Dominic reminded me that the way we talk needs revision. There is no “solution” to climate change; nothing to stop the forces already in motion. “We have to go through it.” What there are, instead, are ways of living during the escalation of natural disasters. Perhaps, against the odds, if enough of us change fast […]
Read MorePermaculture Balance: Approaching Wholeness with David Eggleton
by Steph • February 28th, 2014
I’m thrilled to be co-presenting with David at Permaculture Voices on the necessary care of people dimension of generating (and re-generating) collectively-oriented social webs for planetary maintenance and survival.
Read MoreMemory of a Circle
by Steph • December 26th, 2013
“It is over.” With this epigraph, Charles Genoud begins his book on the non-sense of time. Near the end of Gesture of Awareness (pp. 164-166), Genoud writes: I hold on to the notion of a subject. On the impersonal world of experiences, with a single letter, I— I trace a person, as if creating a blower of […]
Read MoreThis thing I have to do
by Steph • December 24th, 2013
I’m trying to track my social interaction in real time, using screenshots and text messages, mostly. The more I go ahead I started by sending a text message to both sides of my family. The same message but separately to my mother’s side first and then to my father’s side. Uncle Dick just replied. (5:25 […]
Read MoreThe Deaf World is Watching. Will we respond?
by Steph • December 12th, 2013
Click here for a related vlog (in American Sign Language) The second day after Mandela’s Memorial we were greeted the news that the so-called fake interpreter Thamsanqa Dyantyi/Jyantie is schizophrenic. (His claim and apology is being met with a mixture of belief and doubt.) Whatever sympathy he gleans should be suitable to his illness. This does not […]
Read MoreCreatives versus Doomers: WE Are the Planet
by Steph • October 13th, 2013
Neal Stephenson has said that he is interested in “the attention span of our society” and comments that we have “350 years of perspective” on the scientific process. In the face of climate disruption, can Cultural Creatives prove the Doomers and Deniers wrong? This week, a symposium at UMass Amherst aims to “Harvest Hope.”
Read MoreWhen Europeans got scared
by Steph • September 5th, 2013
I recently wrote an aggressive guest editorial challenging whiteness in the Doomer movement. Guy McPherson and commenters at Nature Bats Last skewered me.
Read MorePeak Connectivity and Social Resilience
by Steph • July 14th, 2013
The “intersection” in this blog entry on social resilience involves computer science and brain science. Combining the social aspect of resilience with the human-computer interface and education has potential to enhance sophisticated problem-solving around the globe. For instance, what if we gamed Twitter?
Read MoreSlow Learning vs Fast Living
by Steph • July 8th, 2013
I can only offer what I know, what I have learned, slowly and at the cost of many dear relationships. Diversity matters. The differences among us are more important than the similarities, because they enable creativity. Here we are, thrown into consciousness and connection. What shall we make of this precious chance?
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