For most people, living in this era of technological evolution at an exponential rate means trying to keep up with the ongoing alterations of their favorite apps — oftentimes unaware of their technological potential. For less people, our technological advancement awakens a passionate involvement, and an attempt to nudge it into a direction that makes everyone else aware too.
I consider myself to be a part of the second group of people, all the while combining this involvement with my spiritual evolution. I am living proof of the many ways technology and spirituality can be mixed.
The channels through which I keep myself informed, enlighten me about the incredible possibilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI), about the discoveries to hack our DNA and make it near ‘malleable’, but also about how Big Tech (Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple) are under pressure, and, more specifically, how that pressure is waking people up to the power they have — or wish to have — in the use of the Internet and related technology.
Part of the pressure on Big Tech comes from the use of blockchain, and the many ways in which this transparent technology can be used, as we are only just beginning to discover. My favorite part about this discovery is that this type of technology, by its own nature, creates awareness about what happens to/with the part any contributor (you, the service provider) adds to it. That’s what I love about blockchain: the whole deal is ‘in your face’. If you’d call on my assistance as a Social Media Shaman, and we’d use blockchain for the transaction, then the service is still between you and me — no other party (bank, credit card company, you name it) would get involved. Moreover, the transaction takes place IN THE MOMENT.
As much as living in the moment may seem to have become another crazy, overly hyped concept — thanks to the marketization of books like Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now, and the concept of mindfulness-turned-to-capitalization — it is still what I do.
From moment to moment, I am aware of my being present in it — or not. Because, yes, my mind flutters too. I also visit memories from the past, and I also picture a possible future. But I do this with the full awareness that I can only visit either past or future IN THIS MOMENT. So, whatever I portray in my mind, whichever movie I choose to play before my mind’s eye, I realize that I can only create said movie in the HERE AND NOW. Therefore, my memories are seen from the perspective I have NOW, and the unlimited options of my future ( a matter of quantum mechanics) are limited by my the point of view I choose NOW.
Now here’s where it gets REALLY intriguing.
For reasons I have comprehensively explained in previous blog posts (such as here and here), I am not the biggest fan of marketing, at least not the way it has been executed over the past 100 years (speaking of the past…). Today, however, a beautiful chain of synchronized events (a message request on Instagram; my research into the applicant; an article link on the applicant’s website) provided me with a different view on that same industry. These are the words, written by Joel Comm, that made me come to terms with the marketing industry’s promising potential:
“Decentralized, blockchain marketing is based on what someone is doing at that particular moment.”
Okay, that’s a bit too much ‘block’, and too little ‘chain’ for you to get it. Here’s more context to that sentence:
“ …current marketing depends on knowing what a user has done in the past. Facebook, Google and other companies track what we do on the Web and try to predict what we want to do in the future based on the data they’ve collected about us.
Decentralized, blockchain marketing is based on what someone is doing at that particular moment. Instead of giving rewards in the form of discounts, offers, and content to people in return for their data, a blockchain is in the perfect position to reward participation now.
It already does this. Bitcoin miners receive Bitcoins when they write blocks of transactions into the blockchain. Other blockchains, though, could give tokens to people for sharing content or for completing a level in a game or for making a post. Those tokens can help to motivate real purchases.
And again, it’s already happening.
Never Stop Marketing has compiled a long list of companies now active in blockchain-based marketing ventures. […]
What each of these companies does-and there are many more working in the same space-is reward users for using their product, instead of for giving up their data. They can also keep track of content, a benefit for content creators who are worried about the Internet’s habit of stealing and sharing intellectual property.”
Granted, the in-the-moment kind of marketing, as described above, is still a long way from my practice of in-the-moment-living. That’s why I call it the industry’s POTENTIAL. It COULD go towards a way of advertising that is more based on synchronicity, on love & compassion if you will, and less based on the fear of missing out on business opportunities.
No matter how spiritual my point of view, I am alive in an era where technology is thriving. Yet, I also notice a growing awareness that there is more to life than just the material existence we experience.
It’s moments like these, where I get to discover another piece of humanity’s movement into a more ‘present’ existence, that excite me the most. As I have given myself the exciting task of building a bridge between spirituality and technology, I can only execute that task on a moment to moment basis. And indeed, there are many moments where that execution is less clear. Not today, though, not now. NOW it is crystal clear to me, and I wish it to be more clear for you too — in the MOMENT that you are reading and/or pondering about this.
So, dear reader, whether you work in the marketing industry or are on the receiving end of their business, here’s my point in a more concrete way:
Advertise — by all means do. But take note of our global technological evolution, and do try and keep up too. You are being invited to do business in a TRANSPARANT way — we all are. We are all being invited to raise our (online) awareness, by letting readers and receivers know who we are, why we wish to buy or sell, and what kind of transaction will be involved. Not yesterday, not tomorrow, but NOW. That’s not only spiritual, it’s above all realistic.
Originally published at https://paulinesiebers.com on September 6, 2019.
