Seeds for Cultural Evolution

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Carter Phipps gave a talk on Seed Cultures at Steve McIntosh's monthly Zoom group. His presentation is now available to view on the Developmental Philosophy YouTube channel. Watch full presentation here: https://youtu.be/N-2qaEFv0h4?si=A6VFL04-Ufe9j802

"In this talk on July 22, 2025, Carter shows how history advances through 'seed cultures' —compact, cross-pollinating circles of innovators whose ideas ignite wider change. He tracks how a mid-20th-century truce between traditionalism and modernism birthed progressive post-modernism, and how today’s culture war has stalled us on a developmental plateau. The task now, he says, is to nurture healthy versions of every major worldview so a new synthesis of modern and post-modern values can arise. In short: cultivate the seeds, honor the plateau, and evolution will surprise."

"A tense, dynamic truce is fertile soil in the garden of transcendence, helped along by creative seed cultures, providing the nascent developmental structures for tomorrow's bountiful cultural harvest. In the meantime, love the plateau!" ~ Carter Phipps

"Learning to love the plateau" means cultural war dynamics make forward movement difficult right now. War prevents certain types of evolution. We are in a time of inclusion, not transcendence - of reaction, preserving and retrenching. For the first time, healthy forms of postmodernism need to be defended. Ultimately, the action will be in forms of synthesis between Modernism and Postmodernism.

I was aware of Jordan Peterson, but not the extent of the intellectual dark web (IDW) antimodernism attack. IDW is a loose affiliation of academics and social commentators who oppose what they perceive as the influence of left-wing identity politics and political correctness in higher education and mass media.

Carter Phipps is the Co-founder of the Institute for Cultural Evolution, the author of Evolutionaries: Unlocking the Spiritual and Cultural Potential of Science's Greatest Idea (2012) and the Co-author of Conscious Leadership: Elevating Humanity Through Business (2000). He produces the podcast Thinking Ahead and was the former executive editor of What is Enlightenment Magazine.

"Between 1992 and 2011, Andrew Cohen and the EnlightenNext community published what became internationally acknowledged as the leading spiritual periodical of the time.

The award-winning EnlightenNext (formerly What is Enlightenment?) magazine explored and defined a new approach to spirituality in the 21st century." Click here for free access to Issues 24-47 (2004-2011).

Click here to join Steve McIntosh’s monthly Zoom group and to receive Zoom instructions:

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Here are links to two short videos by Steve McIntosh on noosphere evolution:

#1 Philosophy and the Noosphere  |  5-min illustrated video• Drawn from Steve's conversation with Iain McGilchrist• Shows why philosophy can once again become a creative engine in the evolution of  “noosphere”—helping culture evolve beyond both modernism and progressive post-modernism. Watch video here: https://youtu.be/EV2In_A9bHI

#2 Goodness, Truth & Beauty—Vectors of Cultural Evolution  |  4-min illustrated video• Also excerpted from the McGilchrist dialogue• Explains how these intrinsic values act as evolutionary attractors, pulling science, spirituality, and philosophy toward the next enlightenment. Watch video here: https://youtu.be/-SvV_wkriks

#DevelopmentalPhilosophy #progressivepost-modernism #CarterPhipps #CulturalEvolution #Noosphere