Three-Phase Cycle of Giambattista Vico

Description

As updated by Barry Kort (MoultonLava) in the context of the emergence of the internet:

"There is a paradigm shift that has been emerging with the introduction of the Internet into human culture.

For the past four or five thousand years, humans have adopted a Rule-Based Model for socio-political self-regulation.

Sometimes the rules were said to come from Divine Sources, as expounded and promulgated by Monarchs or Theologians. Giambattista Vico noted a 3-phase cycle among a triumvirate of authorities.

The Viconian cycle consists of three recurring phases:

• (1) The Theocratic or Divine Age, represented in primitive society by the family life of the cave, to which the thunderous voice of God has driven mankind;

• (2) The Aristocratic or Heroic Age, characterized by incessant conflict between the ruling patricians and their subject plebeians;

• (3) The Democratic Age, in which rank and privilege have finally been eradicated by the revolutions of the preceding age.

Currently, we are ensnared in the Fourth Age, as anticipated by Vico, and as explicated by any number of modern sources:

(4) The Chaotic Age, characterized by the bewildering collapse of democratic society, which is inherently dysfunctional and therefore riddled with a panoply of hellish and baffleplexing problems: conflict, violence, oppression, injustice corruption, poverty, ignorance, alienation, abuse, despair, suffering, and terrorism.

The resolution of this nightmare age of unrelenting chaos is to evolve to the Fifth Age where we master the art of taming the ill-mannered recursion laws that define and characterize the Chaotic Age:

(5) The Cybernetic Age, in which the otherwise mind-boggling math of recursive loops is tamed and tuned to gracefully converge to the long-dreamed-of Omega Point.

To emerge from the Chaotic Age and evolve into the Cybernetic Age, we are going to have to conscientiously educate ourselves in the STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) with a concentrated effort to master the fractious mathematics of recursive systems.

The key to mastering the Fifth Age is to embrace the Fifth Discipline of Peter Senge. The key is to master Systems Thinking.

Once STEM fully integrates Systems Thinking into our tools for thought, we can then team up with Artists who can shape this work for public consumption as part of the evolving Canon of Western Media. Once STEM is teamed up with the Artistry, we’ll be on our way to the Cybernetic Age with a full head of STEAM." (https://moultonlava.blogspot.com/2018/07/paradigm-shift.html?)