On Conditioning, Creation, and the Weather App: A Meditation on Digital Consciousness

It's funny how wisdom finds you when you're just going about your day. There I was, cleaning the house - probably procrastinating on some deadline or another - when this quote from the Dhammapada practically jumped off the page: "Sorrowful are all conditioned things." The timing was perfect, really. Just days before, my friend Marie-Jeanne had shared this video essay about capitalism, nihilism, and finding meaning in a world that often feels like it's running on empty.

The video hit all the right notes - the emptiness of endless consumption, the hollow promise of "productivity above all," the growing sense that maybe we've lost the plot somewhere between our first iPhone and our latest TikTok doom-scroll. It's the kind of content that spreads like wildfire because it names something we're all feeling but struggling to articulate.

The Pattern Emerges

But here's where it gets interesting.

While everyone's busy pointing fingers at capitalism or technology as the source of our collective existential crisis, I'm standing in my living room, duster in hand, staring at these ancient words about conditioning and sorrow. And suddenly, the pattern emerges - clear as the dust motes dancing in the afternoon light.

We're not actually having a crisis of capitalism or technology. We're having a crisis of consciousness. Or more specifically, we're having a crisis of conditioned consciousness in an increasingly unconditioned world.

It's like we're all running an outdated version of consciousness.patch while the universe keeps pushing new updates. And there we are, hitting "Remind me tomorrow" on our own evolution, too busy doom-scrolling through collapse.jpeg to notice the changelog.

The Weather App Paradigm

Think about it: When was the last time you looked at the sky to check the weather? No, really - not your weather app, not your smart home display, but the actual sky? We've become Information Beings so gradually that we hardly noticed the transformation. The map has become more real than the territory, and the weather app more authoritative than the wind on our face.

But here's where the Dhammapada drops its wisdom bomb - "when this, with wisdom, one discerns, then is one disgusted with ill." It's not suggesting we throw away our weather apps or delete our Twitter accounts. Instead, it's inviting us to notice our conditioning, to see how we've been shaped by the tools we've created, and to recognize that our suffering often comes not from the tools themselves, but from our attachment to particular ways of using them.

A Deeper Understanding

Let's unpack this. Because there's something profound happening at the intersection of ancient wisdom and digital transformation, and it might just hold the key to navigating what comes next...

This isn't just about smartphones or social media or whether capitalism is the big bad wolf we've made it out to be. It's about something far more fundamental: how we interface with reality itself. And maybe - just maybe - our current collective discomfort is actually a sign of growth, not decay.

The Layers of Reality

Let me explain.

When I talk about "reading the room," I'm not just talking about sensing the vibe at a party (though that's part of it). I'm talking about learning to read the layers of reality we're constantly swimming in, like a fish finally noticing water. These layers - pre-self, self, home, community, cosmos - they're not just philosophical constructs. They're the operating system of existence itself.

I noticed this pattern first in my own projects. Every time I tried to "fix" something at the community level without addressing the pre-self layer, it was like trying to debug production without checking the local environment first. Classic rookie mistake. The universe has a way of making you run your unit tests, whether you want to or not.

Think of it like this: Before you can update your phone's OS, you need to understand what version you're currently running. But how many of us know what version of consciousness we're operating on? How many of us can trace the lineage of our thoughts, beliefs, and reactions back to their source code?

The Operating System of Existence

The pre-self layer is where it all begins. It's the background processes running before you even boot up your conscious mind for the day. It's checking the weather app instead of the sky, reaching for Twitter before coffee, letting algorithms decide what music matches your mood. None of these are inherently good or bad - they're just patterns we've been conditioned into, often without realizing it.

Moving up to the self layer, we start seeing how these patterns shape our reality. The video Marie-Jeanne shared perfectly captures this moment of collective realization - we're all starting to notice our conditioning, and yeah, it can feel pretty uncomfortable. Like that moment when you realize you've been sitting in an awkward position for hours, and suddenly the discomfort floods in all at once.

But here's where it gets interesting (and where the Dhammapada drops its next wisdom bomb): being "disgusted with ill" isn't about rejection - it's about recognition. It's about seeing the patterns clearly enough to make conscious choices about them.

From Home to Cosmos

At the home layer, this manifests in fascinating ways. I noticed it during that cleaning session when the quote found me. How many of our homes are arranged around charging stations? How many of our spaces are optimized for good Zoom lighting rather than good conversation? Again, not inherently problematic - unless we never questioned how we got here.

The community layer is where things really get spicy. We're seeing massive shifts in how humans organize and interact. DAOs, digital gardens, AI companions - these aren't just tech trends. They're new forms of conditioning emerging in real-time. The question isn't whether they're good or bad, but whether we're conscious participants in their evolution.

And at the cosmic layer? Well, that's where we have to zoom out far enough to see that technology itself is just nature's latest experiment in consciousness expansion. The weather app isn't separate from the weather - it's part of how the weather system has evolved to know itself.

Meta-Conditioning and Evolution

Here's the real kicker though: The path to "purity" mentioned in the Dhammapada isn't about rejecting conditioning - it's about becoming conscious of it. It's about developing what I call "meta-conditioning" - the ability to see our patterns clearly enough that we can play with them intentionally.

This is where my work with Information Beings comes in. We're not just using technology anymore - we're co-evolving with it. The question isn't whether to accept or reject this evolution, but how to engage with it consciously. How to read the room at every layer and participate in the dance with awareness.

So when we look at the current backlash against technology and capitalism, maybe we're missing the point. Maybe instead of asking "Is capitalism bad?" or "Is technology destroying us?" we should be asking: "What are these systems trying to teach us about our own conditioning? How can we use this moment of collective discomfort as a catalyst for conscious evolution?"

Because here's the thing about conditioning - it's only sorrowful when we're unconscious of it. The moment we see it clearly, it transforms from a prison into a playground. Every notification, every algorithm, every digital interaction becomes an opportunity to practice awareness.

Looking Up

As I put away the duster and return to my screens, I can't help but smile at the synchronicity of it all. Here we are, using digital platforms to discuss the nature of conditioning, spreading ancient wisdom through modern memes, teaching AI to help us understand ourselves better.

Maybe that's the real path to purity in our digital age - not rejecting the weather app, but learning to feel the wind again while using it. Not fighting against our nature as Information Beings, but becoming conscious participants in our own evolution.

As I put away the duster and return to my screen, the sky is still there, waiting to be seen. And in that space between the notification and the glance upward, that's where the real coding happens - the programming of consciousness itself.

The question is: are we ready to look up, or will we keep looking down?

A Note of Gratitude

If you're still reading this far, I appreciate you and appreciate the time you spent here with me. Thank you so much!

For my Darija-speaking friends - I've explored many of these themes in the context of community building and product development at the latest GeeksBlabla conference. You can rewatch it here (around the 33-minute mark). And while you're there, I strongly recommend watching the first part, where a remarkable 15-year-old from Casablanca is blazing trails for the next generation of community builders in Morocco. She's organizing hackathons while being homeschooled - truly inspiring.

For English speakers, I recently explored many of these themes at the Africa Deep Tech Community Open Day in January, where I gave a talk titled "Beyond Deep Tech: An Exploration at the Frontiers of Reality" and moderated the investor panel. The recordings will be available soon - make sure to subscribe to the ADTC YouTube channel to stay updated.