“Evolution is a process of creating patterns of increasing order….I believe that it’s the evolution of patterns that constitutes the ultimate story of our world. Evolution works through indirection: each stage or epoch uses the information-processing methods of the previous epoch to create the next.”

Much like the hippies, the hepcats, the mods, hipsters, flappers, etc., the culture of the constitution and the work ethic, of the social etiquette and clearly defined boundaries, the impunity of bloated, over-regulated bureaucracy and the absence of accountability are on its way out.

Welcome to the electronic culture.

Science fiction writers forewarned of this inevitability for years. Although, we cowered and enjoyed the show heed was not paid. Now, the ideology that one must work hard at one’s career in order to reap the most benefit from the American Dream no longer applies.

The incoming culture does not seem to want the promising career, as they understand that the dream has popped. Go to school, graduate with your [enclosed] classroom mates in a building on a stage; go to college, work for more money to afford necessities, graduate in an old-fashioned building in uniformity and lockstep. Then get a job, pay your student loans, work until retirement, pay your taxes to The Man, pay into social security, get a mortgage and a family, start accumulating debt, do this for 30-40 years and retire. . . broke and sick. This is not an American dream it is a nightmare.

The incoming culture seems to embrace a familiar, yet, new and improved for the 21st century paradigm as well as advocating a simpler, less regulated lifestyle. Social morality and responsibility that seems to have been inspired by Kohlberg’s scale of moral development, post-conventional level has replaced conventional social roles, norms and mores of daily behavior.

Economically in the upcoming culture, quality is far more valuable than quantity. Quantity is synonymous with junk, but junk that can be cheaply modified into a quality product. Shopping for quality, the most return (worth) on a single item, or purchasing in bulk to save money seems to be favored over mass-produced products planned for obsolescence. As shopping malls along with other box stores close, much more informed shopping waits in the wake. Now, a desired item can be price-compared across the planet with an easy Google search. The best quality items can be bought to exact and personal specifications for a small price; even a car, land and home can be purchased this way. Much more productive and constructive actions can be performed online at home, than can be accomplished by, at or in many obsolete jobs of the outgoing culture.

Thrift shops offer many name brand fashions at 70%, 80%, 90% off the regular price, leading to the understanding that you can look sharp at pauper’s prices. Eating healthy: the adage You Are What You Eat seems to have gripped the public imagination (or at least the media’s).

Further, the incoming culture seems much more informed than the outgoing culture. As the incoming culture becomes more wise to the wiles of social engineering—as that culture having grown up on the internet uses social engineering for practical jokes and pranks—media like FoxNews ceases to be the sole source (or even preferred source) of current events around the world. The internet serves as a much more organic and dynamic source of current events, like the rise of Twitter as a relevant and reliable news source. The heroes of the incoming culture do not include the founding fathers, but such instantly recognizable figures as Bill Nye, MythBusters, Carl Sagan, Charlie Bukowski, Bill Murray, zombie apocalypse, and the unending fleet of viral memes like Antoine and, recently, Homeless Kai.

God and organized religion have been fired as even FoxNews shows the glaring hypocrisy contained therein. Now, genuine and sincere acceptance (rather than tolerance) for anyone to be who they want to be as long as no harm becomes another is the mantra of fellow humans (see the new niche, Random Acts of Kindness). Religion (and to some degree science—see noetic sciences) has evolved to interdisciplinary perspectives that combines science, the esoteric and occult, and the mystical.

Sex is great and awesome as much as possible with consenting parties, free love 3.0. The incoming culture knows much more about the political arena (and not what comes sold on TV, or hired out to speechwriters and/or lobbyists). The incoming culture knows the political game and are not only playing it when the need presents itself (i.e., when one of the outgoing culture exits stage left), but are satirizing, criticizing, scrutinizing, and parodying the game. They know and understand the lingo and jargon and they have hawk eyes that see through the drivel. Creativity abounds and is nourished (oddities are accepted and oftentimes poached by corporations).

The status quo of the outgoing culture has ended, supplanted by the incoming culture and their more eastern-influenced and indigenous ideals. The new maxim might become “Come One Come All, Just Don’t Be A Douchebag”.

“Each epoch continues the evolution of information through a paradigm shift to a further level of ‘indirection.’ (That is, evolution uses the results of one epoch to create the next.)”

Image Credits (all used with permission through CC license)–
(in order of appearance)
“Planet 8000 background” by Courtney Rhodes
“Web 2.0 Digitage 2012” by Maureen Flynn-Burhoe
“Euphoria” by HartwigHKD
“Eole Airlines” by Eole Wind
“From another dimension” & “Dematerialization” by HartwigHKD
“TL;DR” by Skinned Mink

*Quotes by Ray Kurzweil

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