Escaping Screens: A Tech-Free Travel Quest, Part II

A stranded American tourist shares the story of a six-month screen-free quest through India and Nepal just as the coronavirus explodes. Part II.

By Tom Grotewohl | August 12, 2020 | Cognition, Culture, Media, Philosophy, Society, Well-Being | Acceptance, Addiction, Art, Awareness, Boredom, Boundaries, Concentration, Conscientious Tech Use, Consciousness, Convenience, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Creativity, Distraction, Dystopia, Electronic Devices, Experience, Food, Ganges, India, Jungle, Localism, Lockdown, Meditation, music, Nature, Nepal, News, Obsession, Pandemic, Peace, Photography, Presence, Renunciation, Ritual, Sacred, Screen Sabbath, Serendipity, Smartphone, Social Media, Spirituality, Superficiality, Tech-Free, Time, Tranquility, travel, Wisdom, Writing

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Escaping Screens: A Tech-Free Travel Quest, Part I

An American tourist stranded in India shares his story: six months traveling without a screen, only to pick one up again just in time for the global meltdown.

By Tom Grotewohl | July 30, 2020 | Cognition, Culture, Media, Philosophy, Society, Well-Being | Acceptance, Addiction, Art, Awareness, Boredom, Boundaries, Concentration, Conscientious Tech Use, Consciousness, Convenience, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Creativity, Distraction, Dystopia, Electronic Devices, Experience, Food, Ganges, India, Jungle, Localism, Lockdown, Meditation, music, Nature, Nepal, News, Obsession, Pandemic, Peace, Photography, Presence, Renunciation, Ritual, Sacred, Screen Sabbath, Serendipity, Smartphone, Social Media, Spirituality, Superficiality, Tech-Free, Time, Tranquility, travel, Wisdom, Writing

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Podcast #24: Michael Zimmerman Gets Philosophical on Tech

In a wide-ranging conversation, philosopher Michael Zimmerman contextualizes our technological journey within the history of Western thought.

By Mo Lotman | January 9, 2019 | Artificial Intelligence, Culture, Employment, Environment, Ethics, Knowledge, Philosophy, Podcasts, Religion, Society | Acts of Enclosure, Addiction, Agriculture, Ancient World, Anger, Aristotle, Arnold Toynbee, Artificial General Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, Authenticity, Axial Age, Behavior, Bible, Bolsheviks, Boundaries, Buddhism, Capitlism, Carolyn Merchant, Christianity, Civilization, Control, Craving, Creativity, CRISPR, David Loy, Death, Decadence, Deep Ecology, Delusion, Desire, Distraction, Earth, Ease, Embodiment, Engineering, Environment, Eternity, Exploitation, Exponential Growth, Facebook, Fake News, Fate, Finitude, Fire, Francis Bacon, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gnosticism, Golden Rule, Google, Greed, Hatred, Hegel, Heiddeger, Hubris, Human Nature, Humanness, Immaturity, Immortality, Industrial Revolution, Infantilization, Isaiah, Islam, Jaron Lanier, Karl Jaspers, Karl Marx, Knowledge, Lab-Grown Meat, Life, Loss, Martin Rees, Marxism, Master-Slave Dialectic, Meaning, Meat-Eating, Mediation, Medieval World, Metallurgy, Mind, Mining, Modernity, Money Economy, Morality, Mortality, Native Americans, Nature, Nazis, News, Nihilism, Obesity, Pain, Pascal, Peter Thiel, Philosophy, Plato, Playing God, Power, Production, Progress, Propoganda, Protestant Reformation, Ray Kurzweil, Reincarnation, relationships, Religion, René Descartes, Resentment, Resources, Respect, Sailing, Security, Self-Mastery, Silicon Valley, Smartphones, Socialism, Soviets, Spirituality, Splintering, Steve Jobs, Suffering, The Overman, The Singularity, Trade, Traditional Societies, Transhumanism, Twitter, Utopia, Wealth, Wildfires, Will to Power, Wisdom, Wonder

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iPhone, Therefore I Am

Once we’re all parroting back Wikipedia entries to each other, what unique knowledge or wisdom do we have to offer?

By Isabel Sterne | March 28, 2018 | Cognition, Culture, Identity, Knowledge, Relationships | Efficiency, External Memory, Google, GPS, Individuality, Information, Knowledge, Memory, Overconfidence, Phaedrus, Plato, Recall, Smartphones, Socrates, Wisdom

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The Informed Preference for Permanence (Principles of Technoskepticism, Part Three)

Our technological mindset leads to an “enforced impermanence” as the new is always prioritized over the old. The resultant rootlessness and churn contributes to a sense of disequilibrium while keeping us apart from the steadying forces of tradition and wisdom.

By David A. J. Reynolds | March 21, 2018 | Agriculture, Philosophy, Society | Agribusiness, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, C.S. Lewis, Capitalism, Change, Chronological Snobbery, Communism, Connection, Culture, Czechoslovakia, Despoliation, Disequilibrium, Disorientation, Ecology, Edmund Burke, Family Farms, Farming, Fashion, Groundedness, Heritage, History, Impermanence, Inheritance, Inhumanity, Jan Patočka, Machines, Manipulation, Meaning, Michael Hanby, Michael Oakeshott, Modernity, Modernization, Nature, Newness, Obsolescence, Permanence, Presence, Presentism, Productivity, Reality, Roger Kimball, Roger Scruton, Soil, Stability, Standing Reserve, T.S. Eliot, Time, Tradition, Vaclav Havel, Value, Wisdom

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Disruptive Technologies Outpace Our Adaptability

As digital technologies improve exponentially, the pace of change has become too great for healthy adaptation.

By Mo Lotman | August 9, 2017 | Artificial Intelligence, Culture, Economics, Employment, Philosophy, Society, Well-Being | Agriculture, AI, Clay Christensen, Disruption, Employment, FailCon, Homo Sapiens, Invention, Moore's Law, Moveable Type, Pace, Retraining, Silicon Valley, Speed, The Internet, The Wheel, Wisdom

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Walter Lippmann’s Enduring Relevance

In the 20th Century, Walter Lippmann was one of America’s most gifted political theorists. Forty-three years after his death, he may still be.

By Mo Lotman | May 17, 2017 | Culture, Identity, Philosophy, Politics, Society | American Catholic Philosophical Association, Buddhism, Democracy, Fascism, Geopolitics, Identity, Modernity, Philosophy, Political Theory, Politics, The Hungry Ghost, The New Republic, Today and Tomorrow, Vanity Fair, Walter Lippmann, Wisdom, World War I, World War II

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On “Going Back”

“We can’t go back” is a favorite rejoinder to technoskeptics. We just don’t think it’s a compelling argument for much of anything.

By Mo Lotman | May 10, 2017 | Automation, Economics, Philosophy, Privacy, Society, Well-Being | Brexit, El Sisi, Income Inequality, Kevin Kelly, Lionel Shriver, Monopoly, Permaculture, Progress, Slavery, Smoking, Stasi, Stephen Hawking, Techno-utopians, Technological Determinism, Wisdom, WWII

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The Limits of Efficiency

Demanding convenience in every aspect of life might have some rather inconvenient effects: the atrophying of skills, self-worth, and wisdom.

By Mo Lotman | April 19, 2017 | Automation, Economics, Identity, Philosophy, Well-Being | Bangladesh, Capabilities, Compassion, Convenience, Driving, Drizly, Ease, Efficiency, Entitlement, Garment Workers, Happiness, Helplessness, Impatience, Inconvenience, Joy, Laziness, Peace, Reward, Self-Reliance, Walking, Wisdom

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Podcast #11: Narayan Liebenson on Mindfulness and Attention

Narayan Liebenson, a guiding teacher at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, speaks to us about the benefits of mindfulness and attention. How might smart devices be impacting our ability to be present?

By Mo Lotman | April 12, 2017 | Cognition, Culture, Health, Podcasts, Psychology, Relationships, Well-Being | Addiction, Attention, Buddhism, Cambridge Insight Meditation Center, Compassion, Hungry Ghost, Insight Meditation Society, Meditation, Mindfulness, Noble Eightfold Path, Sanctuary, smart phones, Steadiness, Stillness, The Internet, Wisdom

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