What Does it Mean? Shift Happens: The Great Dialogue Between Techne and Psyche

By Carolyn Kenny

In ancient times, our ancestors gathered around fires to discuss some of the very same issues we are discussing today including where to get good food products, how to raise children, how to educate them, who's dating who, which singer should be selected for the upcoming ceremonies. And there is another rather abstract topic that we share with our tribal relatives. How do we maintain the delicate balance between psyche and techne? Psyche represents soul; and techne represents our tools (Argüelles).

Some of the very first tools were carved out of stone. And something we don't think about too often is that these very stones also became some of the musical instruments used by these ancient ancestors. In fact, stones still make music for us.

Tia De Nora (2000), in an exploration of Music in Everyday Life goes so far to suggest that music is a "technology of the self." She explains: ". . . music is appropriated by individuals as a resource for the ongoing constitution of themselves and their social psychological, physiological and emotional states. " (47).

Now I'd like to bring you a list of factoids from a very interesting website: http://www.scottmcleod.org/didyouknow.wmv.

We are currently preparing learners for jobs that will not exist in 2010
The former US Secretary of Education, Richard Riley, states that the top 10 jobs that will be in demand in 2010 didn't exist in 2004.
We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't exist yet using technologies that haven't yet been invented in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet.
One out of every 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met online
There are over 106 million registered users of MySpace (as of September 2006).
If MySpace were a country, it would be the 11th-largest in the world (between Japan and Mexico).
We are living in exponential times.
There are over 2.7 mission searches performed on Google each month.
To whom were these questions addressed B.G. (before Google)?
The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the population of the planet
It is estimated that 1.5 exabytes (1.5 x 10 to the 18th power) of unique new information will be generated worldwide this year.
That's estimated to be more than in the last 5,000 years.
The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years
For students starting a four-year technical or college degree this means that ½ of what they learn in their 1st year of study will be outdated by their 3rd year of study.
It is predicted to double every 72 hours by 2010.
Third-generation fiber optics has recently been tested by both NEC and Alcatel that pushes 10 trillion bits per second down one strand of fiber at the cost of $0.
That's 1,900 CDs, or 150 million simultaneous phone calls every second.
It's currently tripling about every 7 months and is expected to do so for at least the next 20 years.
47 million laptops were shipped worldwide last year.
Predictions are that by 2013 a supercomputer will be build that exceeds the computation capability of the human brain.
By 2023, when 1st graders will be just 23 years old and beginning their (first) careers, it only will take a $1,000 computer to exceed the capabilities of the human brain.
And while technical predictions farther out than 15 years are had to make, predictions are that by 2049, a $1,000 computer will exceed the computational capabilities of the human race.

Are you still standing? Breathing? Indeed, these statistics and general facts make us breathless, perhaps. But they are indicators of our need to keep the campfire conversations going for future generations. In the Indigenous world, many people talk about "The Seven Generations Principle." There are even organizations and training institutes to help us plan for the future - a kind of Native Futures Studies perhaps (http://www.7generations.org). The principle goes something like this: The things you do today, you do for the children seven generations hence.

Returning to the great balancing act between techne and psyche, let's ask ourselves about the role of music in light of these projections. It is only a question. How can music and Music Therapy (if there is such a thing in 2010 or 2023 or 2049) help us to keep this delicate balance between souls and tools? This is the time to dream.

References

Arguelles, Jose. (1975). The transformative vision: Reflections on the nature and history of human expression. Boulder and London: Shambhala.

De Nora, Tia. (2000). Music in everyday life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

McCloud, Scott. Retrieved Feb. 27, 2007 from http://www.scotmcleod.org/didyouknow.wmv .