If we were all telepathic, how would the world be different?
Imagining telepathy was difficult at first, until I realized that we might already almost be telepathic.
@ecoTrain hasn't let me down yet as far as getting me out of my comfort zone when I am answering the #ecoTrain question of the week.
Having my thoughts read
I asked myself "what if everyone can read my thoughts?" Fear and panic set in. My thoughts are my most prized assets and my most private place unless I choose to share them.
Speaking of comfort zones, that would be way out of my comfort zone. Would I re-define the rules by which I live my life? I would suddenly be so much more transparent.
Interesting that there is a correlation with what so many people are excited about with the blockchain. Transparency. Its good for the whole, yet when it comes to personal matters we aren't always excited about transparency.
So how would I overcome this fear of transparency of my thought? I imagine it would be somewhat like being naked in front of a crowd of people.
I would need to accept that the reality of my thought is transparent. I might have motivation to live to a higher standard, assuming that I would be judged by my thoughts.
Reading other people's thoughts
Now this is easier to fathom in a voyeuristic sort of way. I could probably get lost listening to peoples thoughts. I could learn a lot from those that are wiser than me. But how many thoughts would I have to hear? Perhaps I would flip through the channels from person to person filtering through the clutter until I found something reasonably interesting.
But my own mind is at time cluttered and I am already trying to filter through that. How is this helpful to know how much mind clutter there is out there?
Perhaps reading other's thoughts would be like having a mirror. It would give me the chance to understand how that clutter can affect my own mind. To hear another's thoughts could be like stepping out of my mind.
In that world I might be able to improve on myself, my beliefs and my intellect by learning from others' thoughts. But then again maybe I would just end up addicted to channel surfing.
We're all reading each others' thoughts
This is getting more interesting because we're all in the same boat. We're all naked together. We're all transparent together.
What would that be like? We would all know that at any time anyone can read our thoughts. Would we all be motivated to have angelic thoughts all of the time? Or would we all see that we all have shadow thoughts which would lead to acceptance of those shadows?
Would great thoughts go viral? When there is a good thought found would we keep thinking about it until enough people are thinking about it?
Maybe this would lead to something like the Borg where we are more of a collective consciousness. From our own perspective this sounds horrible because we value individualism, but from the Borg's perspective, this sounds great!
Would that world look like more of the same where people are consuming the same information and entertainment?
Is telepathy transmission of emotions?
Maybe telepathy is more about emotions and feelings than it is about thoughts. We could know what pain or suffering feels like without experiencing it first hand, like grieving for the death of a loved one. Or we could know the feeling of the excitement of accomplishing a life goal after 20 years of pursuit. Or we could know what someone else's jealousy or bitter resentment feels like.
I like to imagine that we would have greater tools for discovering empathy for others in ourselves. Could we possibly use telepathy to discover how similar different people can be through experiencing the same emotions first hand?
What would a more empathetic world look like? It would be more compassionate.
Maybe there are filters
We can probably all agree that the easiest form of telepathy to swallow would be one where we can choose what thoughts or emotions we share and who we share them with.
There is a mental switch we could pull to allow or shut off transmission of thoughts. Its like mental telephone calls. Hopefully there are not too many thoughts coming in at once because it would sound like a noisy room!
For one this would break down the need for telecommunication companies. We would have less reliance on technology for communications that we consider necessary for our life and our livelihoods.
If you could attach emotion, sight and sound to telepathy we could travel long distances and experience a new place instantly. If you opened a telepathy channel for me I could see and hear everything you do. This could be a whole new industry of tourism waiting to happen.
In general I think that we are already headed in this direction with technology.
All but the most private and mundane thoughts are spilled over the interwebs such as twitter, youtube, even here on steemit.
I take that back. Countless private and mundane thoughts are spilled on the interwebs except for those people who filter them out before they interact online.
I am starting to wonder if the telepathic world would be so different than the world we are heading towards.
Information is the new currency, but at the same time information is cheap. It is everywhere. We can find thoughts on just about any subject or idea that we want.
We can find people interested in talking to us about just about any subject we are interested in.
Perhaps telepathy would be more of the same but just a lot less clicking and typing and staring at screens.
Wow that is a great argument for getting a computer chip implanted in my brain that I can control with my thoughts! Then I could send my thoughts via SMS to my friend without having to stoop over a mobile phone or stare at a laptop screen.
The only difference between that and the telepathy I was imagining before is one requires technology and the other does not.
One is science fiction and the other is not (yet).
Get ready, telepathy is coming! Maybe not for a few years yet... but it's coming. Google glass was one step in that direction. Blockchain is another. Next is AI.
What does a world with telepathy look like? Actually it is not so hard to imagine now that we have high speed internet and tiny portable wireless communication devices.
Who is @sagescrub?
I am a ex-suburbanite turned permaculture homesteader. Follow my journey and I will share what I know and am learning along the way. You can learn more about me in my re-introducing @sagescrub post. Wishing you abundance in your life!
Know that I am likely NOT an expert on the subjects I present. Please do your own research and be your own expert!
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Really a wonderful article. I believe we are already a collective consciousness. The point is we still don't know much about how to realize that. People with spiritual progression believe that they understand that already but I'm not quite sure about it.
I believe not just humans but the telepathic behavior is seen already in ants, bees and few other colonial species where the Queen and other authorities inside the colony controls the whole colony. The queen even decides which offspring she needs and produces that gender. Very interesting article.
Thanks @bala41288. I did not know there was telepathy in other species! That's incredible. It would be interesting to discover that we are all already a collective consciousness. But I would say that it feels right that we are all connected in a deeper way. I couldn't prove it scientifically but there are times when I just feel "connected". Is it all in my head? I like to believe that its not :)
good information thanks for sagescrub
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i like you post
good information
Hi, nice that i am able to read from you again, after a few days busy with my own staff, I will simply assume that people can read my mind, my thought from my post in social media, it is so obvious that what is inside my mind. so I am not afraid of being transparent in front of my friend and colleges (not literally naked, LOL). btw I have posted the challenge on comment section (freedom challenge post)
That is a good way of looking at it... not all of us are comfortable to share all of our mind... if you can do it, more power to you! I am striving to be more open in my life, it is not in my nature to be 100% open... but I am much more transparent than I used to be.
awesome thoughts sagescrub, i found myself nodding aloud and giggling at many of your reflections. you were so on point!! and the natural progression of how being telepathic would feel from fear and shock, to feeling exposed, to feeling empathetic and then "all in it together" was really cool.
that's definitely interesting. the idea that we gauge our lives based on the current norms and values. if more were exposed about ourselves and we couldn't hide or shelter differing aspects of ourselves through the filter of our words, how would we act? definitely good food for thought!
Good point @mountainjewel! Maybe I should assume everyone is telepathic but me and see what changes in my thought patterns :)
I really liked your article is incredible. Excellent work. I am curious to know what is on the minds of other people. ;)
Haha curiosity is good... if it was the rules we all lived by and look into other thoughts, how interesting and educational it would be. Maybe then it wouldn't be voyeuristic!
Great answer @sagescrub, we did talk about similar things and we brought up a lot of questions also, it is hard to imagine how everyone would react to being telepathic and what direction it would take us in, their are both positive and negative aspects, You are right that we are not that far away from it now because of technology. But it would be nice to have more communication away from screens.
I think that day is coming too.. when we will have holograms that we can move and interact with our whole body... then we will look back and wonder how we could hunch over these antiquated screens!
This was a very interesting read. I like how you associated being naked with being telepathic because yeah, I feel that way too- if anyone can ready anybody's thoughts, he is actually exposed to that person and is naked.
I wondered if we were all telepathic, or all naked, then it must be true we would all get used to it sooner or later and it would become normal. But I can't imagine it and I know I would resist it!