Love this! My favorite time is spent in the barn, milking the cow, in the garden planting and harvesting and in the kitchen preparing the harvest. That’s family time with my husband and mother and sometimes my children and grandchild. More people should discover the joy of self sufficiency!
The answer to your first question: heck YES! I can name even more daily examples of the de-humanizing going on with increasing automation. Just for starters, I have often been rebuked when trying to help someone who dropped a full grocery bag, or struggles to open a heavy door, or is experiencing a flat tire. They look at me with only a suspicious stare before they say NO.
It’s an awful change from 30 years ago. Grieve worthy actually.
The simple life brings peace of mind with far less stress that shortens people's lives. People work all their lives focused on saving for retirement...and die as soon as they retire. I grew up with out any of the gadgets that people have today...and I stopped watching TV almost 50 years ago. I have a land line, no cell phone; avoid all electronics, except my laptop, which has a Harmoni EMF Equilibrium card and another anti-radiation button on it.. We would not have a radiation emitting device like a microwave oven, which destroys the value of food. During fruit season, when our fruit trees are providing abundantly, I primarily eat fruit and some eggs from our chickens. I am not into doing much cooking, because unheated food has more nutrient-value. I am 92 and have been retired for many years. I have time to do a 90 minute non-stop walk daily, sunbathe for 30 minutes, and keep daily records pertaining to my diet, etc. I disconnected from the Internet for over 6 months to catch up on my reading. I had a stack of books sitting there...waiting to be read. I also honed in on my health, because I had an accident last yaar and couldn't walk for over two months. In two months, I didn't gain too much weight, but I put on 4 inches around my waist by sitting. Well, I got back to my walking and the 4 inches are gone; and I am fit again. I am living a very simple stress-free life.
Ah, Barbara, you're a woman after my own heart! I threw out the TV 50 years ago as well. My son thought I was very mean, but he was the only kid in the neighborhood who knew how to fill time enjoyably when the power was out.
I love it when someone asks me if I watched XXXXX last night, and I ask, "is that a TV program?" Like you, I don't have a microwave, preferring to prepare my own food (must be quick, healthy, and tasty). I use my laptop a lot (but then, I would, being a retired computer engineer), but I also have a minimalist (privacy) phone to keep reminders--easier than the 3x5 cards I used to carry around. My dogs, my garden, my books, they all keep me occupied, and this fall I'm thinking of making another drive around the country, starting in Maine, on to Florida, west through the southern border states, north through Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, then on to Kansas, Ohio, and back home, stopping in several states along the way to visit friends and relatives. I'm 80, so 12 years behind you, but I enjoy every minute of my life. How do people get bored? There's so much to do and see!
Good for you ...keeping busy doing the right things, too. Your trip itinerary covers a lot of territory. You obviously like to drive. I would rather drive than fly.. i have driven across the United States ten times...five times by myself. The last trip my son did most of the driving and we covered 7000 miles going from California all the way to Rhode Island. Along the way, we visited friends in Kansas, family in Pennsylvania, then visited with friends in Waterford, CT. We spent a day at the beach in Rhode Island. Then we headed south to Virginia to visit a college friend I had not seen in 50 years. She took us to visit Washington, D.C. When we left Virginia, we went to Delaware and took a ferry from there to May's landing in New Jersey. I wanted to visit Ocean City, New Jersey., because I spent the best summer of my life waitressing at a seafood restaurant, as a 19 year old college student.(Penn State).. enjoying the beach. I visited with another friend who had a summer home on the beach in Ocean City. We had been friends, since I was eleven. . Then, we drove almost non-stop to get back to California, as my son had made plans to get together with his cousins from Pennsylvania who would be coming to California. They showed up within the hour, after we got back home. You are right...I never get bored, there is so much to do.
That all sounds wonderful, Barbara. I would enjoy every mile of a shared road trip like that--as long as I could take naps when it wasn't my turn to drive.
On the spectrum from the Old Amish to Gen Z, I tend closer to the former. One red line I will not cross is to even consider the use of AI in any words I write. They will be mine, for good or for ill.
Thank you for this appreciation of life reminder. The coastal fisherman meets Harvard business graduate story is one I tell myself. It's a grounding story. How much is enough ? I see Elon Musk most often smiling; not because of monetary wealth, but because of accomplishment and the untold number of people he has shared that accomplishment with. Not to mention the child so often accompanying him.
I hate to be the contrarian here, but you are getting at a real point. Is the point of life to sit around fishing and having idle chats with amigos? Or to make being productive as difficult as possible so one can be really sore afterwards and give themselves the tiki pin? There is good content here, but being productive and contributory is a strong motivator for many (perhaps most) humans...and making productivity as difficult as possible is not necessarily something to be lauded. I love Jess but all of this line of articles are off-balance. There is a role for everything...it is knowing how to use it that matters. Some of us LIKE being productive and increasing our productivity using tools that can do that. Jess could have spent a week writing that article with a goose quill pen on parchment and then traveling from town to town telling five people in each town (reached after at two week journey of disease and discomfort) about her insights. That is the natural result of following that path. Nothing I do using whatever tools make sense has deprecated my interactions with people -- I have more friends and many (including with Jess) are richer interactions because we can fly to be together, we can communicate effectively when separated by miles...many pieces to this puzzle.
So of course one should not be an automaton and of course one should do what one loves...but the archetypes here of "really great life" strike me as unsatisfactory for those of us wired to actually want to DO things. More power to those who think their lives are full by taking a 90 minute walk every day and eating an egg from a chicken in the back yard. My Dad got his best patent in his 80's...he was not interested in growing chickens. But he spent lots of time (while being highly productive) with us as children, traveled all over the world, used whatever devices made sense, and never whined about any of it. He did plenty of fishing, traveling, and siestas. But he had purpose and that was, in many ways, the most satisfying (to him and others) part of his life. I am wired the same way. And I still like fishing and do some, too...
I often reflect that digital photography has made me a Lazy Photographer. No need to understand how the camera works, to consider what I’m try to capture and adjust framing, depth of field, exposure……all that used to be at my fingertips and in my muscles. Now I point and tap, knowing that the details can be fine tuned later. It’s a loss. Will I go back to my SLR? Probably not. Makes me sad.
So true. I started with a brownie box camera as a kid. My older cousin who had terrible eyesight issues took up photography as his hobby and mentored me. One had to be careful to frame the pictures and could not take too many because having film processed was costly for a kid. Over the years I got better cameras and looking back at old family albums I saw that I had taken many of the photos.
Currently, I use a Nikon D5600 and can capture birds in flight and freeze frame flowers in a breeze. It also shoots video. I have photo editing software, too. So there are some advantages to modern tech photography. The key is how much you are willing to do for yourself in getting the pictures you need. It has not made me lazy, it has made me learn to work with it and take more chances with what I shoot and how I can edit and change pictures without being destructive to the original shot.
That reminded me of my first year of marriage, 1974. Received a Canon camera from my husbands uncle who was a pro. It had 3 or 4 different lenses. We learned about F stops and light settings, and it was so fun. On July 4th that year, at night, with a setting to keep the aperture open for like 30 seconds, to catch a picture of me writing God with a sparkler. It came through exactly as we wanted, God all spelled out in white, could hardly see me.
Even with fancy cams and editing you still have to angle and optimize the natural light the old way. It’s especially true of botanical and bug pics. Nothing beats natural light effects, and catching live action.
One of the pleasures of living in Ukraine. Sad to say, our market-stall markets are giving way to European-owned supermarkets, with barcodes and prices at checkout somehow greater than what is marked on the shelves. Still operated by people, but unlike the market stalls, not people you know.
Same pleasure can be had almost anywhere in Latin America, especially outside the cities. They still know one another.
Good thoughts in writing! What a simple life in the 50s when Mom cleaned, cooked meals, and loved us. Our home was spotless. Later, yes she had conveniences but until that time our clothes were washed on a ringer washing machine, rinsed and hung out to dry! One place she went to the spring to get our water for drinking. Now I am wondering how she had water to wash clothes. Too little to remember but remember what she washed clothes in! Guess I need to ask my almost 91 year old Uncle how she did it!!!
When people asked me why I was quitting a high salary job to retire early, I told them I had something a lot of people apparently do not have: ENOUGH. I had enough to have a modest lifestyle in retirement and my only regret was not retiring earlier.
When you were a child, when I was a child, life was NOT simpler, there were just fewer distractions that we take for granted today. When we were children, we couldn’t DO things we take for granted today. We had a party line and sometimes you had to wait, today I can talk to my son, his wife, his mother, and who ever else I want to, all at the same time. If I want to, instead of one to one, not moving from the confines of the cord length. When I was a child fast food was a box of cereal and milk (extra sugar when mom wasn’t looking). Taxes for most, those who actually had to pay taxes, were much simpler, sure, but you had to use a pen and fill the firms out by hand. I watched dad take a week of evenings to take care of that annual chore - I gave no idea how much prep went into it before.
We idealize that life from ago because much if the time we idealize WE didn’t have to deal with all the little aggravations that "simpler" life came with. We were children. I have more but you get the idea.
Thank you for sharing these insights.They offer opportunities for meaningful refections for many life styles.
Certainly you yourselves are exemplary. You offer valuable information and perspectives to be considered for the community you've developed here. In relevant cases you encourage our participation in fostering beneficial actions. You actively provide valuable contributions to those who need to consider them. For us, you also share relevant details from your homestead experiences.
It does seem to me that all of humanity does benefit from those that find satisfaction and rewards from creating legitimate systems that optimise (in this discussion) the availability of fish for the many who can not fish themselves.
So is a consideration, as we shape our chosen life styles, also furthering our support of those who choose entrepreneurial and political pursuits to better the lives of we the many?
These reflections are appreciated.
Finally have ac for 82°. Am very grateful. Hope you folks and all have viable circumstances during these heat dome experiences.
Human Being. Being is integral to doing. Soul connection is tough to find in "things." Joy happens with connection to many things; art song dance whistling, see the difference? Uh-Ha!
I had to think about this one. I don't necessarily disagree but I am reminded of the old saying - I know there is balance to life because I can see it as I swing by. Things do not have to be either/or.
I am old and growing more disabled by the day. So, I can list without hesitation all the modern conveniences I am so grateful for. Like indoor plumbing and electric washers and dryers. I well recall helping my mother go grab the clothes out on the line because a storm was brewing. I've had to use an outhouse.
I can say I appreciate HVAC (as I thumb my nose at Europe) and now that I am no longer able to drive, I have Amazon. I don't recall the last time I had to go to a mall. I order and it's delivered to my door.
The internet has always been the wild wild west and those who are mindful use it instead of letting it use them. Again - balance.
I do use AI but only to take my lyrics and turn them into listenable music. It's a hobby I can do while sitting in my recliner chair.
On the other hand I also know I would never be comfortable with AI writing for me. I'm a writer. I've been a doer, getterdoner imagineer who has invented more things than I can list. But not for money - just to solve a problem, usually for me. I am still doing this, btw.
I get how dumbed down we are for all the knowledge we have at our fingertips. I get this is because we are slowly being conditioned to not think for ourselves or being willing to ask questions. Humans have always been gullible so this is same song 1000th verse.
I guess it comes down to individual choices about how much to submit to being conditioned - or using our amazing resources to make things work for us.
One thing I never see addressed when it comes to AI - what is our plan b when AI seems to be taking over? Pull the plug. AI cannot exist without electricity. Humans can survive eating leaves.
Excellent response, almost took the words from my own keyboard.
As I was reading the essay it occurred to me that the protagonist of the parable, the fisherman/person 🙄 has contributed little if anything to the society that makes it possible for him to fish and play. He may have provided a meal for his family but has done nothing to provide for his/their future. This fisherman comes off as the ultimate societal leech. Quite possibly a bubble, or more, off plumb. Not a person I think we should be building an ethos of how to approach life on.
This is not to say the industrialist is answer, either - there are/may be problems with that approach as well. But unless the fisherman becomes a serial killer if not fishing and playing, the whole of society is better off with the industrialist.
Me, outside of a few cultural issues, I much prefer today vs when I was born. When I got home from shopping today I pressed a button on my mirror to open the garage door rather than get out in the snow or freezing rain to do the same [for the record:it was 90+ in the shade, beautiful blue Montana sky and I’d already generated 40kWHr electricity, half of that powering someone else on the grid. I know it was beautiful azure blue ‘cause when I was driving I could look up and see and experience that sky since the roof was tucked in behind my seat. I unlocked the door and turned off the alarm from the watch on my wrist.
I can walk into my house and tell the home bit to turn on all the lights or just certain ones - as an older person myself the ability to interact with my dwelling makes my life easier and safer. I can stream a local radio station over a "smart" speaker or a radio station located in DC (where I woke to the Doc at 5am one day last year 😱) or even from Moscow Russia or Idaho. The secret is that I view all these devices that make my life better as just the tools they are. I’d rather weed much of my garden with a hoe than my arthritic hands, till that garden with troybilt than my long handle shovel. The problem arises when we let our (interactive addictive) tools own us vs us owning them. [Adventures in Odyssey had an episode on this topic]
As I age, not rather gracefully if you ask me 😉, I value the simplicity of life my "tools" provide, that while I COULD, and should, do more, tools/distractions (complexities) provide me more "fishing time" than I’ve ever had since childhood. I baked up another four loaves of sourdough this morning (2 large, 950g and 2 smaller 200g loaves) I began two days ago.
This may be counter I tuitive: I’ve spent much of the daylight hours recently talking (typing 🤷♀️) with various AIs discussing ideas pertaining to a story I’m working on. Much of the discussion dealt with matters I was already fairly fluent in so I could check if "hallucinations " might be an issue (they weren’t). What I came to realize is that I accomplished more in those 20’ish hours than I ever could have just spelunking in Google alone - and orders of magnitude more than when I was a lowly college student or grad student stomping my way from card catalog, to book shelves to cross references, etc. In a short time I was dealing with topics in seismology, hydrology, climatology, macro and micro economics, looking for holes in my reasoning, learning new things; so effective were these sessions that I found I was open to a whole’nuther approach to the story I wanted to tell. An AI chatbot (?) saved me years of research, the cost of an assistant smarter than myself (that would have been a very expensive assistant 😉 😂) and possibly having to acquire another couple of higher ed degrees 🤣.
I totally understand your POV and, as I said, there isn't really a perfect /correct position to take. I accept that it takes all kinds to keep this world turning. I also know that there is nothing that mankind can design, invent, create, that was intended for good, that can't/won't be hijacked and used for nefarious purpose. The course of what we deem to be 'progress' often has unseen negative consequences.
For me, being a lifelong problem solver, I choose to have one foot in each camp. When I need something that does not exist, I take what does exist and cobble together a solution that works for me.
My other lifelong determination is to look up and out, to seek the big picture, to avoid myopia and never stop asking questions.
Another wonderful post, you are absolutely on point… it seems as a race, a species we have bought whollus bowlus the myth that doing less is more, indeed when it comes to much of what you cite in your article less is well…. Less, less in terms of defining, honing an individuals abilities, of fine tuning that can only evolve from doing…
We seem to occupy a moment in this time continuum whereby in pursing ease of life we are prepared to surrender individual agency, sovereignty a lot of that which if u dertaken shatpend and defines us..
I have long opined with A.I for example and as a case in point, that it seems our LLM’s in the main just provide a faster turnaround from previous predicated obviously speed, speed of response mainly… in essence the greater risk in over reliance and failing to identify A.I as a adjunct, a tool to use occasionally is that for those who so fail to equate use to occasional, as a resource will dumb themselves down, they will lose the inherent ability to comprehend, to think.
We see evidence of such already, literature professors at such esteemed and venerable ivy leagues as Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Duke have collectively come out, voicing and and stated that many of today’s graduates are lucky if they can read to 8/9th grade level let alone comprehend.
The risk being that they will default to the outcomes served up A.I, irrespective whether correct or not, I recall the frustrations with web site development and the corresponding data management, how many likewise can remember times you became frustrated endeavouring to reconcile a position with the party on the other end of the line, that you engaged insisting “ The computer says” a type of “Simon Says”, such did my head in, the waste of time having to educate, explain and attempt such moronic mindset to apply common sense, for many engaged, the computer was all powerful, irrefutable and unable to be challenged, I fear worse to come and such past experiences to be on steroids when A.I is universally adopted, poor thinkers will defer, default, offload decision making to machines THENST stand by such idiocy as if a edict from our creator.. irrefutable.. never ever to be challenged.
We need to understand and never lose sight of the fact LLM’s are only as good, as robust as those programming them, another case in point, given what we know of THIEL and Carp would we trust absolutely everything at face value Palantir throws up? Hardly, not if results thus far are anything to go by… at least many Western governments as despicable and morally bankrupted as they present and we know they to be, have distanced themselves from Palantir, cancelling contracts entered into…
However, occasionally such tech development throws up developers with a modicum of human empathy and morality, take for instance the position widely advised of the developer, owners of ANTHROPIC, cancelled contracts resulting because they staked and made a point of their moral position vs as an example, Palantir, a company prepared it seems to prostitution itself irrespective the consequences, a disturbing reality…
Hardly surprising though when looking into the background and influences of many that have developed A.I, so many it is known were taken under the wing of and received tutelage from none other than arch pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, his influence amongst this subset of tech entrepreneurs and so many others in politics, science, research, economics has and will unless excised cause a great deal of harm and kompromat to humanity… the example of Palantir and ANTHROPIC a case in point…
We must a species always as with everything control our use, being always careful not to over indulge, to become over reliant upon what at face value seems harmless, a benefit compared to the traditional way of doing things.. therein lies the danger the risk, every development a Trojan horse waiting to cut loose and to destroy what remains of individual autonomy and sovereignty…
Thank you as always J.R, your perspective always highly regarded, you have earned such support well and truly, one of the very few truth tellers today…just saying
This article is such a glass half empty piece, I feel sorry for the author. Sure, there are many people who submerge themselves in their smartphones and misuse AI. But what about the amazing ability to have so much information at our fingertips, or the connectivity to family and loved ones half way around the world? The passive voice "they are doing this to us" is not how I see humanity.
The tech that I really appreciate is email and.texting
When a loved one is deployed over seas these technologies replace the snail mail option. Sadly the snail mail hasbecome less reliable which makes email and texting all the more useful and positive.
Even water which is essential, has the danger of drowning one or over hydrating.
If you know anything about the author, you wouldn't feel sorry for her, William. She is a brilliant scientist, surfer, musician, photographer and more. This was a cautionary tale, not a complete indictment.
It pretty much goes back to the technology is a double edged sword thing. We enjoy many of the advances, but with them come the minuses that take away some of our quality of life.
Love this! My favorite time is spent in the barn, milking the cow, in the garden planting and harvesting and in the kitchen preparing the harvest. That’s family time with my husband and mother and sometimes my children and grandchild. More people should discover the joy of self sufficiency!
The answer to your first question: heck YES! I can name even more daily examples of the de-humanizing going on with increasing automation. Just for starters, I have often been rebuked when trying to help someone who dropped a full grocery bag, or struggles to open a heavy door, or is experiencing a flat tire. They look at me with only a suspicious stare before they say NO.
It’s an awful change from 30 years ago. Grieve worthy actually.
So true. This is because we have transitioned from a high-trust culture to a low-trust one.
so true!
I still smile and thank those who help me. I don't even mind (too much) being called 'Sweetie'!
And I’ll never stop offering to help and to be connected either, Linda!
The simple life brings peace of mind with far less stress that shortens people's lives. People work all their lives focused on saving for retirement...and die as soon as they retire. I grew up with out any of the gadgets that people have today...and I stopped watching TV almost 50 years ago. I have a land line, no cell phone; avoid all electronics, except my laptop, which has a Harmoni EMF Equilibrium card and another anti-radiation button on it.. We would not have a radiation emitting device like a microwave oven, which destroys the value of food. During fruit season, when our fruit trees are providing abundantly, I primarily eat fruit and some eggs from our chickens. I am not into doing much cooking, because unheated food has more nutrient-value. I am 92 and have been retired for many years. I have time to do a 90 minute non-stop walk daily, sunbathe for 30 minutes, and keep daily records pertaining to my diet, etc. I disconnected from the Internet for over 6 months to catch up on my reading. I had a stack of books sitting there...waiting to be read. I also honed in on my health, because I had an accident last yaar and couldn't walk for over two months. In two months, I didn't gain too much weight, but I put on 4 inches around my waist by sitting. Well, I got back to my walking and the 4 inches are gone; and I am fit again. I am living a very simple stress-free life.
Barbara Charis — you are a role model for us all 🙏👏👍❤️
Thank you!
Ah, Barbara, you're a woman after my own heart! I threw out the TV 50 years ago as well. My son thought I was very mean, but he was the only kid in the neighborhood who knew how to fill time enjoyably when the power was out.
I love it when someone asks me if I watched XXXXX last night, and I ask, "is that a TV program?" Like you, I don't have a microwave, preferring to prepare my own food (must be quick, healthy, and tasty). I use my laptop a lot (but then, I would, being a retired computer engineer), but I also have a minimalist (privacy) phone to keep reminders--easier than the 3x5 cards I used to carry around. My dogs, my garden, my books, they all keep me occupied, and this fall I'm thinking of making another drive around the country, starting in Maine, on to Florida, west through the southern border states, north through Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, then on to Kansas, Ohio, and back home, stopping in several states along the way to visit friends and relatives. I'm 80, so 12 years behind you, but I enjoy every minute of my life. How do people get bored? There's so much to do and see!
Good for you ...keeping busy doing the right things, too. Your trip itinerary covers a lot of territory. You obviously like to drive. I would rather drive than fly.. i have driven across the United States ten times...five times by myself. The last trip my son did most of the driving and we covered 7000 miles going from California all the way to Rhode Island. Along the way, we visited friends in Kansas, family in Pennsylvania, then visited with friends in Waterford, CT. We spent a day at the beach in Rhode Island. Then we headed south to Virginia to visit a college friend I had not seen in 50 years. She took us to visit Washington, D.C. When we left Virginia, we went to Delaware and took a ferry from there to May's landing in New Jersey. I wanted to visit Ocean City, New Jersey., because I spent the best summer of my life waitressing at a seafood restaurant, as a 19 year old college student.(Penn State).. enjoying the beach. I visited with another friend who had a summer home on the beach in Ocean City. We had been friends, since I was eleven. . Then, we drove almost non-stop to get back to California, as my son had made plans to get together with his cousins from Pennsylvania who would be coming to California. They showed up within the hour, after we got back home. You are right...I never get bored, there is so much to do.
That all sounds wonderful, Barbara. I would enjoy every mile of a shared road trip like that--as long as I could take naps when it wasn't my turn to drive.
On the spectrum from the Old Amish to Gen Z, I tend closer to the former. One red line I will not cross is to even consider the use of AI in any words I write. They will be mine, for good or for ill.
Thank you for this appreciation of life reminder. The coastal fisherman meets Harvard business graduate story is one I tell myself. It's a grounding story. How much is enough ? I see Elon Musk most often smiling; not because of monetary wealth, but because of accomplishment and the untold number of people he has shared that accomplishment with. Not to mention the child so often accompanying him.
I hate to be the contrarian here, but you are getting at a real point. Is the point of life to sit around fishing and having idle chats with amigos? Or to make being productive as difficult as possible so one can be really sore afterwards and give themselves the tiki pin? There is good content here, but being productive and contributory is a strong motivator for many (perhaps most) humans...and making productivity as difficult as possible is not necessarily something to be lauded. I love Jess but all of this line of articles are off-balance. There is a role for everything...it is knowing how to use it that matters. Some of us LIKE being productive and increasing our productivity using tools that can do that. Jess could have spent a week writing that article with a goose quill pen on parchment and then traveling from town to town telling five people in each town (reached after at two week journey of disease and discomfort) about her insights. That is the natural result of following that path. Nothing I do using whatever tools make sense has deprecated my interactions with people -- I have more friends and many (including with Jess) are richer interactions because we can fly to be together, we can communicate effectively when separated by miles...many pieces to this puzzle.
So of course one should not be an automaton and of course one should do what one loves...but the archetypes here of "really great life" strike me as unsatisfactory for those of us wired to actually want to DO things. More power to those who think their lives are full by taking a 90 minute walk every day and eating an egg from a chicken in the back yard. My Dad got his best patent in his 80's...he was not interested in growing chickens. But he spent lots of time (while being highly productive) with us as children, traveled all over the world, used whatever devices made sense, and never whined about any of it. He did plenty of fishing, traveling, and siestas. But he had purpose and that was, in many ways, the most satisfying (to him and others) part of his life. I am wired the same way. And I still like fishing and do some, too...
Oops, evidently I replied to myself above.
I often reflect that digital photography has made me a Lazy Photographer. No need to understand how the camera works, to consider what I’m try to capture and adjust framing, depth of field, exposure……all that used to be at my fingertips and in my muscles. Now I point and tap, knowing that the details can be fine tuned later. It’s a loss. Will I go back to my SLR? Probably not. Makes me sad.
So true. I started with a brownie box camera as a kid. My older cousin who had terrible eyesight issues took up photography as his hobby and mentored me. One had to be careful to frame the pictures and could not take too many because having film processed was costly for a kid. Over the years I got better cameras and looking back at old family albums I saw that I had taken many of the photos.
Currently, I use a Nikon D5600 and can capture birds in flight and freeze frame flowers in a breeze. It also shoots video. I have photo editing software, too. So there are some advantages to modern tech photography. The key is how much you are willing to do for yourself in getting the pictures you need. It has not made me lazy, it has made me learn to work with it and take more chances with what I shoot and how I can edit and change pictures without being destructive to the original shot.
My daughter has enjoyed tin type photography in past years and is organizing all the materials and chemicals necessary to start it up again.
OMG! CHEMICALS! Clutching my pearls!
Hahahahhaa!!xoxoxo
That reminded me of my first year of marriage, 1974. Received a Canon camera from my husbands uncle who was a pro. It had 3 or 4 different lenses. We learned about F stops and light settings, and it was so fun. On July 4th that year, at night, with a setting to keep the aperture open for like 30 seconds, to catch a picture of me writing God with a sparkler. It came through exactly as we wanted, God all spelled out in white, could hardly see me.
Even with fancy cams and editing you still have to angle and optimize the natural light the old way. It’s especially true of botanical and bug pics. Nothing beats natural light effects, and catching live action.
One of the pleasures of living in Ukraine. Sad to say, our market-stall markets are giving way to European-owned supermarkets, with barcodes and prices at checkout somehow greater than what is marked on the shelves. Still operated by people, but unlike the market stalls, not people you know.
Same pleasure can be had almost anywhere in Latin America, especially outside the cities. They still know one another.
Good thoughts in writing! What a simple life in the 50s when Mom cleaned, cooked meals, and loved us. Our home was spotless. Later, yes she had conveniences but until that time our clothes were washed on a ringer washing machine, rinsed and hung out to dry! One place she went to the spring to get our water for drinking. Now I am wondering how she had water to wash clothes. Too little to remember but remember what she washed clothes in! Guess I need to ask my almost 91 year old Uncle how she did it!!!
When people asked me why I was quitting a high salary job to retire early, I told them I had something a lot of people apparently do not have: ENOUGH. I had enough to have a modest lifestyle in retirement and my only regret was not retiring earlier.
Life was simpler when I was a child.
When you were a child, when I was a child, life was NOT simpler, there were just fewer distractions that we take for granted today. When we were children, we couldn’t DO things we take for granted today. We had a party line and sometimes you had to wait, today I can talk to my son, his wife, his mother, and who ever else I want to, all at the same time. If I want to, instead of one to one, not moving from the confines of the cord length. When I was a child fast food was a box of cereal and milk (extra sugar when mom wasn’t looking). Taxes for most, those who actually had to pay taxes, were much simpler, sure, but you had to use a pen and fill the firms out by hand. I watched dad take a week of evenings to take care of that annual chore - I gave no idea how much prep went into it before.
We idealize that life from ago because much if the time we idealize WE didn’t have to deal with all the little aggravations that "simpler" life came with. We were children. I have more but you get the idea.
Thank you for sharing these insights.They offer opportunities for meaningful refections for many life styles.
Certainly you yourselves are exemplary. You offer valuable information and perspectives to be considered for the community you've developed here. In relevant cases you encourage our participation in fostering beneficial actions. You actively provide valuable contributions to those who need to consider them. For us, you also share relevant details from your homestead experiences.
It does seem to me that all of humanity does benefit from those that find satisfaction and rewards from creating legitimate systems that optimise (in this discussion) the availability of fish for the many who can not fish themselves.
So is a consideration, as we shape our chosen life styles, also furthering our support of those who choose entrepreneurial and political pursuits to better the lives of we the many?
These reflections are appreciated.
Finally have ac for 82°. Am very grateful. Hope you folks and all have viable circumstances during these heat dome experiences.
Human Being. Being is integral to doing. Soul connection is tough to find in "things." Joy happens with connection to many things; art song dance whistling, see the difference? Uh-Ha!
Good conclusions! I'd summarize as might a Buddhist: "You don't own things; things own you".
My cat Hagrid would agree completely with those sentiments 😂😂
I had to think about this one. I don't necessarily disagree but I am reminded of the old saying - I know there is balance to life because I can see it as I swing by. Things do not have to be either/or.
I am old and growing more disabled by the day. So, I can list without hesitation all the modern conveniences I am so grateful for. Like indoor plumbing and electric washers and dryers. I well recall helping my mother go grab the clothes out on the line because a storm was brewing. I've had to use an outhouse.
I can say I appreciate HVAC (as I thumb my nose at Europe) and now that I am no longer able to drive, I have Amazon. I don't recall the last time I had to go to a mall. I order and it's delivered to my door.
The internet has always been the wild wild west and those who are mindful use it instead of letting it use them. Again - balance.
I do use AI but only to take my lyrics and turn them into listenable music. It's a hobby I can do while sitting in my recliner chair.
On the other hand I also know I would never be comfortable with AI writing for me. I'm a writer. I've been a doer, getterdoner imagineer who has invented more things than I can list. But not for money - just to solve a problem, usually for me. I am still doing this, btw.
I get how dumbed down we are for all the knowledge we have at our fingertips. I get this is because we are slowly being conditioned to not think for ourselves or being willing to ask questions. Humans have always been gullible so this is same song 1000th verse.
I guess it comes down to individual choices about how much to submit to being conditioned - or using our amazing resources to make things work for us.
One thing I never see addressed when it comes to AI - what is our plan b when AI seems to be taking over? Pull the plug. AI cannot exist without electricity. Humans can survive eating leaves.
Excellent response, almost took the words from my own keyboard.
As I was reading the essay it occurred to me that the protagonist of the parable, the fisherman/person 🙄 has contributed little if anything to the society that makes it possible for him to fish and play. He may have provided a meal for his family but has done nothing to provide for his/their future. This fisherman comes off as the ultimate societal leech. Quite possibly a bubble, or more, off plumb. Not a person I think we should be building an ethos of how to approach life on.
This is not to say the industrialist is answer, either - there are/may be problems with that approach as well. But unless the fisherman becomes a serial killer if not fishing and playing, the whole of society is better off with the industrialist.
Me, outside of a few cultural issues, I much prefer today vs when I was born. When I got home from shopping today I pressed a button on my mirror to open the garage door rather than get out in the snow or freezing rain to do the same [for the record:it was 90+ in the shade, beautiful blue Montana sky and I’d already generated 40kWHr electricity, half of that powering someone else on the grid. I know it was beautiful azure blue ‘cause when I was driving I could look up and see and experience that sky since the roof was tucked in behind my seat. I unlocked the door and turned off the alarm from the watch on my wrist.
I can walk into my house and tell the home bit to turn on all the lights or just certain ones - as an older person myself the ability to interact with my dwelling makes my life easier and safer. I can stream a local radio station over a "smart" speaker or a radio station located in DC (where I woke to the Doc at 5am one day last year 😱) or even from Moscow Russia or Idaho. The secret is that I view all these devices that make my life better as just the tools they are. I’d rather weed much of my garden with a hoe than my arthritic hands, till that garden with troybilt than my long handle shovel. The problem arises when we let our (interactive addictive) tools own us vs us owning them. [Adventures in Odyssey had an episode on this topic]
As I age, not rather gracefully if you ask me 😉, I value the simplicity of life my "tools" provide, that while I COULD, and should, do more, tools/distractions (complexities) provide me more "fishing time" than I’ve ever had since childhood. I baked up another four loaves of sourdough this morning (2 large, 950g and 2 smaller 200g loaves) I began two days ago.
This may be counter I tuitive: I’ve spent much of the daylight hours recently talking (typing 🤷♀️) with various AIs discussing ideas pertaining to a story I’m working on. Much of the discussion dealt with matters I was already fairly fluent in so I could check if "hallucinations " might be an issue (they weren’t). What I came to realize is that I accomplished more in those 20’ish hours than I ever could have just spelunking in Google alone - and orders of magnitude more than when I was a lowly college student or grad student stomping my way from card catalog, to book shelves to cross references, etc. In a short time I was dealing with topics in seismology, hydrology, climatology, macro and micro economics, looking for holes in my reasoning, learning new things; so effective were these sessions that I found I was open to a whole’nuther approach to the story I wanted to tell. An AI chatbot (?) saved me years of research, the cost of an assistant smarter than myself (that would have been a very expensive assistant 😉 😂) and possibly having to acquire another couple of higher ed degrees 🤣.
My point being: simple is as simple does.
I totally understand your POV and, as I said, there isn't really a perfect /correct position to take. I accept that it takes all kinds to keep this world turning. I also know that there is nothing that mankind can design, invent, create, that was intended for good, that can't/won't be hijacked and used for nefarious purpose. The course of what we deem to be 'progress' often has unseen negative consequences.
For me, being a lifelong problem solver, I choose to have one foot in each camp. When I need something that does not exist, I take what does exist and cobble together a solution that works for me.
My other lifelong determination is to look up and out, to seek the big picture, to avoid myopia and never stop asking questions.
👍🏼
With one caveat: instead of looking up and out, I just watch my navel 🤣
just kidding
DOING is not far from BEING.
Congratulations JESSICA,
Another wonderful post, you are absolutely on point… it seems as a race, a species we have bought whollus bowlus the myth that doing less is more, indeed when it comes to much of what you cite in your article less is well…. Less, less in terms of defining, honing an individuals abilities, of fine tuning that can only evolve from doing…
We seem to occupy a moment in this time continuum whereby in pursing ease of life we are prepared to surrender individual agency, sovereignty a lot of that which if u dertaken shatpend and defines us..
I have long opined with A.I for example and as a case in point, that it seems our LLM’s in the main just provide a faster turnaround from previous predicated obviously speed, speed of response mainly… in essence the greater risk in over reliance and failing to identify A.I as a adjunct, a tool to use occasionally is that for those who so fail to equate use to occasional, as a resource will dumb themselves down, they will lose the inherent ability to comprehend, to think.
We see evidence of such already, literature professors at such esteemed and venerable ivy leagues as Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Duke have collectively come out, voicing and and stated that many of today’s graduates are lucky if they can read to 8/9th grade level let alone comprehend.
The risk being that they will default to the outcomes served up A.I, irrespective whether correct or not, I recall the frustrations with web site development and the corresponding data management, how many likewise can remember times you became frustrated endeavouring to reconcile a position with the party on the other end of the line, that you engaged insisting “ The computer says” a type of “Simon Says”, such did my head in, the waste of time having to educate, explain and attempt such moronic mindset to apply common sense, for many engaged, the computer was all powerful, irrefutable and unable to be challenged, I fear worse to come and such past experiences to be on steroids when A.I is universally adopted, poor thinkers will defer, default, offload decision making to machines THENST stand by such idiocy as if a edict from our creator.. irrefutable.. never ever to be challenged.
We need to understand and never lose sight of the fact LLM’s are only as good, as robust as those programming them, another case in point, given what we know of THIEL and Carp would we trust absolutely everything at face value Palantir throws up? Hardly, not if results thus far are anything to go by… at least many Western governments as despicable and morally bankrupted as they present and we know they to be, have distanced themselves from Palantir, cancelling contracts entered into…
However, occasionally such tech development throws up developers with a modicum of human empathy and morality, take for instance the position widely advised of the developer, owners of ANTHROPIC, cancelled contracts resulting because they staked and made a point of their moral position vs as an example, Palantir, a company prepared it seems to prostitution itself irrespective the consequences, a disturbing reality…
Hardly surprising though when looking into the background and influences of many that have developed A.I, so many it is known were taken under the wing of and received tutelage from none other than arch pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, his influence amongst this subset of tech entrepreneurs and so many others in politics, science, research, economics has and will unless excised cause a great deal of harm and kompromat to humanity… the example of Palantir and ANTHROPIC a case in point…
We must a species always as with everything control our use, being always careful not to over indulge, to become over reliant upon what at face value seems harmless, a benefit compared to the traditional way of doing things.. therein lies the danger the risk, every development a Trojan horse waiting to cut loose and to destroy what remains of individual autonomy and sovereignty…
Thank you as always J.R, your perspective always highly regarded, you have earned such support well and truly, one of the very few truth tellers today…just saying
Kia Kaha (Stay strong) from New Zealand
This article is such a glass half empty piece, I feel sorry for the author. Sure, there are many people who submerge themselves in their smartphones and misuse AI. But what about the amazing ability to have so much information at our fingertips, or the connectivity to family and loved ones half way around the world? The passive voice "they are doing this to us" is not how I see humanity.
We have agency when we choose to use it.
The tech that I really appreciate is email and.texting
When a loved one is deployed over seas these technologies replace the snail mail option. Sadly the snail mail hasbecome less reliable which makes email and texting all the more useful and positive.
Even water which is essential, has the danger of drowning one or over hydrating.
If you know anything about the author, you wouldn't feel sorry for her, William. She is a brilliant scientist, surfer, musician, photographer and more. This was a cautionary tale, not a complete indictment.
It pretty much goes back to the technology is a double edged sword thing. We enjoy many of the advances, but with them come the minuses that take away some of our quality of life.