Other individuals and each culture is somewhere along this continuum of development. Each stage has its upsides and Its downsides. And, naturally, whichever stage you are in seems to be "right," and folks in other stages are mystifying, misguided, malicious or just plan wrong. As the next stage of values becomes widespread within an individual or within the culture, that stage emerges, becoming more and more characteristic of that whole person or group. Notice that I said "more and more characteristic," and not "supplants" or "replaces." All of the previous stages are still operating within the culture and, indeed, within every individual in the culture. And any of these earlier value sets are ready to reemerge as the situation calls for them. That car commercial I told you about was red red red. But the Jerry Seinfeld show that followed it was about not judging people by their appearance, and was green green green. Nevertheless, a particular meme can be on the ascendancy, proving its developmental worth, spreading throughout the population, and becoming reified in language, logic, art, literature, philosophy, architecture, car design and sitcoms. In this way it becomes the water we swim in and no longer notice.

I said there were eight steps. The last two - Yellow and Turquoise - are waiting for us. The Yellow meme Is concerned with the perception and integration of structures and systems, and the Turquoise with the synergistic unification of all forms, forces, and beings. Now these memes sound like where I want to go. I particularly want to draw your attention to the Yellow Meme now, because it is, I believe, within reach. As I said. the Yellow Meme is concerned with the perception and integration of structures and systems. Philosopher Ken Wilbur describes the world of the Yellow meme like this: "Life is a kaleidoscope of natural hierarchies ... systems, and forms. Flexibility, spontaneity, and functionality have the highest priority. Differences and pluralities can be integrated into interdependent, natural flows. Egalitarianism is complemented with natural degrees of excellence where appropriate. Knowledge and competency should supersede rank, power, status or group. The prevailing world order is the result of the existence of different levels of reality (memes) and the inevitable patterns of movement up and down the dynamic spiral… " Okay, sign me up!" If only it were that easy. Nevertheless, the Yellow meme paints a big picture we ought to consider making a reality. If we can't turn the ceiling into a pinwheel of stars, perhaps we can at least turn life into a "kaleidoscope of natural hierarchies." And, the Yellow Meme IS just around the comer for us. There are people for whom it is already a reality. I myself have had precious glimpses of It while engaged in modeling, moments when the content of what I am modeling vanishes like the blur around a subject as the Iens snaps into focus. And suddenly I see the dynamic web of structures that make up this person in this world, this ecology of experience.

If something is itching In your brain, It may be that you are noticing a kinship, a synergy between the Yellow meme and modeling.

Modeling has the potential to be an epistemological snowball rolling down the current hillside of human snow. The future that could avalanche from that snowball is one in which people are thinking more and more In terms of structure and systems. The kind of thinking I am talking about when I speak of "systemic thinking" is not that of seeing a string of cause-effects. No matter how for into the future you are seeing the string of cause-effects, roll out, that is not systemic thinking. Systemic thinking is perceiving the web of relationships - both causal and associative - that are operating simultaneously to produce this moment. this experience, this event, this social situation, this cultural bias, this love of a sunset or of a neighbor. Now that type of thinking Is a tall order, I know. At least it is for me.

But we do not have to make everyone modelers, capable of such an enormous grasp of this staggering web, in order to have a deep Impact on society and culture. The example I am thinking of is that of '"relativity." Here is an idea that few of us understand in its theoretical, technical or applicative aspects. Nevertheless, the idea of relativity - and the implications that swirl around it - have permeated our society, and even our culture, at every level. People who know nothing about riding light beams past gravity wells nevertheless take It for granted that different people can have different ideas about the some incident depending upon, say, where they "are" in their lives. Relativistic thinking has become part of the water in which we swim, so we do not notice it. Nevertheless (as we talked about earlier). the nature of that water - its viscosity, clarity, currents - affects greatly how we swim.

I want to suggest to you that the widespread application of modeling could bring about a similar liquid change In out world, a change In which systemic thinking would become a part of the water in which we swim. We cannot at this moment, from this side of the mirror, know just what those changes really would be, or where they would lead. We can speculate that complexity will come to be appreciated, rather than feared. We can imagine that the first response to difficulty will not be to get to the bottom line; there would probably BE no bottom line. Instead there would be iIntersecting lines of possibility, each of which carries its load of opportunity and difficulties. And systems would be cherished, cherished because all systems reveal the interconnectedness of everything. They are, In a very real sense, us. And the question, "Is it possible?" will fade, to be replaced by the question, "How can it be done?" Such a transition - if pervasive - will be profound in its impact on the world. Indeed (and I blush at my audacity), it would bring about a next step in the evolution of human consciousness, akin to that advanced by language itself.