Awakening: Jason Silva on the Need For a New Narrative and For Us All “to Become Something More”

The events of the past 24 hours are yet another reminder that humanity is at a crossroads, suffering from an existential angst that manifests as horrifying attacks on our fellow humans. As our technology continues to rapidly advance, so too does our power to both harm and help each other – and so it is crucial that we start treading a higher path.

Jason Silva’s latest ‘shot of awe’ monologue (embedded below), is a rallying cry for a new narrative; and for us all to upgrade, to hack ourselves, “to become something more”:

We need to commune with the eternal, with the cosmos, in order to impregnate our life with meaning and signification. Now, religion used to provide this narrative, provide this existential blanket, right, blanketing us from the void by telling us we will live forever… But increasing sophistication, increasing scientific awareness and knowledge, and increasing intelligence has actually made us more anxious because these old narratives are no longer serving us.

Perhaps what we need is a different story…

The monologue revolves around the so-called ‘Overview Effect’ experienced by astronauts when they see the planet as a whole – for more on this topic, see this story we posted a few years back.

More Jason Silva monologues:

• Biology and Self-Organization
• Reality of the Virtual
• What is God?
• Technologies of Ecstasy
• Jason Silva Discusses ‘The Death Problem’
• Jason Silva – Existential Bummer
• Psychedelic Technology
• The Omega Point
• The Beginning of Infinity
• Mortality
• The Mirroring Mind