When I think of the behavioral change I am asking of myself, it’s clearly unfeasible without systems and methods of trying (and refining) various designs of those systems.
Everyone has the experience of having a goal that didn’t gain traction.
Sometimes, we might say that the goal wasn’t well-enough defined, and that’s the cause for a failure to launch. Other times, the situation has a mix of causes. We might add to ‘lack of definition’ a ‘lack of external reinforcement’. There is also one of my favorite challenges, the ‘constraints of being human’.
A person can truly only do so much with their body. Not to be crass, but it is worth considering the universal analogy here between computer limits and everyday human limits: just as we can draw some knowable limits of computer operation in principle (for example, desktop computers rarely go beyond 3Ghz speed, or 3 billion cycles per second), we can also draw some knowable limits of human operation in principle (for example, wildfire firefighters may consume 8,000 calories a day and still lose weight, or more generally, we never have more than 24 hrs in a day and probably less than 100 years to a lifespan).
These useful measures may dictate the possibility space of certain physical variables of the system—this computer’s maximum performance is such and such calculations per whatever unit of time and it will start to break down after ~3.672e+17 cycles*, this mammal heart’s maximum performance is generally beat 1 billion times—but they do not limit the character of the programs that might be run with that computer processor or the kinds of things that a person might do with their allotted heartbeats.
I would like to affirm that we probably are capable of quite a lot more in our everyday lives, and in a way that is inwardly peaceful and radiant in that same respect, by networking our heartbeats with systems that carry our intentions out beyond the limits of those heartbeats. Possible solutions, as I see it, will make good use of modern computational prowess yet will humbly be designed in a way that also makes good of modern cognitive prowess—particularly with our capacity to induce flow states.
The by-design cultivation of flow states toward purposes of highly complex problem solving and resilience building activities are two practically novel industries that may be ascendant in the very near future, catalyzed by AR technologies and advances in architecture (spurred not only by pandemic toss-up of work environments, but also advances in living building technologies).
How do I propose to do this? To start with the simplest experiments, find what is effective, and iterate.
Would you like to be part of an experiment in cultivating peace while making way for unprecedented human creativity? It can be as simple as trying this out to solve just one nagging everyday problem for yourself. Perhaps you often neglect to floss. This can help. Perhaps you want to write a book. This can help, this system I am developing to augment our intentions and make for a rich life everyday.
Just like with computers and how they can be useful in so many ways, the tool I am proposing to help us set conditions for the kind of deep work we are after here (wonderfully selfless (or expanded self) moments of creativity, timeless, effortless, and rich experiences) this same tool can be adapted to a great variety of purposes. It is rooted in first principles, and the general purpose interactive forms of it enable us to do a lot of things that would not otherwise be possible. Like evolving our routines over time.
That’s all for now.
* 3.672e+17 cycles = 367,200,000,000,000,000 cycles; calculated by assuming a well-cooled CPU chip that runs a busy average 3.4 billion cycles per second for 30 years; compare with 1,000,000,000 heartbeats over 78.93 years)