Ep. 3 - Humanity (Bee Mayhew)

Our THIRD episode of Existential Tetherball is our FIRST episode with a guest! We're so stoked to have Bee Mayhew (https://missnomer.substack.com/) join us on an expansive co-exploration of "humanity." To start, we dive into foundational definitions of humanity, taking the time to parse subject from judgment/imbued definitions of value. Bee also tells us a really funny story about getting hit in the face with a tetherball when she was a kid. Rachel, Bee, and Gordon go on to discuss: sense of self, meta-identity of self and self as interrelatedness, as well as interrelateness beyond the "individual" – humanity as a collective of humans, humaning (in what context/s)? From there, Bee introduces concepts of ecology and stigmergy, nodding to bees and ants and their intelligent collective coordination. The triad riffs. From there, it gets weirder (and more awesome?) as Rachel applies the idea of stigmergy to the ecosystemic self (and through time). Gordon then goes on to connect this idea to the internalized collective unconscious. We all take a breath and laugh about how to spell "metric shitton." (Shitonne?) And there's more: dynamic living systems, stewardship of aliveness, and core values as human yet unique in their meaning and context – pragmatic to explore together, no? ::winkyfaceemoji:: Allegiance to aliveness, stigmergy (collective coordination), and community emerge as key takeaways. The conversation delves into the concept of ethical social intelligence and its impact on humanity, exploring healthy individuation and the reimagining of societal systems through a paradigm that honors the influenced-influencing process. The conversation concludes with a focus on giving a shit, self-attunement, reciprocity, and connections as essential elements of a thriving society. Takeaways Fundamental Question: Who are We? Morality and Collective Self Concept Allegiance to Aliveness Stigmergy and Collective Coordination Ethical Social Intelligence Healthy Individuation for Healthy Collective (nod to Neurodiversity) Chapters 00:00 Interrelatedness and Self-Understanding 19:03 The Internal Collective Unconscious and Dynamic Systems 24:16 Stewardship of Aliveness and Core Values 29:25 Ethical Social Intelligence 40:08 Reimagining Societal Systems 51:45 Community Resilience and Reciprocity The video Bee mentions in this episode: https://substack.com/@sequencebycosmos/note/c-197456719?r=4n4qq