it earns your trust over time To the point where you surrender . Just happens . You know that as long as you listen with unconditional presence , without judgment , sorry , without acting too soon , if you just hold and allow and expect inspiration to come , when it does come , if you act on it , it's the scenario that is harmonious for everybody involved , where it's no longer a zero sum game , it's unified . So everybody wins , win , win , win . And this is what I call Trinity in context of applying it to self mastery .
Speaker 1And once you begin living like this , it becomes hard to justify . People might say to you why are you doing that ? What's the reason ? You can't justify it . If you totally trust inspiration , you've come to trust it . You don't always know , sometimes it's unknown the reason why All you can say is that I have faith or I have trust . The universe is no longer antagonistic to you , it's become benevolent , and it's because you're no longer oppressing any single aspect of your own nature . Because when you do oppress an aspect of your nature in favour of your mind , in favour of your emotions , in favour of your impulses , then that is a form of self oppression and that will be mirrored to you by the universe , antagonising you as within as without , as above so below , and so you begin to interact with the world in this way . Now you'll be tested for sure . There are some gigantic I mean enormous leaps of faith that you'll have the opportunity to take because of the inspiration inside your body , and that's all you've got to go with . And in the face of people who are using rationality and to justify why you're doing the wrong thing and all the rest of it . It can be cataclysmic in your life in some areas , but you just know that by taking that leap of faith , it's going to be win , win , win , win , win for everybody involved , including yourself , despite any conflict that arises that you need to reconcile along the way . As this happens , harmony is the state that is created by living in this way , in a state of absolute self trust . You know , and it's you know .
Speaker 1Some people say , oh , you need to have faith in a higher power or whatever . You want to say Well , you're the commander . You're the commander of your ship , of your vehicle . In truth , you're really commanding the universe around you . What you're not doing is you're no longer surrendering to an unconscious way of living whereby you are a victim to circumstance . So it's kind of like you're collaborating with the universe .
Speaker 1So yeah , but you do have free will . You can choose to oppress yourself , you can choose to act out of your emotions , you can choose to act out of your mind , or you can be the leader of your own life , be the leader that you wish you could have in your life , inside your company , inside your organization , inside your family . What kind of leader do you want in your life , in your company , in your business , someone that listens , understands , who can see you , who can understand you , that you can trust . That is a benevolent force in your life , force for good . But they will never . They will never step forward at playing a zero-sum game . They will only seek solutions that are beneficial for everybody involved , because they understand that reality is not a zero-sum game . It's not just binary . It's binary and it's non-binary . It's a fusion of unity and separation .
Speaker 1So on to culture . So this is culture from my perspective , and this is your behavior is up to you . How you want to behave determines the nature of your culture . And so in the digital world , with technology , we're in a scenario now where we've had open AI , and I'm sure most of many of you knew that this is where I was going with this Open AI . Well , let's go back to Facebook , because this is a really great
Monetization and Alternatives in Culture
Speaker 1example .
Speaker 1Facebook's business model is that it harvests the collective culture of all users on the platform . It turns it into a profoundly valuable asset under its stewardship , and they monetize it by selling it to advertisers and they derive the income from that . Yeah , amazing business model , centralized business model , profoundly successful . The platform is engaging enough where users want to continue engaging , so they invest their attention into interacting with the platform and with other users on the platform , and that behavior is harvested and that is harvested culture . The way that you interact with your environment is your culture . So if you imagine that all of those interactions captured in a container , whether that's inside a document or inside some kind of piece of technology I talk about a digital black box , quite often , an NFT , a smart contract Then if all of your individual culture is contained within an immutable digital asset , then you have a profoundly valuable asset and whoever is the custodian of that is entitled to leverage it as an asset to generate wealth .
Speaker 1So the challenge we have is that that asset is it's a singularity inside the databases of Facebook . So they have a singular asset which is the accumulation of all of the collective culture , of everybody's culture . This is what I call the common wealth , the wealth of the commons , which is the culture of the commons . They have that as a singular asset , profoundly valuable . As an asset profound and in context of , you know , oracle , like AI , where it can predict behaviour extremely well as well then it's even more profoundly valuable because you can if you can predict the behaviour or the future or how someone's culture is going likely to evolve , then that's incredibly lucrative as well , especially for advertisers .
Speaker 1So the problem with this is that it's centralised . You know your culture is yours and , despite what some people may think , a race of people do not own culture . Culture does not belong to a race of people . Very important to understand this . You can stereotype a group of people who are all , who have shared values and appreciate the same similar things , but you're stereotyping a group of people . You're not . The culture isn't owned by the group . Culture is an individual thing . Your culture is your own . You determine how you're going to act and behave in each moment . If you're going to paint a painting , write a poem , punch someone in the face , you own your culture , only you .
Speaker 1Now , the important thing to understand is that you're as sovereign as you are and as empowered as you are . You can delegate the authority to someone else to monetise your culture , which is what happens with Facebook . What happens with any social media platform is you're delegating the authority and you're giving the agency to a third party to monetise your culture , which is fine . You get value , perceived value and that you have access to a platform which is free and in exchange , they can monetise your culture . Now , the reason this is important now is so actually to provide greater context . This is the nature of my venture , powerhouse .
Speaker 1Fundamentally , this is about the decentralisation of culture , where you are the custodian of an immutable asset which contains your harvested interactions , your culture , and then Powerhouse is the steward and so is the guardian of the common wealth . So everybody's culture , if they choose to share it , and then the monetisation of that culture is then distributed . The wealth is distributed to everyone that's chosen to share their culture for the common wealth , and that so it's the same model where it's utilised for advertising , but the income is distributed in the form of a universal basic income . So , rather than being dependent upon a government or upon a trusted third party to save you or to keep you safe and pay you a living wage , you actually become self-reliant and self-sufficient straight away , because it's actually your own culture that's providing you your source of income and your source of wealth . So they don't need to be handouts anymore .
Speaker 1The way that you interact with the world , your interactions , the way that you live life , and you don't even have to change it . You don't have to become a different kind of person , you don't have to improve as a human being , you don't have to grow or become better , or it's unconditional . It's unconditional , it's valuable despite how you choose to behave , and so Powerhouse isn't different to how you live , but it recognises that there's inherent value in your culture , despite your culture , and if there's value in that , then you leverage that and we share the spoils . We share the common wealth , and it liberates everyone from their dependency on having to do something else or defer their authority or give away their power just in order to survive . So this is my mission and to provide a greater context . So open AI .
Speaker 1Open AI and most LLMs who have scraped the internet for public information and knowledge , trained models using freely shared media , varying degrees of what's true and other people's interpretations , knowledge , science , whatever it may be publicly available information is being scraped , and so , once again , we have these massive repositories of the common wealth , of our collective culture . And open AI . It's an open development platform . They have an API . Developers can plug in and build on top of that . They can monetise that so they can create wealth for themselves . The users who are continually utilising the platform are continuing to train the model , so it continues to harvest your culture and it continues to monetise that culture , and the spoils go to a centralised company , and the profits are retained by the shareholders . I'm saying this without judgement . This is how the world works . This is how commerce works . This is how the economy works . It is what it is Centralisation .
Speaker 1Now , as a sovereign human being , you don't have to use open AI . You've chosen to defer the authority to commercialise your culture , to open AI . If they provided the proper duty of care in terms of helping you understand how valuable your culture is , who knows ? But who am I to judge you as well ? This is a common way of doing business for many people , but there is a distinct absence of a viable alternative , a decentralised alternative . However , that asset is so mature now and what's done is done . The common wealth is under the stewardship of a company and they've been charged to monetise it and utilise the profits for themselves , and it's incredibly successful . It's adding massive value and it's meeting profoundly unmet need .
Speaker 1However , there are other ways , and so I just want to share that with you , to help you understand that what's coming with decentralised culture , with converting your own culture into an immutable digital asset , that compounds your interactions . So , therefore , you are incentivised to continue interacting with the software platforms that you're using . The value of the asset is growing over time and with the introduction of AI , with decentralized and distributed intelligence , whereby you have the singularity , which is the share of common wealth , the common knowledge , but the equivalent of the brain is also under your stewardship , so your personality , your biases , the uniqueness of you as an individual is also under your stewardship . Then we have something truly profound emerging and evolving . We have something whereby , with the advent of trustless systems and so that's a key component of the Powerhouse platform is the trustless nature of it where you can have immutable black boxes that are similar to zero knowledge proofs , whereby you can interact anonymously with an avatar , potentially with an AI avatar who has an anonymous identity , but , because of the nature of their interactions , the risk score that they're producing shows that it's a trustworthy interaction . You're moving into a profound space where you can have an AI avatar representing people who are disabled , who have severe disabilities , who can then speak on their behalf and , in time , the inevitability of AI avatars being empowered to speak on behalf of groups of human beings . It seems inevitable .
Speaker 1Many people believe that we'll be voting for them in future because of their impartiality , because if a group of individuals choose to pull their assets , their culture let's say , 500 human beings come together and they choose to pull their culture , their assets together to create a singularity and they give that singularity a voice as a spokesperson on behalf . They know it's impartial , they know it's solely representing the biases of that group , the collective culture and uniqueness of that group , and it's only going to speak on their behalf , from their perspective , an unbiased spokesperson . You see Now the way we do politics today . If you can get 500 paying members , you can create a political party . So imagine how many more political parties there are going to be when it's all handled digitally .
Speaker 1It's done immutably , on a trustless system , using a system similar to zero knowledge proof , so you can even maintain anonymity whilst also proving that you are qualified to vote . You see , this is the world that we're moving into . It's a profoundly different world , and so , in that context , if you have , when you have a platform that is geospatial in nature , then and you have an individual who has their immutable asset with their culture , their harvested biases within that asset , you begin to see the evolution of wearables , wearable devices which don't even have screens on them . You know the profound product development coming out of a venture in New Zealand called Reality 2 . And you know , it's like a trusted black box . If you're in the vicinity of someone that's one of your friends , you can give the black box on your wrist permission to interact with that other human being , share information , knowledge .
Speaker 1You see so in a scenario within which trust has been unlocked and imbued into the system , because it's rendered human beings obsolete to act as intermediaries and we actually trust the technology wholly . It liberates everyone . It creates space for us to be more authentic and more intimate with each other In a scenario . It inspires us to interact with each other . It inspires us to amplify the richness of the transactions , of the interactions , because as our culture becomes richer , so do we . As you're growing that asset , you're filling it full of interactions that are deep and wide and rich . Then it becomes more compelling . It becomes an even greater asset in the nature of the advertising that you receive from your own AI avatar .
Speaker 1It's so fine and so niche that the needs being met . Because we have such deep , deep understanding , intimate understanding of the needs of every individual , of their uniqueness , then we can meet that unmet need through commerce , through startups , we can validate new markets autonomously . We can post grants for new startups because we've market validated it . There's an unmet need here . So here's 100K for anyone that's keen to begin a startup and we have a truly autonomous system , trustless , it's rendered human beings obsolete as intermediaries , as nodes that imbue trust into the system . We don't need it anymore . But it has to be under the collective stewardship of the shared commons and we all have to be capable of benefiting from the monetization of the common wealth . But it is your wealth that's taking care of you . It's not a government , it's not a company . Your culture is a perpetual source of wealth for you and it's up to you . Who you choose to share that with Doesn't belong to a race of people .
Speaker 1That's appropriation . You're a vessel for creativity . If I sit in my car right now and paint a symbol that's never been seen anywhere else , anyone's free to use that as a source of inspiration and to paint something else . And so all of a sudden , there might be a group of people who are all creating symbols that all look really similar , and so then we come together because we're all inspired by the same thing . I was inspired by thought , by a sensation in my body , and so I express my nature into the world , and it's been a catalyst for inspiration for others , and so I have common ground with a group of people we can share this part of ourselves together . That's what culture is . Doesn't make . The color of their skin is irrelevant . You see , cultural appropriation .
Speaker 1You don't appropriate culture from a race of people . Culture is the uniqueness of an individual . You know , the first ever symbol or thought or idea for some kind of you know piece of IP , it came through a human being . It didn't come through a race of people . And so the first step is total sovereignty over the individual culture and then the willful choice of that individual to share that culture with their partner , with their family , with their tribe , with the community , with their city , with the nation , with everybody .
Rejuvenating Culture Through Incentives and Technology
Speaker 1If you want your culture to proliferate , if you want it to be rejuvenated , then you want people to be incentivized to share it and to appropriate it , understanding that you're also going to benefit from enabling as many people as you can to grow the richness of their own asset , their own culture . And so , yeah , that's pretty much it . Culture is broadly misinterpreted . Your culture is , in viewed in digital terms , is an immutable asset that contains the compounding , harvested interactions you have Ideally with every aspect of your environment , and technology will evolve to make that easier and easier over time . But , beginning with the interactions that you have online and I'm very excited for the world that wearables are opening up in context of the geospatial web which is again emerging through New Zealand , and that I'm intending to infuse into the stack , into the architecture of Powerhouse so , yeah , that's it for now . I'll leave it there . This has been the nature of culture . Cheers for now .
