Vince Horn: Networks
[Editor: I invite you to listen to the latest podcast by Vincent Horn of Buddhist Geeks: the Dharma of the Network:]
From Networkologies by Chris Vitale:
“Everything is connected.” “All is One.” “The One in the Many, the Many in the One.” In today’s digital hypermodernity, these insights, found in many ancient traditions around the world, are often reduced to sound-bite mantras. And yet, defying the seeming linearity of time and history, these notions now seem to haunt us, uncannily, not merely from the past, but also from the future. For our world today really is more connected, and more so by the day. While few would deny this, it also seems clear that this new connectedness is happening in a manner quite different from what many had predicted.
Although all truly is becoming one, this new connectedness is far from unitary. Rather, it is fractal, multiplying in layers within layers of burgeoning complexity. We live in an age of radical differentiations, cascades and crashes, decentralized affiliations and baroque complexifications, all of which shatter as they recompose and destroy as they create. It is as if we woke up one day, and suddenly all the points in the world had burst into webs, all the straight lines into nets of wires, and all the planes and volumes revealed textured layerings of branchings within branchings. Nothing is what it seemed it would be.”
Vitale, Christopher. Networkologies: A Philosophy of Networks for a Hyperconnected Age – A Manifesto (p. 2). John Hunt Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Vitale, Christopher. Networkologies: A Philosophy of Networks for a Hyperconnected Age – A Manifesto (p. 2). John Hunt Publishing. Kindle Edition.
I discovered Christoper Vitale‘s writing after doing a google search on the “philosophy of networks.” At the time I had recently started doing the Buddhist Geeks podcast again and had formulated a new tagline for the project: Dharma in the Age of the Network. I wanted to dive deeper into what networks are, not in a specific sense (of say a “computer network”), but in more general & philosophical terms.
What I discovered in Chris’ writing was a clear philosophy of networks, and a generalized way to under what is common among all networks. I was also somewhat shocked to find that he had studied Buddhist philosophy in Nepal and had several articles on his personal site about dharma & networks!
In this episode, which was originally a prep call, we explore the very interesting relationship between Buddhist philosophy & networks, and discuss some of the topics related to his Networkologies project. Look for more from Christopher on Buddhist Geeks soon!
Memorable Quotes:
“All the binaries start coming down when you start thinking in terms of networks, because there’s nothing binary about a network, nothing dualist.” – Christopher Vitale
“Consciousness is just what happens when really complicated matter feels itself from the inside. That’s what a brain is.” – Christopher Vitale
Episode Links:
- 📖”Networkologies” : A Philosophy of Networks for a Hyperconnected Age
- 📰Buddhism Beyond Buddhism : Reimagining Tibetan Buddhism as Virtual Praxis for the Networked Age
- 🔗The Santa Fe Institute
- 🔗Pratītyasamutpāda (‘interconnectedness’)
- 🔗Madhyamaka
- 🔗Graph theory
- 🔗Panpsychism
- 🔗Sreedevi Bringi
Engage! 
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