"I intended to begin a new life without modern technology. There would be no running water, no fossil fuels, no clock, no electricity or any of the things it powers: no washing machine, internet, phone, radio, or light bulb......What are we prepared to lose, and what do we want to gain, as we fumble our … Continue reading Not So Simple: Notes from a Tech-Free Life by Mark Boyle
Category: open questions
How Changing The Way You Sit Could Add Years To Your Life
"Replacing chair sitting and associated muscular inactivity with more sustained active rest postures may represent a behavioral paradigm that should be explored in future experimental work."—David Raichlen, et al., "Sitting, squatting, and the evolutionary biology of human inactivity." "How changing the way you sit could add years to your life." PNAS. March 31, 2020.
You Are a Strange Loop
Open Question: Is the ego a narrative fiction we create about ourselves? https://youtu.be/hQsnHkfs3sA
Kool Aid Pickles
Exactly what it says on the tin.
William Gibson on “The Jackpot Years”
https://vimeo.com/116132074 Open Question: Is a global apocalypse more likely to be a single catastrophic event or a continuous, long-duration multi-focal event? The Bedouin Way of Life in Rub' al Khali touches on one possible answer, the second.
Ferming
Open Questions: Will agriculture by fundamentally transformed in the next decade? And if so, what are the likely health implications? We are on the cusp of the biggest economic transformation, of any kind, for 200 years. While arguments rage about plant- versus meat-based diets, new technologies will soon make them irrelevant. Before long, most of … Continue reading Ferming
2020 Experiments: Exercise & Running Program
Open Question: What is a reasonable program for people to follow to develop a good level of fitness? I've been thinking a bit about the 2018 Experiment: HIIT Burpee and Running Program. The challenge of that program was to met a minimal standard for health, which I define using the American Heart Association standards: 25 … Continue reading 2020 Experiments: Exercise & Running Program
Pace Yourself
Open Question: What does it mean to "pace yourself" in modern culture? Does it mean staying with something long enough, over time, to truly develop a relationship with the material and love it? "There’s a willingness, there’s a faith, there’s a very, very magical alchemy that happens when somebody looks at something with enormous love … Continue reading Pace Yourself
Under Control of Your Smart Phone
Open Question: Are smart phones primarily an information technology or a control technology? "What the phone promises you psychologically is not content as such, but a space on the screen that is totally obedient to you. This translates into the illusion that the world, seen through the screen, will be equally obedient. I think any … Continue reading Under Control of Your Smart Phone
Older and Living Apart Together (LAT)
Open Question: Does living alone position people for having a broader social support network? "I don’t want to take care of anybody. I want to take care of me,' said Nadell, who divorced her second husband two decades ago. 'You want to be friends and get together, when I say it’s okay to get together? … Continue reading Older and Living Apart Together (LAT)
cafebedouin.org 