I'm reminded of some lyrics from one of my favourite songwriters, Richard Dawson;
"She asks why we spend precious time
crafting our sheaves by hand
when we could acquire all we need
from the bastle at Beadnell
or one of the abundant Caskets of Parting Cloud
which every sundown
float to ground on their dark balloons.
I answer her as best I may:
That in a world such as today's
where each person can display
a bounty of data
on the quivering cavewall of their eyeball
at the merest flick of a lash,
the only facts of any worth
are not so easily dispersed.
Yes, it matters how we learn -
real knowledge must be earned...
Everything else is a husk:
wisdom's simulacrum."
And I think of newborn foals, already fully equipped with the ability to stand and bounce about whereas us humans need what the guatemalan mayans called a second gestation where we must continue our development in the external womb of the village. Already for millions of years we've been putting more and more of ourselves into the world. Is it a movement towards greater and greater interdependence? Maybe in a hundred years most humans won't be able to read at all, in the same way computer technicians no longer require the skill of mental arithmetic and just can't do it anymore, though they're arguably doing some "higher level" processing. We might be synthesising oceans of data in a fraction of a second - "each person can display a bounty of data on the quivering cavewall of their eyeball at the merest flick of a lash".
There is the argument I've heard in response to the idea that if ai can just build your app for you now then coding becomes irrelevant; but humans are always just innovating with whatever raw materials we have. If our raw materials are an earth with extractable metals we can develop tools and fashion a brooch. If our raw materials are electronics and mathematics, we can make a first computer. If our raw materials are meta-apps that can generate any sort of software tool from a thought, then we just keep applying the same level of innovation to that and produce...godknowswhat. There is no endpoint. It's innovation all the way up. Can it hold and will it destroy us all are other questions.
There is a massive issue with this interdependence of course, which is that it can actually just become a dependence if the resources of the whole are owned and controlled by *cough elonmusk&friends*. But seeing this overall pattern we're talking about not as an arbitrary cultural event but as part of an ongoing evolutionary process, a tide so much bigger than any of us... is pretty darn compelling to me. Like, what are we becoming.
This is a Supreme article I must say, especially as it's about a topic one hardly ever thinks about let alone read about. I doff my hat to you ✊🏼👏🏼
And reading this from Nigeria, I can say we haven't yet gotten to the point where you global northerners are in terms of too much comfort taking away core skills but I worry truly that we may not be too far behind especially as the technological advancements now reach us about the same time as you guys more or less
I have no clue how you guys can turn things around but I hope my people don't wait until the situation is critical to begin thinking of how and in what ways we adapt to the comforts of modernity
And I was just thinking to myself today that it seems the skills of 'toasting' (that's what we call wooing ladies here) female folks is largely obsolete in this world and in my own society already. Love and relationships now seem transactional and nobody really cares if you've got game or character, just if your bank account is worthy of attracting the kind of female you want
And that's a sad state of affairs as there seems to be no more fun or flirtation going around in the world between both sexes anymore and one of those skills that seems to have been adapted away from the mainstream. Anyways, that's just my petpeeve as I'm a lover-boy at heart and females don't seem to give a shit about that anymore and just money oriented
Back to your article, there really isn't much I can add as you've hit the nail on the head in everyway I can think of. Bravo once again 👏🏼🥂
There are definitely lots of changes overtaking the world in general these days, and as things speed up more and more, we accept more and more changes without really considering if we are benefitting from them or not. And as you say, the social web is definitely eroding, and communication between people is suffering as a result.
I would like to think some part of this is an online-only phenomenon, and in real life people still have conversations and get close to each other the old fashioned way, but in the West certainly there has been such a pressure put on our free time that I really understand why people find themselves with no energy for socializing or romantic endeavors.
I definitely believe before we choose differently, we must first understand our current choices.....
I concur with your last submission totally, as one cannot move forward without understanding the past i.e how one got to that point. And that's what I feel we are currently missing in these times of extremely fast changes, there is hardly any time for a breather to process and understand how things are and whether we like the changes we have made before we move full throttle to the 'next flashy trend's
I feel humanity will just have a major breakdown or crisis in thew future where our body systems just shut down on us from the too many changes we are making in such a short time without giving our bodies and energies enough time to rest and acclimatize. The blowback will be spectacular and not in a nice fuzzy way I feel
Anyways, looking forward to your next 'rambling' 😄 and my regards to your family and yours 💞🥂
I'm in the Philippines where there is a huge gap in wealth between rich and poor. So many of the people we know, who I would consider "middle class" back in my first world country of birth, has "Yayas" (nannies) and "Helpers" (they call them helpers instead of servants, one can guess why). They don't need to do anything at home, it's like living in a hotel.
When we visited in-laws I chuckled to myself to see my brother-in-law go to his coffee machine and fail to operate it, his "helper" rushed over to get it for him. I have nephews who at the age of 11 don't know how to pour themselves a glass of water. I have elderly in-laws whose health rapidly degenerates after 65 because they literally don't have to do anything.
This is it exactly. It’s bad for us to suffer excessively, but it’s also bad for us to be allowed to roll through life without putting in the slightest effort.
I really think we are. I understand WHY we are…. But I still think it’s bad for us. Like, for our brains. Think how many real practical things someone knew how to do in a homestead. Baking cheese making pickling animal husbandry probably tons of medicinal herbs etc etc etc repairing things making things, this is all good for the brain. Now we’re all staring at spreadsheets and our brains are going ‘huh whaa…?’
it doesn't even need to be a super-hard thing to do. A friend cross-stitched a thing for me and it's one of my most valued possessions because it's -technically- an ARTIFACT! and how many people have artifacts nowadays?!
This is it exactly. I did embroidery for a while and got inordinate joy from it. But I think it’s definitely only something you can do if you are fundamentally lucky with your time… all these things demand hours and hours. My friends and I between families houses and jobs are barely scraping together the time to see each other, forget regular crafts.
Although it’s attitude too. My grandmother used to knit while watching tv, she always had a project going. It was like a secondary activity.
PS: there is a chance the frogs had already been deprived of their brains as the experiment happened so the fact they weren't jumping out of the water may or may not be irrelevant
I'm reminded of some lyrics from one of my favourite songwriters, Richard Dawson;
"She asks why we spend precious time
crafting our sheaves by hand
when we could acquire all we need
from the bastle at Beadnell
or one of the abundant Caskets of Parting Cloud
which every sundown
float to ground on their dark balloons.
I answer her as best I may:
That in a world such as today's
where each person can display
a bounty of data
on the quivering cavewall of their eyeball
at the merest flick of a lash,
the only facts of any worth
are not so easily dispersed.
Yes, it matters how we learn -
real knowledge must be earned...
Everything else is a husk:
wisdom's simulacrum."
And I think of newborn foals, already fully equipped with the ability to stand and bounce about whereas us humans need what the guatemalan mayans called a second gestation where we must continue our development in the external womb of the village. Already for millions of years we've been putting more and more of ourselves into the world. Is it a movement towards greater and greater interdependence? Maybe in a hundred years most humans won't be able to read at all, in the same way computer technicians no longer require the skill of mental arithmetic and just can't do it anymore, though they're arguably doing some "higher level" processing. We might be synthesising oceans of data in a fraction of a second - "each person can display a bounty of data on the quivering cavewall of their eyeball at the merest flick of a lash".
There is the argument I've heard in response to the idea that if ai can just build your app for you now then coding becomes irrelevant; but humans are always just innovating with whatever raw materials we have. If our raw materials are an earth with extractable metals we can develop tools and fashion a brooch. If our raw materials are electronics and mathematics, we can make a first computer. If our raw materials are meta-apps that can generate any sort of software tool from a thought, then we just keep applying the same level of innovation to that and produce...godknowswhat. There is no endpoint. It's innovation all the way up. Can it hold and will it destroy us all are other questions.
There is a massive issue with this interdependence of course, which is that it can actually just become a dependence if the resources of the whole are owned and controlled by *cough elonmusk&friends*. But seeing this overall pattern we're talking about not as an arbitrary cultural event but as part of an ongoing evolutionary process, a tide so much bigger than any of us... is pretty darn compelling to me. Like, what are we becoming.
That’s exactly the question. And I get that it swings back and forth but so much of it goes entirely unexamined.
This is a Supreme article I must say, especially as it's about a topic one hardly ever thinks about let alone read about. I doff my hat to you ✊🏼👏🏼
And reading this from Nigeria, I can say we haven't yet gotten to the point where you global northerners are in terms of too much comfort taking away core skills but I worry truly that we may not be too far behind especially as the technological advancements now reach us about the same time as you guys more or less
I have no clue how you guys can turn things around but I hope my people don't wait until the situation is critical to begin thinking of how and in what ways we adapt to the comforts of modernity
And I was just thinking to myself today that it seems the skills of 'toasting' (that's what we call wooing ladies here) female folks is largely obsolete in this world and in my own society already. Love and relationships now seem transactional and nobody really cares if you've got game or character, just if your bank account is worthy of attracting the kind of female you want
And that's a sad state of affairs as there seems to be no more fun or flirtation going around in the world between both sexes anymore and one of those skills that seems to have been adapted away from the mainstream. Anyways, that's just my petpeeve as I'm a lover-boy at heart and females don't seem to give a shit about that anymore and just money oriented
Back to your article, there really isn't much I can add as you've hit the nail on the head in everyway I can think of. Bravo once again 👏🏼🥂
I'm glad you enjoyed my ramblings :)
There are definitely lots of changes overtaking the world in general these days, and as things speed up more and more, we accept more and more changes without really considering if we are benefitting from them or not. And as you say, the social web is definitely eroding, and communication between people is suffering as a result.
I would like to think some part of this is an online-only phenomenon, and in real life people still have conversations and get close to each other the old fashioned way, but in the West certainly there has been such a pressure put on our free time that I really understand why people find themselves with no energy for socializing or romantic endeavors.
I definitely believe before we choose differently, we must first understand our current choices.....
I concur with your last submission totally, as one cannot move forward without understanding the past i.e how one got to that point. And that's what I feel we are currently missing in these times of extremely fast changes, there is hardly any time for a breather to process and understand how things are and whether we like the changes we have made before we move full throttle to the 'next flashy trend's
I feel humanity will just have a major breakdown or crisis in thew future where our body systems just shut down on us from the too many changes we are making in such a short time without giving our bodies and energies enough time to rest and acclimatize. The blowback will be spectacular and not in a nice fuzzy way I feel
Anyways, looking forward to your next 'rambling' 😄 and my regards to your family and yours 💞🥂
I’m afraid you are exactly right and it is happening already. All the best to you and yours as well ⭐️
TLDR;
No, I'm joking of course. You're spot on.
I'm in the Philippines where there is a huge gap in wealth between rich and poor. So many of the people we know, who I would consider "middle class" back in my first world country of birth, has "Yayas" (nannies) and "Helpers" (they call them helpers instead of servants, one can guess why). They don't need to do anything at home, it's like living in a hotel.
When we visited in-laws I chuckled to myself to see my brother-in-law go to his coffee machine and fail to operate it, his "helper" rushed over to get it for him. I have nephews who at the age of 11 don't know how to pour themselves a glass of water. I have elderly in-laws whose health rapidly degenerates after 65 because they literally don't have to do anything.
This is it exactly. It’s bad for us to suffer excessively, but it’s also bad for us to be allowed to roll through life without putting in the slightest effort.
"I wouldn’t even run to get away from a bear." lol saaameee!
that tumblr screengrab is bringing back memories, thanks for the flashback! and good point about us collectively just doing less.
I really think we are. I understand WHY we are…. But I still think it’s bad for us. Like, for our brains. Think how many real practical things someone knew how to do in a homestead. Baking cheese making pickling animal husbandry probably tons of medicinal herbs etc etc etc repairing things making things, this is all good for the brain. Now we’re all staring at spreadsheets and our brains are going ‘huh whaa…?’
it doesn't even need to be a super-hard thing to do. A friend cross-stitched a thing for me and it's one of my most valued possessions because it's -technically- an ARTIFACT! and how many people have artifacts nowadays?!
This is it exactly. I did embroidery for a while and got inordinate joy from it. But I think it’s definitely only something you can do if you are fundamentally lucky with your time… all these things demand hours and hours. My friends and I between families houses and jobs are barely scraping together the time to see each other, forget regular crafts.
Although it’s attitude too. My grandmother used to knit while watching tv, she always had a project going. It was like a secondary activity.
PS: there is a chance the frogs had already been deprived of their brains as the experiment happened so the fact they weren't jumping out of the water may or may not be irrelevant
I try not to think too hard about those frogs 😅 🐸