Steering by the Stars

Reproducing an email just sent to a group of global unplug pundits, like David Levy, Mark Bittman, Peter Pruyn, Leif Hansen and Ariel Meadow.

Posting it here to open up the discussion.

Join in and help take it forward?

At a bare minimum, everyone in the world needs to read Peter’s article continuous-partial-attention-02-08.pdf.

“It is time we steered by the stars, not by the lights of each passing ship.”

Omar Bradley (1948) in Peter Pruyn (2007)

Seriously.

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Dear unpluggers

Thanks for being in touch and many thanks to Mark Bittman for bringing us together, for me anyway.

Peter Pruyn’s paper is also excellent! See attached. A must read for unpluggers. Really puts the meta-ness of it all together.

David Levy has been in touch – his paper “No Time to Think” can be found, among others, on his site here.

52 Nights Unplugged is growing thanks to Ariel and the community.

We are making the domain www.everywhereisnowhere.com available to whoever wants to move the unplug meme out into the world. Synchronously the woman who coined the phrase “Constant Partial Attention”, Linda Stone, also said “We [are] everwhere except where we actually [are] physically” – which is a direct link to the Seneca quote that the domain references. An ancient dilemma.

Also keen for one of us to present at LIFT09 and others to attend as a “movement”. Free bloggers passes available and accommodation can be provided. I guess David or Peter would need to be on the stage to come, but perhaps that will happen. The community votes on who they want to speak, and I will be approaching the organisers directly about the unplug movement. I was asked to attend as a blogger this year. Influential space.. starting to be compared to TED talks.

A book you could all read, if you haven’t already, is “In Praise of Slow”.

Considering the climate emergency and reading in Peter’s paper “It is time that we steered by the stars, not the lights of each passing ship” – I am reminded to bring ecophilosopher Joanna Macy into the discussion. Her writing made it possible for me to attend the LIFT conference without being drained by the Technology as God types.

Tessy’s site http://thrivingtoo.typepad.com/ is another place for the meme to grow, and she is friends with Sir Ken Robinson. See his TED Talk on creativity, which has enormous traction, here.

And now, I am unplugging and hitting the bath – in the garden, with my daughter. Brrr. Spring not quite sprung. But lovely.

Please reply to all if you want to move this agenda forward. In that moment, a group exists. Together we are stronger.

Bestest

Libby

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Other posts on unplugging here.