Then, sometime during the rugged conditions of the last great ice age - some thirty-five thousand years ago - physically evolved humans broke free of the limited consciousness of the animal kingdom with a decisive self-awareness lasting twenty-five thousand years.
With this initial awakening - a time of nomadic hunting and gathering - we entered an era that witnessed the manifestation and growth of language, art, trading networks, musical instruments and new tools of stone, wood and bone.
Then, roughly ten thousand years ago we began to develop a settled life in small villages that relied on subsistence agriculture. Farming consciousness arose, which measured time seasonally and cyclically. A relatively peaceful and simple village life endured for thousands of years.
Out of this lifestyle emerged the world's largest cities, which appeared between five and six thousand years ago.
Major civilizations arose around the world, and here we see the development of writing, division of labor, a priestly class, armies, slavery, religion, state governments, and massive architecture.
By the 1700s Europe's magical and mythical worldviews began giving way to an impersonal science and the analyzing intellect. There emerged a linear, forward-looking time-sense coupled with a materialistic view of reality, focused on a new era of progress. Technical innovations were accompanied by mass production, the development of massive urban centers and the rise of strong nation states.
In our current phase of development - given the pervasiveness of computers, televisions. telephones and satellite systems - people around the world are finding themselves joined via a "communications revolution."
This is occurring just in time to provide us with the option of entering into dialogue about how to cope with our interrelated systems of problems, which have arisen from the industrial/technical phase --- and which now threatens the existence of our species and the Biosphere. Elgin believes that with communications so widespread it can be possible to glimpse a shared vision of a sustainable future.
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Elgin also asserts that each phase is itself a "perceptual paradigm" in which we experience life to the limited degree that a given paradigm allows. He posits that:
"the invisible 'dimensional geometry' that structures physical space analogously structures psychological or perceptual space as an organizing framework."
Each new dimension or context is designed to call forth new potentials from us. As we perceive the possibilities inherent in each new dimension, we begin to actualize them, such that each provides new opportunities or learning contexts for individuals and societies to fill in with creative actions.
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