How to occupy the noosphere | Ian MacKenzie | TEDxVictoria

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

An ardent filmmaker and media activist, Ian MacKenzie is dedicated to capturing and sharing glimpses of emerging human paradigms. MacKenzie's most recent film, "Occupy Love," explores the growing realization that the dominant systems of power are failing to provide us with health, happiness, or meaning. Ian feels the resulting crisis from the 2008 stock market crash has become a catalyst for a profound awakening.

The first time I saw this mask
was in the 2006 film "V for Vendetta."

The film starred Natalie Portman
with a shaved head

and Hugo Weaving
who played a masked vigilante.

Set in dystopian London in the year 2020,

the character wore this mask
to hide his identity

as he sought to attempt a repeat
of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605

when Guy Fawkes
along with fellow conspirators

attempted to blow up
the London Parliament buildings.

The plot failed when an anonymous letter
was sent to the authorities

warning them of the attack.

When they searched
the catacombs of Parliament,

they found Guy Fawkes
guarding 36 barrels of explosives.

He was promptly questioned,
tortured, and sentenced to death.

On the day of his execution,
as he walked the steps to the gallows,

Guy threw himself
from the staircase breaking his neck.

Nevertheless, his lifeless body
was drawn and quartered,

and for hundreds of years,
the English would mock his failure

wearing his face every fifth of November.

Two years after "V for Vendetta"'s
release, in 2008,

the mask was adopted
by the hacker group "Anonymous"

as they carried out cyber attacks against
corrupt governments and corporations.

In 2011, when the Occupy movement
burst onto the streets of New York,

Guy Fawkes was everywhere,
appearing in places like Egypt

(Laughter)

London,

Brazil,

and Turkey.

My grandmother calls
these masks kind of creepy

(Laughter)

and it's true.

They harbor a sense of chaos
or refusal to submit

to the acceptable order
of the modern world.

But for others, the masks represent
an icon of popular rebellion,

a willingness to stand up
with peoples around the world

and to fight against injustice.

I wondered a big question of myself,

"How does the face
of a 17th century revolutionary

end up as the most recognizable
symbol of protest in the 21st?"

Kalle Lasn is the founder
of "Adbusters" magazine.

Last year, I found myself in his office
speaking about the Occupy movement.

Inspired by the occupation
of Tahrir Square, Egypt,

his team came up with
the ♪occupywallstreet,

and the poster of the ballerina
perched atop the bull.

The familiar words emblazoned above,
"What is our one demand?'"

and below, "September, 17th.
Bring tent."

(Laughter)

Hundreds heeded the call
and proceeded to, you know, occupy.

The gathering dominated the airwaves,

an epic drama filled with
powerful images and emerging heroes.

Everyone seemed to have an opinion,

but no one seemed to know
what did they actually want.

On October, 15th,
the Occupy movement spread

[Occupy Earth]

with over 150 encampments
sprouting up around the world

including right here in Victoria.

One month later, at dawn,
on November, 15th,

New York police forcibly evicted
the Wall Street encampment.

A coordinated crackdown followed
soon after in cities across North America.

Back at "Adbusters" with Kalle Lasn,

I asked him where the movement
should go next.

"It's a mindbomb," he told me,
"not a traditional movement."

A mindbomb is a powerful idea
that catches fire

spreading from person to person,
culture to culture.

He confessed the Occupy movement
was a wild idea among many.

This one just happened to work,
taking him by surprise, more than anyone.

You may be familiar with another word
to describe a viral idea.

The word is "meme.'

Coined by evolutionary biologist,
Richard Dawkins, in the 70s

the term refers to a unit
of cultural transmission

that requires the use of replicators
in order to survive and evolve.

Memes propagate by spreading through us

from one host to another,
each time modified, adapted, and remixed.

According to Kalle Lasn,

there's a war going on,
and it's being fought with memes.

The battlefield

is the noosphere.

In 1911, Ukrainian scientist,
Vladimir Vernadsky,

coined the term "noosphere"

to describe the third stage
of evolutionary development on the planet.

First, there is the geosphere,
the layer of minerals around the globe.

Then, the biosphere,
the layer of organic life,

and now, the noosphere,

the sphere of human thought
that shapes our world.

This is a neurological map
of the human brain.

This is a map of the Internet.

Both structures are remarkably similar.

The first depicting
a single human consciousness,

the other, our global consciousness.

This

(Laughter)

is the rapper PSY,

creator of the smash
hit ' "Gangnam Style."

On December 21st, 2012,

which some consider
to be the day of the apocalypse,

(Laughter)

or the rapture,

the video for "Gangnam Style"
crossed one billion views on YouTube

making it the most popular video ever.

Millions around the world
mimicked to the dance,

and no, I'm not going to do it here.

(Laughter)

Well...

(Laughter)

I ask you to consider
"Gangnam Style" is a powerful meme.

"Occupy Wall Street" is a powerful meme,

but a certain type of meme,

a mindbomb.

It was a moment sparked by the revolutions
in Tunisia, Egypt, and Spain,

but remixed into something different.

This was difficult
for mainstream media to understand.

In fact, it took "The Rolling Stone"
40 days of the occupation

before they finally got it.

The reporter wrote,
"If there was such a thing

as going on strike from one's
own culture, this is it."

I visited Wall Street in October 2011,
and what I found surprised me.

I saw a thriving human space
filled with music, and art, dialogue,

sparkle fingers, and beauty
in all its forms.

I saw willingness for people to sit down
and look each other face to face.

This is one of my favorite signs.

It says, "I love humanity!
Let's figure this shit out together."

(Laughter)

Yes, I also saw a shadow, I saw
unresolved pain and wounding.

I saw general assemblies derailed.
I saw anger, and I saw sadness.

But through it all,
I recognized the mindbomb.

The challenges facing our world
are vast and complex

from climate change
to economic instability

to environmental collapse.

No one knows how to fix things:

not our politicians, our scientists,
or our business elites.

The dominant culture has no landing gear.

The mainstream view of human nature
says that you're an independent being

in an indifferent universe driven
to maximize your own self-interest

and that ultimately,
you're out for yourself.

It's no wonder people feel paralyzed,
or overwhelmed, and indifferent.

After all, if the problem lies
at the very core of our DNA,

that humans are flawed,

then what is the point
of trying to save us?

"Occupy Wall Street"
told a very different story.

Let me say this clearly,

"There is nothing wrong with you."
There is nothing wrong with humans.

In fact, a message of "Occupy Wall Street"

is that our challenges are cultural,
our challenges are structural.

We are the 99%,
and we can choose to create

a more beautiful world
that works for the 100%.

This is love: it is not a feeling;
love is an action.

Love is what I saw emerge

at "Occupy Wall Street"
and in the movement since

from the "Maple Spring" to "Idle No More"
to "Occupy Gezi" and beyond.

We are prototyping
a new collective organism

that wants to be born.

But we are not there yet.

Now let us try an experiment.

If we had one shot,
what is the ultimate mindbomb

that we could craft and release
into the noosphere?

I am not talking about revolution.

This is metamorphosis.

Now, you lovely people all sitting here,
especially you up there,

I thank you for your attention.

But you and I both know the full potential
for this talk is when it's posted online.

Therefore, I'm also speaking
to those people watching it

on their computer, or tablet,
on their phones.

The most powerful way
to transmit memes is through story.

So let me tell you a story.

Billions of years ago,
there was only darkness,

then, in a single moment,
universe explodes into light,

stars, planets, galaxies,

and after an incredibly long time,
sentient life emerges:

bacteria, troglodytes, dinosaurs,
mammals, me and you.

Over millions of years,
we build our societies,

we weave our cultures,
we tell our stories.

There are peoples who keep
within the bounds of life,

and peoples who push beyond them.

Fire, swords, ploughs, steam engines,
airplanes, computers, the Internet.

And finally, today,
climate change is happening.

The Sixth great extinction is underway.

All of life hangs in the balance.

If I could offer a single mindbomb

synthesized from the front lines
of the emerging paradigm,

it would be this.

[Love is a mindbomb]

We are not a mistake.

Life wanted humans in the world,

but while this moment was inevitable,
our survival is not.

You are here for a reason.

The very fact of your existence
is proof enough.

You have a necessary
and important gift to offer the world.

Now is the time to be courageous.

Now is the time
to offer your gifts in service.

If you don't know what your gifts are,
keep exploring, follow your bliss, yes,

but follow your fear,
follow your uncertainty,

and follow your heartbreak.

From the emerging paradigm
we recognize we are all interdependent.

Everyone of us reflects
the fractal nature of the whole.

You don't have to save the world alone.

Treat every action as significant

and tap into
the acausal process of change.

This is the realm of synchronicity

where the events of your life align
according to a mysterious intelligence.

This is the emergence.

Love is the mindbomb.

Now, let's occupy the noosphere together.

Thank you.

(Applause)