Civilizational tech stack

In a lecture on world history, Forall said that it was Zoroaster who first described the world as a battle between good and evil. Before Zoroaster, it was not obvious to anyone that the world might be considered in this way, or that a religion based on such a view might become so powerful. For us, this worldview is so deeply inculcated that we align naturally around it whenever the opportunity arises. It is not actually that we explicitly believe it – though many people do – it is that we so quickly act according to it when the opportunity arises.

Forall says that views are near the base of the “civilizational technology stack”. Our civilization’s institutions, policies, cultural norms, economic structures, and general ways of living are driven by shared views. Some of those views, like the battle between good and evil, are very old; some are relatively new. If you try to change a civilization without changing these basic views then you won’t make a difference, because all these high level things will just snap back into place when you stop pushing on them.

Forall uses the words “prior to” in an unusual way. He says that views are prior to behavior. If you cling to a view, and don’t know it, and try to change something that is generated by that view, then you won’t get very far. The important thing is to see the impact of views in our world, and to see how deep down they go. If you look, you will see that cause and effect travels in both directions: views cause certain things, and are also caused by certain things, and those things themselves are both causes and effects. What is important is to see views plainly, as a place to intervene for the benefit of all beings, not to miss them or take them for granted.

A view that pervades the modern world is materialism. A recent version of this is the claim that the world is a mathematical object that evolves according to some kind of natural law, and that our lived experience arises as a byproduct of that. According to this view, we are here because of the physical process of natural selection, and our moment-to-moment experience grounds out as the physical machinations of the brain. This view suggests that the experience of “having a purpose” is a byproduct of the brain — a kind of trick arising ultimately from natural selection and the reproductive expediency of believing that there is true purpose. Forall says that if you believe in materialism, then even though you will watch yourself change the material world and make money in the process, you won’t actually make a difference, because you’re not operating at the base of the civlizational tech stack.

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