The defenders of our freedom have failed to take into account our infinite appetite for distraction.
~ Aldous Huxley
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The defenders of our freedom have failed to take into account our infinite appetite for distraction.
~ Aldous Huxley
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If you spend much time (as I do) with your head shoved into a computer, you can’t avoid the whole “artificial intelligence armageddon-is-coming” (or is already here!) bruh-ha-hah. What’s always fascinated me—I’ve always irritated everyone even as a precocious little tike—is what happens when people no longer need to do any work?
Everyone’s always pushed back when I ask that question. For forty years (and why is there no U in forty?!) I’ve conceded that, yes, today there’s an enormous amount of work that needs to be done and people do that work. But I keep waiving my arms and asking: But the current amount of work is not always going to be the case. What happens when people no longer need to do much, if any, work?
The final point to make here is to emphasise that such a post-work world is indeed viable. Perhaps a better way of phrasing it is a post-labour world. Work is an essential part of the human condition; not only is it logistically necessary for social life, but it also provides us with purpose and a sense of self-respect. The thrust of post-labour thinking is not that this must be done away with, but that we can retrieve precisely these positive features—purpose, fulfillment, social value—from the tyranny of wage-labour, in which those are so often undercut by arsehole bosses, terrible working-conditions, and an alienation from the purpose of the work. A post-labour world just means that those types of self-directed activities we usually relegate to hobbies become the fount of meaningful social activity […]
~ Trey Taylor from, NON-MARKET CONTRIBUTIONS – PUBLIC FUTURE
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I particularly like Taylor’s use of the distinction between labor and work. There’s a lot of work I want to always be able to do, as he points out, because I derive meaning from doing so. There’s also some labor that I continue to do, which I’m happily looking to offload.
Nothing is infinite. (Not AI’s intelligence. Not our time, nor any software AI’s time. Not our energy, nor AI’s energy. Not resources, not willpower, etc.) Therefore we (people, AIs, animals, all “agents”, everyone and everything) will always need to negotiate to get what we want. Some things the robots or AIs will do, and some things they won’t want to do.
Maybe a better question is: As the quantity of labor that humans must do falls, where is the new equilibrium? Will the decreasing (vastly decreasing, if I’m right) amount of labor that humans must do be valued sufficiently highly so that people can still obtain sufficient resources to pursue meaningful lives?
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Every day, computers are making people easier to use.
~ David Temkin
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Somehow these less-than-ideal conditions raised his game, spurred him on to greatness. There’s a definite lesson here. Fair winds do not a great captain make. We dream of finding our own greatness one day, but we want it to happen when the sun is shining.
~ Hugh Macleod
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Web pages which neglect to include two of the most important pieces of information: Who and When. Yes, all web pages. Thou shalt always list the author. (“Anonymous” is a legitimate answer to, “who?’) Thou shalt always list at least a general composition/publication date. Online, it is already difficult to place things into context. Having a Who and When gives that many more clues to place things into context.
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How can community spaces be designed to encourage meaningful engagement and participation rather than passive consumption?
Creating active engagement within a community proves to be far more challenging than simply gathering members.
With the community, I am trying to encourage conversation among independent professionals in the field. Not everyone identifies as an environmental educator yet. There are many people out there who, through their work, connect people with the outdoors. I am trying to connect them and have conversation, and to generate conversation between all of them.
~ Tania Marien (1:10)
The conversation focuses on the challenges of building active, engaged communities, particularly in the context of independent professionals working in environmental education. It highlights the difficulty of moving from asynchronous communication to synchronous, real-time interactions. Efforts to encourage participation often reveal a gap between people who self-identify with a community and those who actively interact within it.
One key theme is the importance of modeling desired behavior to inspire participation. When spaces are provided, such as structured co-working sessions or live interactive events, participants are more likely to engage, yet this still requires intentional facilitation. The discussion also touches on how modern habits shaped by social media influence passive consumption, making it harder to foster real conversation and collaboration.
Takeaways
Encouraging engagement — Communities often face the challenge of members identifying with the group but choosing not to interact.
Asynchronous vs. synchronous spaces — Real-time interactions tend to foster deeper engagement compared to asynchronous platforms.
Modeling behavior — Actively demonstrating desired participation helps inspire others to follow suit.
Environmental educators’ traits — Professionals in this field may sometimes lean toward introversion, complicating efforts to create interactive spaces.
Structured events — Hosting well-defined, collaborative experiences like co-working sessions encourages participation.
Social media habits — Passive consumption of content has become the norm, influencing how people approach online community spaces.
Clear communication — Defining terms like co-working and being overt about goals helps avoid misinterpretation of intentions.
Resources
Talaterra — Tania’s project focused on environmental education and community-building.
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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One of the central conceits of the “man’s natural state” argument is that if we go back to some point in time, we’ll find it. We’ll finally come across the state of being where man lived totally in harmony with each other and with nature; eating the perfect diet for health, worshipping the correct gods, having sex in the natural and acceptable way. And besides studying religious texts, the tool that’s most frequently employed is the study of ancient, “pre-historic” man and woman. We hope that, by going back far enough, we’ll hit some arbitrary Point of Naturalness. That’s partially the approach used, for example, by the Paleo movement which has become such a popular force in nutrition. We evolved to eat bacon, right?
~ Shane Parrish from, The False Allure of a “Natural State” of Man
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I have avoided—I’ve no idea how—the rabbit hole of, “what is natural [for a human being’s flourishing]?” I have limited time, (I suggest doublechecking, as yours may also be limited,) and I’m really only interested in, “what is best for this human being’s flourishing?” I don’t care if we evolved to eat bacon. I do care how I feel after I eat bacon. …after I eat different types of bacon. …after I consider the monetary cost of buying bacon. …after I assess the environmental cost/footprint of eating bacon. …after I assess the societal aspects of bacon.
Sorry. All this talk of bacon. I lost my train of thought. Oh, right—
For a short span of several decades, I have complete control over my thoughts. At no time do I have absolute control over anything beyond my thoughts. (I have pretty reliable control over many things—movement of my hands for example. But even that control is not absolute. See: Disease, accidents, etc. At any moment, my preferences related to all the things beyond my thoughts, can easily be frustrated.) So the only thing that makes sense is to discover, reflect and then exercise what efficacy I have at any give moment: What do I know? How do I know it? What decision should I make now/today, given what I know? How would I find where my unknown unknowns are?
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But, for me, one of your qualities stands out that is not often cited in the legacies of the famous: decency.
~ Steve Martin from, Carl Reiner, Perfect – The New York Times
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Hear! Hear!
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P.S.: Carl Reiner, Multifaceted Master of Comedy, Is Dead at 98 – The New York Times
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Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind.
~ Marcus Aurelius
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I think that there’s a certain delusional quality that all successful people have to have. You have to believe that something different can happen.
~ Will Smith
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(Part 4 of 72 in series, My Journey)
When we are unaware of our thoughts and urges, which arise in the back of our mind mostly unnoticed, they have a power over us. We are unable to change if these unbidden thoughts control us. But when we learn to observe them, we can then release their power over us.
Meditation is practice for observing those thoughts, for being more mindful of them throughout the day.
~ Leo Babauta from, Meditation: The Most Fundamental Habit – Zen Habits Website
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Meditation is literally the easiest thing you can add to your life — 5 minutes, 2 minutes, even 60 seconds will do you good. As I wrote elsewhere:
If you were handed a large bucket of sloshing and disturbed water and told to calm the water, you should simply set the bucket down and wait for the water to calm. You would definitely NOT shake the bucket in an attempt to convince the water to calm down.
Driving, texting, walking, rushing, typing, watching TV, playing games, talking, frenzied eating. Set the bucket down for a few minutes.
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