Enlightenment II: Electric Boogaloo
Although tough to pin down exactly, the Second Enlightenment was the historical event that is generally accepted as occurring during the years 2011 – 2020. This was a time where the mass of humanity was only then realizing the amazing power of their ideas. Information had become the environment they were evolving to fit, and yet they were only then noticing that the landscape was moving faster than they could adapt to it. Exhausted, humanity stepped back a minute and collectively caught their breath.
Politics
Because Punctuated Equilibrium was designed to be a place where people would discuss big ideas, the need for memetic variation was important. No -isms were directly attached to the page, although the posts by Gee-off definitely had biases of a more liberal-agnostic-Daoist slant. Disagreement was encouraged in the comments section, with only these rules: be civil and respectful. Civil discourse from most of the political spectrum of the internet occurred on this lowly page, causing a ripple effect. Waves of respectful debate crashed out into the world.
The Meaning Behind the Name
Gee-off borrowed the term punctuated equilibrium from the evolutionary theory advanced by Niles Eldredge and Steven J. Gould. This theory states that a species could remain in a static equilibrium state where little evolutionary advancement is made, but then it is suddenly “punctuated” by a change in the environment, causing rapid evolution in the species to meet that change. Gee-off believed:
"Humanity became what it is during a period of 3 million years, where our brains tripled in size. Three million years is nothing in evolutionary terms. In the last 50,000 to 100,000 years, humans have stayed relatively unchanged physically, but have made amazing leaps and bounds culturally and technologically. Even in the 150 years since On the Origin of Species was published, humanity has been evolving in the memetic realm at a pace totally unprecedented in the history of the world."
2012 and Beyond
It was after December 21, 2012, the last day of the Mayan calendar and the expected date for many apocalyptic theories, that humanity really leaped forward. The day came and went with the only problems being people who freaked out about their impending doom and created small self-fulfilled prophesies. For the most part, however, humanity got through the event like they did for Y2K: uneventfully. On December 22nd, the world, most of which was hung-over, sat and reflected about their lives. With the biggest impending doom come and gone without even a blip (and a pretty awesome party) throughout the world, they had nothing huge to fear anymore and began to think about the shapes of their lives and how they weren't quite right. The Collective Memetic Adjustment began.
An Alternate Timeline
Gee-off revealed in later interviews that he started the blog, not out of a need to verbally masturbate all over the face of the internet, but in an effort to save mankind. He gave as evidence this video:
Although seemingly a comedic parody of the internet, he insisted this was a “prophesy handed down by the soothsayers at Those Aren't Muskets.” Not being the type to want to destroy something simply because it has the potential to cause harm, he instead advocated another path.
"I believe there is another way to avoid our impending cultural doom. We don't have to destroy the internet in the cradle, like a time-traveling infanticidal Hitler-assassin. We can make it better. As a relatively new invention, it is still in its childhood/teen phase. We just have to nurture our little internet into a healthy, functioning adult."
And with that, Punctuated Equilibrium was born.
