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Culture on Demand: Bridging the Gap
Feng Shui and technology have more in common than meets the eye
By STAN STALNAKER
July
14, 2000
Web posted at 8:30 p.m. Hong Kong time, 8:30 a.m. EDT
I'm no expert on feng shui, or even technology, but I'm beginning to realize that there is a deep relationship between the ancient and organic form of organization associated with feng shui and the increasing need for organic systems in technology. Whoever can figure out how to make feng shui and technology mesh will really have something on their hands, and I want in before the IPO.
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There has been of lot of talk lately about how forces like the Internet and "being wired" are reshaping the organizational structures that we use to communicate. This is true from a hardware perspective--from the complicated circuit boards and processors that route information, all the way up to the grand chaotic structure of the Internet, which now routes just about everything--from words to pictures to audio, and soon, they say, smells.
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As hardware and software get more compact but expand in scope, increasingly organic structures (almost molecular and cellular in design) are being explored that move away from point-to-point linear movement (down a pipe, across a circuit board et cetera) and toward shared chaos.
As we all know, feng shui has long been a buzzword for decisions about interior design disasters. But many people believe there really is something to feng shui. Based on Taoist philosophies expressed in nature, two main bodies of opinion about feng shui relate to the Yin Yang Theory, and the Five Element Theory. Increasingly, both are relevant to technology and the Net.
Yin Yang theory relates to the balance between opposites--positive/negative, light/dark et cetera. In technology, the relation is most simply expressed in digital form--1s and 0s, the base language of the digital age. In feng shui, everything is made of qi, which is like energy. I think the qi of the Internet is the content that runs across it, from pictures of your mother to QuickTime movies to Excel spreadsheets. So qi equals energy equals content. Both qi (feng shui) and content (technology) run on a backbone that is made of Yin and Yang. That's easy.
The Five Element Theory--metal, fire, water, wood and earth--also relates strongly to qi. Feng shui masters tend to actually refer to these elements as qi and express them as directions or frequencies that constantly shift or change. I know this is a little complicated, but bear with me. Basically, those five elements represent all that is in the earth, meaning that there is never any more or less of those elements, thus the amount of qi is never different, just expressed or seen in different ways (fire, water et cetera).
In the world of technology and the Internet, this idea of constant change is often expressed as "progress". Faster. Smarter. Cheaper. Sexier. Smaller. But all we are really doing is looking for better ways to organize, distribute or move our technological or Internet qi (content/energy) more efficiently. The challenge for the engineers and the technology guys is to realize this. Once we do, we'll see technology and the Internet in a whole new light, with profound implications that will help bridge the gap between our histories and our future, man and nature.
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