Bamboo for Pandas

Many of you will have heard me talk about the need for pandas to have bamboo. Not just enough to survive, but corridors to link them together so they can mate.

People are like that. Bamboo feels like ideas. When I meet people like Ben Segal, it’s like finding air, water, food. The essential stuff for me to not just survive, but thrive.

“I am convinced that today the main challenges for the Internet (and hence ISOC) are more social and economic than technical, and that progress depends on effective programs of education and dialogue.”

From Ben’s election statement as a trustee for the Internet Society in Geneva.

As someone working the in the field of education with an emphasis on dialogue through blogging, I couldn’t agree more.

Perhaps this is why, sitting here blogging at LIFT08, I am delighted to see several speakers that help us explore these ideas.

But there is still an underlying frustration I am feeling at LIFT which, apologies to anyone that has been caught in the clutches of one of my angry rants today, centres on this.

We keep exploring the “How”, the technical side I guess and how the social can be appropriated in support of the technical or the economic. But what we are still lacking in this space is the “Why?”

Why are we wanting to innovate, to create, to advance technology in society, to overcome challenges and take up opportunities.

I can only hope that the wonderful inclusion of the sustainablilty section will be emphasised in the takeaways summary.

So much potential in the room… where will people direct it….

So you think Technology is God?

Moving now to the elephant on the table we’re not hearing much about. Flesh. Not the stuff you cut to insert augmentations and enhancements (bbrrrrrr Dalek Sek aka the, ironically, very lovely Kevin Warwick). The flesh we press together. The stuff we make real love with, real friendships with in the here and now – in “meat space” as William Gibson calls it. The stuff that holds our organs in, our hearts, our minds, our real senses.

Next year I humbly request a section, a thread, an ongoing reminder about the need to be grounded. To be HERE. To be on the earth, truly connected, not above and beyond it. That kind of patriarchal arrogance has gotten us into this mess in the first place. Read Joanna Macy World as Lover, World as Self to get a grip on reality and priorities.

Yes, I applaud the appropriate use of technology for the well being of all beings and the planet we all call home. No, I do not think the hype about Technology as Religion is being well balanced here at LIFT08 (with some noble and Nobel exceptions).

What about practical tips for unplugging. Having run TV Turn Off Week in Australia, I want to hear about Unplug from Computers Week. Dave Stone, a young upandcoming uber geek we know in digital Brighton has just come back online after a much needed break. I want to co-present with him next year in an interactive session that puts the focus back on the flesh. That reminds us how to protect and even enhance our Mental / Emotional / Physical / Spiritual Environment.

A quick search for “internet free week” or a chat with almost anyone at the conference would confirm this is necessary.

Why am I so angry? Well it’s not just the hangover from fondue and wine. It’s much worse than that. It’s the anger, nay the RAGE I share with Jasmina Tesanovic and people all around the world, mothers, fathers, adoloescents, citizens about the outcomes of rampant partiarchy. It’s why we need people like Joanna Macy here as the antitode to all this:

Technology as God (insert other concept eg. Human Supremacy over Gaian Paradigm) + Testosterone = Money + war + a dying planet.

If these issues are not going to be explored at LIFT, then were and when? We just don’t have the time to wait.

Thank Dog and God, all the Buddhas and Allah and Gaia and the stars and the moon I met Ben Segal here. If you haven’t yet, do yourself a favour. But stand in line. True humanists that can integrate head and heart are, sadly, few and far between. Let’s hear from more of them.

A voice of reason please…. Vote One for Ben Segal or Joanna Macy to keynote LIFT next year.

The topic? Let’s hear what you think…