Metacrisis & Superorganism
INsights 081, Friday 20th June 2025
Metacrisis & Superorganism
INsights 081, Friday 20th June 2025
Corruption has spread on land and sea as a result of what people have done, for God to make them taste some of the results of their actions, so that they might return.
Chapter 30 | Verse 41
On very rare occasions, I think to myself: God bless the algorithm!
That happened most recently when I came across a YouTube video entitled: Daniel Schmachtenberger l An introduction to the Metacrisis
Daniel who?
Meta what?
That's what I thought.
I clicked... I watched... it blew my mind... and then for a few intense days I was transported down a most blessed rabbit hole.
Why did I find all this so impactful?
In broad terms, it's because for me the biggest buzz is in being challenged, having my mind expanded and feeling my perspective getting sharper and more integrated.
At any point in time, on any given question, I have a thesis, a way of seeing the world and understanding truth.
Then I get confronted with antithesis, another way of seeing the world and understanding truth.
Then if I work through the tension and the friction I achieve synthesis, a better way of seeing the world and more deeply understanding truth.
Then life goes on until the cycle repeats.
At times, this has been an incredibly stressful and challenging process.
I've been at breaking point on several occasions.
But whenever I really turn to God to help me bring it all together, He's always done so.
The resolution, the release, the realisation are phenomenal blessings.
This is the - often painful - internal process behind all the work I do.
Anyway, I'll elaborate on my cerebral and emotional dramas another time.
But for now, I want to leave you with my main thoughts after seeing the video I mentioned above and another shorter one called The Superorganism Explained.
1. It's super easy to forget just how close we have collectively brought ourselves to the possibility of catastrophic / existential risk as human beings. Most individuals might feel as though they're going about their business and contributing minimally, if at all, to widespread, macro crises. But that's precisely the problem. Somehow, we've found ourselves in a situation where we're collectively heading to an outcome that no individual could possibly consider desirable.
2. The human superorganism concept frames human civilisation as a single, interconnected system that optimises for energy and financial surplus. This system, driven by the collective actions of billions of individuals, behaves in ways that resemble a biological organism, though not necessarily for sustainable or beneficial outcomes. The superorganism prioritises growth and power, often at the expense of ecological balance and long-term wellbeing.
3. But it doesn't have to be this way if the heart of the superorganism - i.e. the sum total of the internal states of the billions of humans that comprise the superorganism - is fixed. This connects to the notion of the metacrisis: not just a set of global, interconnected outward crises such as environmental degradation, inequality, injustice and conflict... but also an understanding that connects all these problems to deeper, internal human problems at the level of the psyche or the soul.
I got a much better appreciation of just how much our ability to be effective in our work depends heavily on our ability to deeply diagnose the problems at hand and to integrate the mention of our worldview at both the highest and deepest levels into our conversations on urgent problems and appropriate solutions. If you want to apply the text of past revelation, you sure as heaven better understand the context of the current situation... and be ready to explain the wisdoms and the principles that sit beneath your strategy.
4. The fact that new narratives and movements are emerging with this all-encompassing frame is both extremely refreshing but also humbling. It's refreshing because more and more people out there are sincerely challenging the status quo and pointing to the fact that our collective loss of meaning and connection to the sacred and the divine is at the heart of our problems. Hardcore atheism and materialism have started to wane because human beings are simply designed in such a way that makes those propositions totally unsustainable.
What's humbling is the fact that, from what I can tell so far, the people who seem to be at the forefront of the more positive narratives and building relevant organisations are rooted either in Christianity, or Eastern traditions such as Buddhism and Taoism, or simply their essential human nature: spiritual but not religious. Mostly their words and actions come across in a non-dogmatic fashion and align very closely with the need to smash false gods and connect people in recognition of The One. Frankly, I welcome such contributions that are based on universal concern and are communicated in universal language. But the big question is: Where are we in all this?!
I have definitely emerged from this rabbit hole with an even greater conviction that our current insular, tribal approach of simply "serving the Muslim community" whilst having no deep concern for society at large is utterly flawed and will be ultimately self-defeating. Greatness will not emerge from ghettoisation.
5. I hope to model this approach much better myself going forward. Whilst not taking anything away from the work I want to continue doing within our community, I am going to be making extra efforts to build connections and alliances with others in this emerging ecosystem. I see this as hugely synergistic because God knows that one thing we need to do so much better is engage more faithfully and thoughtfully with potential allies across society. We need to build bridges such that we can learn from others and we can help others learn and encounter our ideas and take our value proposition seriously.
We really have to stop seeing everyone else as "non-Muslim" and start seeing them as potential believers. This is true prophetic compassion and no, it doesn't have to involve or equate to naivety in the slightest. Apart from gender, most things in life are non-binary!
Please do take the time to learn directly from the two videos and challenge yourself to think how you can more effectively engage and expand your networks to bring more people closer to a heaven on earth, away from the hell that we're heading for, and closer to heaven full-stop.
Daniel Schmachtenberger l An introduction to the Metacrisis ~45mins
The Superorganism Explained ~10mins
Until next time.
Peace.
Iqbal
~~~
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