I am a technonatural-nerd.
I enjoy the pace of the outdoors. Being immersed in the sounds, sights, smells and feelings of nature. The feeling of being connected to everything and nothing while sitting on a mountain peak on a warm sunny day gazing out toward the ocean. The full body weariness when I get home from a long hike and sag into the couch with something warm and tasty. Relaxing at night by a hot fire, talking or singing with friends, or just being silent. Gazing up at the stars unhindered by the lights of the city.
I also am enthralled with technology. The things that we are able to do today and the promises that tomorrow hold rock my socks. The connections it enables - talking to people around the world, easy(er) access to information on companies and governments which can help us hold them more accountable, sharing of information both reference type (e.g. wikipedia) and personal (email, flickr, blogs...). The hope it offers for the future - improved healthcare, cleaner energy and who knows what else? Not to mention all the things that are just damn cool or fun!
Not that I believe that technology will fix all our problems. I would like to see things move back to stronger local communities in the midst of our growing global and Internet communities. I am hopeful that a good mix of current/new technologies with compassion, ingenuity and communities will go a long way towards dealing with many of our current conundrums.
I read this a while ago, and it resonated some with me:
"I too had woven a kind of basket of a delicate texture, but I had not made it worth any one's while to buy them. Yet not the less, in my case, did I think it worth my while to weave them, and instead of studying how to make it worth men's while to buy my baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling them. The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?"
-Thoreau; Walden
I enjoy the pace of the outdoors. Being immersed in the sounds, sights, smells and feelings of nature. The feeling of being connected to everything and nothing while sitting on a mountain peak on a warm sunny day gazing out toward the ocean. The full body weariness when I get home from a long hike and sag into the couch with something warm and tasty. Relaxing at night by a hot fire, talking or singing with friends, or just being silent. Gazing up at the stars unhindered by the lights of the city.
I also am enthralled with technology. The things that we are able to do today and the promises that tomorrow hold rock my socks. The connections it enables - talking to people around the world, easy(er) access to information on companies and governments which can help us hold them more accountable, sharing of information both reference type (e.g. wikipedia) and personal (email, flickr, blogs...). The hope it offers for the future - improved healthcare, cleaner energy and who knows what else? Not to mention all the things that are just damn cool or fun!
Not that I believe that technology will fix all our problems. I would like to see things move back to stronger local communities in the midst of our growing global and Internet communities. I am hopeful that a good mix of current/new technologies with compassion, ingenuity and communities will go a long way towards dealing with many of our current conundrums.
I read this a while ago, and it resonated some with me:
"I too had woven a kind of basket of a delicate texture, but I had not made it worth any one's while to buy them. Yet not the less, in my case, did I think it worth my while to weave them, and instead of studying how to make it worth men's while to buy my baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling them. The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?"
-Thoreau; Walden
