Thoughts

[vaneramos]

Driving home from Port Hope this afternoon offered me an opportunity to hear some compelling programming on CBC Radio 2. Both books mentioned here sound like interesting reading.

Spark rebroadcast an interview with Viktor Mayer-Schönberger (full interview and transcript), author of Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age. He writes: "Perfect, comprehensive digital memory denies human beings the ability to grow, to change, and to evolve over time. That is deeply worrying."

Tapestry featured Bob Kull, who spent a year in utter isolation on a small island off the coast of Chile and subsequently wrote Solitude: Seeking Wisdom In Extremes. He gave a thoughtful, candid interview, and the book sounds like a challenging voyage of enlightenment.

Comments

[bellakara.livejournal.com]

Yes, I can see where the author of the digital memory book is coming from. The other one also sounds interesting. It also reminds me of a man who lived in very basic accomodation on a stretch of coastline on the Isle of Skye for years and years. His whole body was tattoed like a leopard, and he was always naked, with the possible exception of when he rowed across the water to get his food, etc. But the other year, he finally decided he'd had enough of the rough life and moved into a proper house.

http://secretscotland.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/new-lair-for-leopard-man-of-skye/

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

That's a fascinating story, too. Thanks!

[abendstille.livejournal.com]

Van, you are such a music person, are you familiar with
http://blip.fm/Tindaya ?
it´s a set-up to share your fav music with others. It´s not about what you have on your harddrive, only about searching for music on the Internet and sharing it and listening to what others with similar taste found. I´ve only participated for a few weeks so far, but i found some incredible music that way.
hugs

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Thanks, M. That looks interesting!

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I'm having some difficulty navigating the site. I have "36 Favorite DJs" but I didn't add any of them (intentionally), and even though I have added you as a favourite, you con't show up on my list.

[inishglora.livejournal.com]

Fascinating subjects. Just glancing at the Bob Kull page reawakened the yearning I have for time away from the world. I thought it was a passing thing, but evidently it was just biding its time. And I think that time is rapidly speeding toward me.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I'm interested in reading his book, but it sounds like he spent most of the year colliding with himself, and I have my doubts whether it's necessary to take an extended leave from society in order to confront the things he did. Check out eniastoa's subsequent comment and my response.

[inishglora.livejournal.com]

I did as you suggested and I like how you pointed out this: storing information has been costly and time-consuming; now it is too easy. I consider the long view of events in history and I think that everything we as humans have experienced as a group or collective turns itself inside out sooner or later, so that we can experience the opposite or the inverse of the previous lesson. This information thing is yet another turning inside out, if you will. We were in an age of secrets, but now we are living an age of sharing.

And yes, I need not travel far to go within, but I definitely need to get out of the city or it's no good to me.

[eniastoa.livejournal.com]

Without having listened to the interview, I wonder to what extent Schönberger is conflating what technology makes possible and what people do with it. Personally, I've not deleted a file I've created on a computer in the last 17 years, but that doesn't mean I go sifting through them every day. Or ever, unless I have a specific reason to. Before the digital age, people would, instead of moving along, pull out the photos of their glory days again and again, or cry once more over old love letters, or, before any technology at all, bore with the same old boast-stories around the hearth. But that doesn't mean anyone ever had to.

It surprised me not at all to see the gist of his book as Kull presents it on his website ... sticking with solitude long enough to encounter oneself is the only known cure for loneliness, but it's only preparation for what's next in life, and going away to find solitude isn't really necessary.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Check out more of what Schönberger has to say. The interview was given in context of a story about a Canadian psychologist who was permanently banned from entry to the U.S. because a border guard Googled his name and found a journal article he had written referring to his own experience with LSD use in the 1960s. The point is not that we need to forget our own experiences, but that everything you write can and will be used against you. Throughout human history, storing information has been costly and time-consuming; now it is too easy.

I agree 100 per cent with what you said about Kull's experience. I am doubtful that spending a year away from society will necessarily make us better people. I'm an introvert, live alone, and probably experience as much solitude as necessary to explore a better relationship with myself.