An excellent NYT article “Why Gender Equality Stalled” reviews where we are now with regards to the “The Feminine Mystique” and our lack of concrete political proposals that change the status of women. The article highlights complicated issues including how the US has come in last with regards to work-family policies when compared to 20 other first world countries.  Among the reasons for our stalled inequality is “our political and economic institutions lag way behind our personal ideals”. Much of it stems from what we pretend to value yet don’t support. The issue is less about feminism and from my perspective more about complications of being human. About this I have opinions…

Our media encourages unattainable lifestyles regardless of who you screw over to get there. While it’s possible to have it all, it’s not probable. This faux aspiration manifests dis-satisfaction, struggle, and chaos within the masses.

Chaos is unfortunately big business. The exploitation of weaknesses for profit is common practice for the few who are gaining and maintaining super-sized wealth; meanwhile stupidizing the majority.

Greed is only part of the problem. It’s human nature to create, push and stretch. This gets us into trouble by creating bad habits including wanting more, or to be the best, or… If we remind ourselves we have a choice with how we respond to media and societal pressures, we may find the ability to connect with our moral centers and make choices that encourage a “we” vs. “me” society. Only then will we be able to develop policy that benefits the status of everyone.

 
“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”-Simone Weil

I was recently introduced to this beautiful quote. I keep coming back to it pondering how technology has changed our relationships with time and space, and what or how we pay attention within our realms of experience.

Most change is clear to see in retrospect. For example the first US non-stop cross-country flight was in 1923. That was less than 100 years ago, hardly a blip in the scheme of time. Today it’s common to be able to stand on either coast of a continent in a single day. This changed us.

TV introduced stories with visual non-sequiturs, leaving our imaginations to fill in the gaps. Different than listening to or reading a story, as it requires the attention of both the visual and auditory senses. This changed us, fracturing our experience of time as a continuum.

At some point today we are born into the digital world, and depending upon the life stage at which we are born into the digital, and the frequency of experience, etc., our relationship with this realm will differ.

The nature of the digital is continual change; different from physical world change, or at least at this point it’s too early in its existence to understand larger patterns of change. The current digital is random with possibility; this continues to change us and keep our attention, stealing it from our inner realms and the physical world.

Regardless of our experiences in the digital domain, it is just the beginning and the continued evolution is going to be a really big deal. At some point we’ll cross a threshold where we can seamlessly inhabit the digital. Not to say it will all be seamless, certainly some experiences will be (with exponential leaps getting there).

With the merging of the digital and physical we also have Homo evolutis. In the future we will likely have the opportunity to consciously design ourselves and experiences. Imagine no longer just wishing that your child have the aptitude for neuroscience or empathy; simply order it…Perhaps “simply” isn’t the right word… Oh, the moral dilemmas that will ensue…

Some of us will choose to be continually locked into the digital with technology delivering vivid unified experiences. Today there are sci-fi stories that portray lives like this, although for me as I think about this potential future I am reminded of a wonderful real life memoir of Jean-Dominique Bauby- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly . After suffering a stroke, Bauby gets locked-in syndrome. He is paralyzed except of one eye that he blinks in order to communicate. He dictated his memoir by blinking his eye as a caregiver scribed his story. Like an infant, all of his physical needs were cared for by others. He described his physical state like living in an old deep-sea diving suit. Rather than this devastating him, his spirit was like a butterfly. His focus and attention turned inward and he became empowered as he explored his mind fantasizing, reliving and creating new experiences. He could be anyone he wanted, with anyone he wanted, wherever he wanted.

I think about this man and his story because he was not seduced by technology into this state of being, he had no choice. For those who will choose technology to aid them in enhanced experiences, I question who or what controls their attention.

Regardless, as we become more and more dependent on technology, as it continues it to enfold us, we will likely have to be diligent about owning our attention and not playing the fool to technology and its distractions.

We have the freedom and opportunity to appreciate each moment and ask …What deserves generous attention now? Our intention and the choices we make will determine any meaningful longevity.

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A search on “digital attention” led me to this “During the last century information was a scarce resource. Now, human attention has become the scarce resource whereas information (of all types and qualities) abounds. “- Claudia Roda from her book Human attention in Digital Environments

In a discussion about how currency might change in our digital future Andrei Codrescu said “poetry will be the only real currency”. He was talking about original expression, which can take many forms. Although when it comes to poetry, a favorite Christmas ritual of ours is listening to Dylan Thomas read his poem “a Child’s Christmas in Wales”.

As a child my family played the record every year. My siblings and I would lie silently in our beds as we listened each Christmas Eve. Being the youngest, at first the poem made no sense and I was impatient. It didn’t matter as I was in it for the experience. My siblings valued it so much that I just wanted to belong to their excitement.

My mother understood its value and would use it to bribe us to go bed. Once we were all tucked in, she would play the record loud enough to be heard throughout the house.

At first I would be lulled to sleep by the sound of his impassioned voice as the words were beyond me. Each year I understood a little more. The story and his elocution are wonderful, but the emotion it evokes is what gives it the most power; I feel the story so vividly.

I continued the tradition with my children, who at first were impatient to sit still, but slowly over the years they too value it, especially my youngest. This evening we will be listening again with appreciation.

It’s a magical thing to have currency be so meaningful.

Enjoy!

 
We should not separate ourselves from humanity, yet we do.
 
When I was little I believed that war and other big world problems would go away within my lifetime. It was just a matter of getting people to become aware of one another. That awareness would spark compassion. It seemed so simple. While that fantasy faded, what motivates people to care enough to effect change continues to intrigue me.
 
We have the technology and information to solve society’s big problems. We (humanity) are missing the willpower and cognitive ability to make it so. Caring as a change motivator seems to be a scalability issue for most of us. Easy at a small or local level but we lose our ability to act as the scale of the problem grows. It’s not that we don’t care, or recognize it; we just don’t act on it consistently beyond local levels.
 
In a Wired article…Why We Can Count on Geeks to Rescue the Earth, Clive Thompson describes how Bill Gates has the cognitive ability to apply a moral algorithm to solve big problems, unlike the rest of us. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough Geeks acting like Bill.

Perhaps Geeks can build an algorithm for those of us less capable, which can be visualized to show how individually our compassionate actions fit into  a larger equation for solving big problems.

There are models out there now, although they are generally skewed towards one type of action, ie: donating money. Throwing money at it is just one of the steps needed. A simplified visualization of the other steps and action opportunities might help us understand the bigger picture. What comes to mind is something like a poster showing the lifecycle of the Salmon, only in this case showing the lifecycle of solving big problems in order to preserve humanity.  

Using the Salmon example, Salmon make their trip back up the fish ladders to where they were born in order to spawn, die, decompose, and feed the next generation… a preservation algorithm. Species preservation may not be a conscious effort for them. Regardless they do not separate themselves from each other like humans do.

Until the Geeks rescue the earth making my childhood dreams come true, Government needs to maintain infrastructure’s and standards that aren’t beholden to agendas other than serving humanity. As individuals (or corporations) we cannot be trusted to do so, we just don’t have the right wiring.