I have been looking for a post that I could pass on to colleagues and friends so they could understand why I find your writings so delightful, refreshing and interesting — helping to make "deep sense" about the situation we find ourselves in nowadays — and think that THIS is the post. I'll be relaying responses if&when I get them...
I got just one comment so far; this from a friend (a digital nomad originally from Hongkong):
"I really enjoyed reading that. Thanks for sharing! A very human and poetic commentary on the existential crisis humanity currently faces. I particularly appreciate his enunciation of the bifurcation between the gifted, well-positioned few and the masses, as well as his comments about Southeast Asia.
I believe this crisis of meaning was inevitable and I hope that collectively most people throw away the ladder that they have been worshipping and find meaning that is intrinsic and evergreen. We of course love ladders, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but perhaps now we can choose ladders that are more about enjoyment and beauty than survival. I look at this messy world of ours and see that there is no shortage of meaningful work to be done. If we can free humans up from the toil and drudgery required to keep the lights on, perhaps we can be free to focus on urban beautification, conservation of the biosphere, providing for the less gifted, community theatre, etc.
However, this will require political systems that view humans as valuable in their own right (and provide purchasing power accordingly) rather than being only as valuable as their labor. If shareholders rather than stakeholders continue to be the ones holding all the power, it’s more likely that we will enter a cyberpunk future in which an elite few with armies of AI agents and security robots dictate the rules by which society operates."
I have been looking for a post that I could pass on to colleagues and friends so they could understand why I find your writings so delightful, refreshing and interesting — helping to make "deep sense" about the situation we find ourselves in nowadays — and think that THIS is the post. I'll be relaying responses if&when I get them...
I got just one comment so far; this from a friend (a digital nomad originally from Hongkong):
"I really enjoyed reading that. Thanks for sharing! A very human and poetic commentary on the existential crisis humanity currently faces. I particularly appreciate his enunciation of the bifurcation between the gifted, well-positioned few and the masses, as well as his comments about Southeast Asia.
I believe this crisis of meaning was inevitable and I hope that collectively most people throw away the ladder that they have been worshipping and find meaning that is intrinsic and evergreen. We of course love ladders, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but perhaps now we can choose ladders that are more about enjoyment and beauty than survival. I look at this messy world of ours and see that there is no shortage of meaningful work to be done. If we can free humans up from the toil and drudgery required to keep the lights on, perhaps we can be free to focus on urban beautification, conservation of the biosphere, providing for the less gifted, community theatre, etc.
However, this will require political systems that view humans as valuable in their own right (and provide purchasing power accordingly) rather than being only as valuable as their labor. If shareholders rather than stakeholders continue to be the ones holding all the power, it’s more likely that we will enter a cyberpunk future in which an elite few with armies of AI agents and security robots dictate the rules by which society operates."