"When you're in right-relation
with nature, what feels good is good"
"When you're in right-relation
with nature, what feels good is good"
Why this work
We are living through volatile times. The confluence of new technologies are, for better and worse, amplifying inherited ideologies. Our culture has decoupled from nature to such a degree that some aspects of our civilization have become outmoded, maladaptive, and existentially fragile.
Recent social-scale experiments conducted by media and technology corporations show how vested interests are willing to deploy their inventions to serve their own short-term goals. Anyone paying attention can feel the effects of their algorithmic interventions showing up in our political divisions, economic disparities, daily lives, and states of mind. These same forces have now given us an accidental preview of the asymmetric power of their next experimental treatment, the so-called Artificial Intelligence.
How will the unprecedented power of attention manipulation combined with seemingly insatiable monetary incentive play out in our already anxious and fragile cultural mindscape?
My proposal is to restore our deep connection to nature’s intelligence in order to withstand the windstorm that will come with artificial intelligence.
About Rich Blundell
My lived-experience is a deeply reciprocal relationship of continuity with nature. Over a lifetime this has provided access to an inexhaustible source of natural knowledge.
But when the science I "know" is coupled to first-hand participation in the story of the cosmos, it affords much more than knowledge. Living in a relational mode with nature cultivates a forgotten form of human wisdom that's aligned with nature itself. Not only does this have profound ameliorative effects on one's body and mind, I believe it has become an essential aspect of the future (if there is to be one for humans).
Every human has access to the intelligence of nature through the long and intimate histories of our ancestor's relationships with the habitats of Earth. However, very few of us have the time or opportunity to live in sustained touch with this intelligence. I believe remembering our ancient endowment has the power to heal our injuries, restore justice, detoxify our culture, and put us on a path towards a more realistic, healthy, and hopeful technological future. One way I propose and teach this idea is Earthling Theory.
I am currently the Scientist-in-Residence at the Maria Mitchell Association on Nantucket Island where I collaborate with ecosystems, artists, and other creatives in cultural transformation projects around the world. You can learn more through my occasional courses podcasts & talks.
I also manifest Oika philosophy artistically by co-creating wooden surfboards (yes, surfboards) through a deep participatory design process that I developed.