Welcome to the attic of my mind. Mind the stairs, click the light on and have a rummage around my thoughts on writing, the art of everything second-hand, the natural world, music . . . just about everything. Probably not much about sport.
It all needs a huge shake up, from infants school through to universities, business schools, all of it, and fast!
I've posted Nate Hagen's work and excellent podcasts several times on this blog and the fact I get thousands of hits a day - probably mainly from AI scooping up all my words and images, may hopefully plug some vital info into the net.
Everything his guest says make 100% utter sense, exploring how through, at often a very local level, we can still make change to our planet's trajectory towards inhospitality for us and for all other lifeforms that share this sphere.
Our small strip garden is now full of trees and shrubs, much to the horror of our leaf-blower - and all other garden electrical gadgets - neighbour. We have two ponds, both fascinating little microcosms of insect and amphibian life, and have left weeds to bloom this year encouraging more birds and insects.
They cost little to set up and after the initial plants, virtually no maintenance - no pump needed, just let it become its own little world. So many people look doubtful saying mosquitos will be a problem but if you let the ecosystem do its thing the predators feast on them, plus any that are about are vital food for bats, etc. And . . . kids are fascinated by frogs, fish and insects - if they are allowed to be fascinated.
Right, into the garden to plant veg in a high wind.
Please share this amazingly useful video and other work by Nate. He is one of the reason's to celebrate the original aims of the Web.
Technology and Wealth: The Straw, the Siphon, and the Sieve | Frankly 119
The other reason is my other favourite channel: The Functional Melancholic, of whose videos I have posted before.
Nate Hagens is an extraordinary human being; having studied and been immersed in the world of economy, finance, Wall Street etc, he departed from the latter, feeling he could no longer agree with the economic model that we have been using for decades.
Caring deeply about the environment, biosphere, and above all truth - something severely lacking in our current time - he has created an incredible channel/platform - the Great Simplification in which he interviews experts in their fields of knowledge, and also shares his thoughts and expertise in his own monologues - Frankly (see above video)which are fascinating, educational, not in the least 'mansplaining'
humble, and generous.
There are many videos and we are making our way through them, learning so much each time.
It would be useful to have people like this in so called, control, of our planet.
The Wide Boundary Impacts of AI with Daniel Schmachtenberger - podcast with Nate Hagens.
I've been steadily weaning myself off from the internet, bit by bit, not that I was ever utterly glued to my phone but I began to feel uneasy at that slight fear rising up when I didn't know where it was in the house. I'd got into a rut of listening to stuff at night in order to sleep but I've managed to stop that and have replaced it by breath-work - nothing complicated and needing an app, just slow deep intakes of breath and slower out breaths; after a while the thoughts and angst disappear replaced by a warm feeling of security and sleepiness - produced by chemicals in the brain that I forget the name of.
Social media . . . basically it makes me feel depressed, even though I am very grateful to be able to access it occasionally to post a piece of art or something, or to check how someone's doing. I was super relieved that our son has come to the same conclusion and got rid of it all. He's back on track with writing and illustrating, something that had got replaced temporarily by easier scrolling and checking.
As a writer of speculative novels I feel like future-proofing myself with regard to perhaps there not being a 'net' at all - see Londonia's main premise. Therefore relying rather on human face to face communication, reading and creating real hands-on stuff seems a better plan. In the meantime - before the collapse - I'm using the phone still for checking the weather, texting, photos and yes, Youtube. Dear old Youtube. Fond memories of the earlier stages, the fishcake video - sadly taken down, the Alsatian dog being told about treats being given to the cat, Ultimate Dog Tease - still makes me laugh, and it's fourteen years old!
Fast forward to the massive over stuffed behemoth that it is now. And it certainly has given me an incredible amount of useful information, laughter and things to mull over: health, philosophy, history, geography, politics, permaculture, music, et al. But I'm still trying to narrow it down so that I can do the washing up with just looking out at the birds or without needing anything other than me in silence for a while.
So within the narrower spectrum I now watch or listen to are about five channels: The functional melancholic - posted about before, the Daily Beast/Rest is Politics for a catch up on the mad state of the political world, and quite a lot of science podcasts about AI, AGI and 'super intelligence' as I'm attempting to write a novel which encompasses some of this ever changing vast subject. Actually impossible to write really but fun and brain-stretching.
The above podcast was one of the incredibly interesting and frankly, utterly terrifying descriptions of what is actually going on, and probably will be going on which will change everything for humans, and everything else that shares this maligned and still utterly beautiful sphere we have the fortune to live on.
And . . . for admirers of beards, this has to be the most extraordinary one I've seen for a while.
Great exchange, and I think I'll need to listen to several times to glean even a fraction of the information.
And then, to lift the gloom, I do allow myself a glimpse into the world of Glenn DeVar's 'Country Drag' - welcome back to country drag, y'all.'
