Search for Shangri-LA

Today's post has been inspired by my recent interest in the work of men like Graham Hancock and theories of lost human civlizations. It is widely accepted that the human race as we currently know it is at the pinnacle of it's progress and that our knowledge of the past has served all it's purpose in allowing us to stand on the shoulders of previous giants. What if we have missed something? Given the vast amount of time people have been around and the variety in communities around the world I don't think it is so outlandish to think that vital information or radically different world perspectives and ideologies could have been lost. Even if we are never to discover misplaced secrets of our past, sites like Stone Henge and Gobekli Tepe indicate that people have been sophisticated and successful in ways unknown to us. These mysteries should be ample motivation for us to try and broaden our horizons as much as possible, to try and create ideas outside of the mainstream. It seems to me that the concepts of the political left and right, the limiting scope of Capitalism vs. Communism etc. could all essentially amount to the micro, and perhaps it is a change in the macro which could provide real change and significant advancement. Technology would probably be the main front runner as a provider of the next leap forward, as the race for AI and maybe even the creation of cyborgs and the merging of man and machine has colossal implications for mankind. In addition to this, the shift away from Victorian like values and the fear of psychadelic and spiritual experiences will open many doors that have been rammed shut for years at the hands of arrogant politicians and religious leaders. The libertarian movement and mass education of the populace will only accelerate and move forwards as we all look for satisfaction and meaning in an ever more monotonous consumerist and quite narcissistic society. This is where the need for us to be humble comes into play, we must accept that we are nowhere near our full potential as a species and we must be honest enough to admit that the direction we have taken in many ways could be the wrong way. Our arrogance will only blind and hinder us and to discover the real truths we should not only try to learn as much as we can about civilizations of the past but also take this as inspiration and motivation to conceive of an alternate future, even if it seems impossible from the position and course we are currently set on.