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Neo-Tech (aka Neotech), defined as "fully-integrated honesty," is a philosophy originally developed by Dr. Frank R. Wallace (with later contributions by other writers) that claims to bring about a civilization "free of disease, mysticism, dishonesty, criminality, and irrationality" by eliminating mysticism from the world. It is held in Neo-Tech that mysticism is the highest enemy of human life, where "mysticism" is defined as "the acceptance of allegations without evidence or proof, either apart from or against the evidence of one's senses and one's reason" and "dishonesty that evolves from using feelings or rationalizations to generate mind-created 'realities'." Mysticism is said by Neo-Tech writers to be a "disease" of the mind, being described as "the dishonesty disease that creates problems where none exist".
Note: according to the online document Pax Neo-Tech, "Neo-Tech is neither a philosophy nor an ideology", but rather it is a tool which "provides future-predicting abilities". This article refers to Neo-Tech as philosophy for the sake of convention.
Neo-Tech as Neo-Objectivism
Eric Savage says, Objectivism "is the most powerful tool for identifying reality and acting rationally a person can have" and that with the foundation of Objectivism, "the world will prosper like never before once it learns how to think and act upon reality rather than upon mysticism, deception, and wishful thinking." However, he says "to fully realize this goal, the reality-based concepts of Objectivism must be combined with the fully integrated honesty, high-effort business mode of Neotech."Savage, Eric. Appendix VI, Objectivism:The Philosophy of Ayn Rand from Global Wealth Power (The Secrets of Generating Unlimit Wealth), Neo-Tech Publishing, 1997 Wallace says that Objectivism has an "an obstructionist leadership" that "demands "purity" before any new action can be taken," so that "it effectively blocks practical, wide-scope applications of Objectivism in most areas of human life and business. Those ever-tightening circles of purity kept everyone ignorant of the wider-scope visions needed to evolve Objectivism into a civilization for the entire planet." He says Neo-tech is "the business/application mode of Objectivism."Wallace, Frank R. Liberating Objectivism: The Liberation Manifesto from Zonpower for Riches from a New World, Zon Association, 1996 As a self-described "dynamic" form of objectivism, Neo-Tech departs from Randian Objectivism which it refers to as "static", in the following manner: {| class="wikitable"
It is held that:
- Business is how people most effectively use and manipulate Reality (all that exists). "Business is the highest evolution of consciousness, responsibility, and morality. No other living organism is even remotely able to function on a business level. The essences of business are honesty, effort, responsibility, integration, abstraction, conceptualization, objectivity, long-range planning, discipline, thought, control. Business creates essentially every major human value, ranging from the development of consciousness, language, mathematics, the arts, up to the electronic and biogenic revolutions" (Neo-Tech Discovery).
- Neothink is mysticism-free integration of knowledge. It is using Reason and information to arrive at bits of knowledge, then integrating those bits of knowledge into new knowledge. This process continues as those bits of new knowledge are then integrated with other bits of new knowledge thereby creating additional knowledge, and so on, ad infinitum. It is essential that mysticism is not involved in the process.
- Value Production is Self-interest put into action through Business dynamics --the creation of valuable goods and services resulting in personal wealth.
- Free Competition is the dynamic of acting within a capitalist or free-market framework. Eliminating one's personal mysticism and using Neothink helps one to maximize his capacity to outcompete others (especially effective in outcompeting those whose mentalities are ridden with mysticism).
Mysticism is defined in the same way it is defined in Objectivism. Ayn Rand defines it as "the acceptance of allegations without evidence or proof, either apart from or against the evidence of one's senses and one's reason. Mysticism is the claim to some non-sensory, non-rational, non-definable, non-identifiable means of knowledge, such as 'instinct,' 'intuition,' 'revelation,' or any form of 'just knowing.'" Dr. Frank Wallace also defines it as "the acceptance of allegations without evidence or proof, either apart from or against the evidence of one's senses and one's reason." Also, "Mysticism is defined as: 1. Any mental or physical attempt to recreate, evade, or alter reality through dishonesty, rationalizations, non sequiturs, emotions, deceptions, or force. 2. Any attempt to use the mind to create reality rather than to identify and integrate reality"Wallace, Frank R. Orientations and Definitions from The Neotech Discovery, 1986 edition."
Neo-Tech set outs to bring what is referred to as the "Civilization of the Universe" --a " business-based Objectivist civilization" "where competitive value production, not force and fraud, is what lifts people toward eternal life and happiness." (Riches from a New World)
Neo-Tech as Fully Integrated Honesty
"Neo-Tech" as a concept is defined literally as "fully integrated honesty." Wallace maintained that "honesty" is a preferable term over "truth" as it is held in Pax Neo-Tech that the latter term is "a closed-circle, fixed static that insidious leaders, false authorities, and malevolent dogmatists dishonestly use for destructive, self-serving manipulations". According to philosopher Yasuhiko Kimura, "'fully-integrated honesty' means honesty that is based on contextual facts and objective reality, and applied in every dimension, every facet, and every moment of life. 'Honesty' means the active state of according oneself with reality. Neo-Tech is a new system of knowledge that self-contains the knowledge of application or to which the knowledge of self-application is integral."Kimura, Yasuhiku (in some texts, under the pen name Ray Kotobuki). Neo-Tech: The Philosophical Zero in The Neo-Tech Path to a Better World, Volume VII-XII, 1992 p. 23 (In French: ''Néo-Tech: Le Zéro Philosophique)
Neo-Tech and the Bicameral Mind Theory
Wallace integrated the theories of the late psychology professor from Princeton University, Julian Jaynes, as expounded in his controversial book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind with his own ideas and Objectivist ideas to develop Neo-Tech. Neo-Tech accepts Jaynes' proposition that the human mind has evolved from what was once a mere reactive mode, devoid of consciousness, abstract thought, and introspection, where external authority was accepted unquestioningly, to a proactive, conscious-thinking, and autonomous mode.
Jaynes, with Wallace expanding on this, theorizes that vestiges of the "bicameral mind" remain in modern humans that make them susceptible to defaulting to unquestioning-acceptance of external guidance. Wallace says that "the major worldwide sources of external 'authority' today are the philosophical doctrines of religion...combined with political doctrines such as Fascism, Marxism, and Maoism. All such doctrines demand the surrender of the individual to an external authority, and offer automatic answers and life-time guidance from which faithful followers can survive without the responsibility or effort of using their own conciousness. Thus, all political systems represent a regression into mysticism -- from conscious man back to bicameral man."Wallace, Frank R. Consciousness: The End of False Authority, 1980 Whereas Jaynes hypothesizes that consciousness may have emerged out of pressures caused by an increasingly complex society, Neo-Tech literature states that Neothink is a superior way of using the mind that allows individuals to outcompete others who still employ mysticism-laden thinking and that, hence, the need to compete will behoove one to "go Neo-Tech." So, it is said that those individuals and civilizations that cling to mystical thinking will remain uncompetitive, self-destructive, and ultimately be left behind to perish.
The competition-initiated collapse of mysticism will also spell the end of the livelihoods of those who, by playing on the remnants of the "bicameral mind" with its tendency to seek external authority, manipulate mysticism in individuals for personal gain (known as "Neocheaters") as these duped individuals come to realize that there are no valid external authorities and never have been. Neo-Tech writings state that the only valid authority comes not from figures such as clergymen, cult-leaders, politicians, academics, philosophers, or Neo-Tech writers, but solely from one's own conscious thinking. According to John Flint, "Neo-Tech is not an external authority for anyone in any time or place. Neo-Tech leaders and gurus do not exist."Flint, John. Neothink Protocols from Neo-tech.com
Neo-Tech and Biological Immortality
Neo-Tech also shares some similarities with Extropianism, notably in regard to advocating technological progress toward achieving human biological immortality, as a non-spiritual route to the quest for eternal youth or immortality. However, it is made clear in Neo-Tech that this should be pursued strictly as a commercial enterprise, as it is its opinion that the competitive marketplace, rather than taxpayer-funded research, is the most effective and speediest route to technological advancement. It is held that with the elimination of mysticism from the human thought process (which Neo-tech holds is the cause of beliefs in gods and supernatural afterlives), market forces will drive humanity in a more urgent manner to eliminate ageing and other diseases (ageing is increasingly being viewed as a "disease" by biogerontologists). Wallace says that "dealing honestly with reality means consciously integrating into one's thoughts and actions the fact that permanent death will happen to oneself and everyone else within a brief time span....Being conscious of life and death, people will value their lives beyond all else in the universe. And that valuation of human life as the supreme value rejects self-destructive acts of mysticism while establishing the psychological/motivational conditions needed to achieve commercial biological immortality."Wallace, Frank R. Achieving Commercial Biological Immortality in Neo-Tech Instructions, 1988, pp. 133-134.
The Zon Conjecture
"Zons" in Neo-Tech, are "metaphorically-postulated people who deliver never-ending values, prosperity, and health to conscious life" that can also be expressed as "God Men and God Women." Zons have accumulated sufficient knowledge, by using Neothink, that they have the capability to perform large-scale manipulations of matter and energy and create universes. It says in Pax Neo-Tech that "the Zon conjecture lays no claims because there are no proofs or even evidences. Neo-Tech does not even frame the Zon conjecture as a hypothesis." Rather, "Zons are independently evolving here on Earth as part of a natural evolution process."Pax Neo-Tech Scene 3, from Neo-Tech.com website
Criticisms
Criticisms that have been made against Neo-Tech include the following:
- Jeff Diehl calls Neo-Tech a "Scientology-like Internet cult".Diehl, Jeff. Cults of Rationality.
- Richard Lawrence of the Objectivism Reference Center says that while Neo-Tech materials "claim inspiration from Rand", they "include wild claims to mystic-sounding superpowers that Rand would have rejected as nonsense".Lawrence, Richard. Rand-Related Oddities.
- The "Neo-Tech FAQ" calls Neo-Tech "a blend of New Age pollyanna promises, psuedo-science, and Objectivism".alt.neo-tech Frequently Asked Questions — an FAQ critical of Neo-Tech
References
Books
Integrated Management Associates is the main publisher of books and articles authored by those who support the philosophy, including the owners and some employees of the company. Other proponents of this philosophy have also furnished books and materials through other publishers (Some affiliated with Neo-Tech Publishing and some not). The Neo-Tech philosophy existed, and was called "Neo-Tech," several years before the original promulgator, I&O Publishing, was renamed to Neo-Tech Publishing to match the namesake of the philosophy.
- Frank R. Wallace, The Neo-Tech Discovery, Neo-tech Publishing (Originally published in 1975 by I&O Publishing and is the largest commercial success. Translated versions have been printed in Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, and Spanish.)
- Charles Beeler, Wolf Kahn, Strange City: The Future of Neo-Tech, Xlibris (Note: Xlibris is a print on demand self-publishing house.)
- Mark Hamilton, Neo-Tech Business Control, Neo-Tech Publishing
- Eric Savage, Neo-Tech Instructions, Black & White Pub Co. (1985)
- Eric Savage, How to Build a Global Business Empire
- Mark Hamilton, Profound Honesty: Outcompete God and Government, Neo-Tech Publishing
- Brett Peters, Neo-Tech Protection Kit, Neo-Tech Publishing
- Mark Hamilton, Will America Go Neo-Tech?, Integrated Management Associates (1995)
- Mark Hamilton, God-Man: Our Final Evolution, Integrated Management Associates (1998)
See also
External links
"Neo-Tech (philosophy)"