electric wanderings - blog posts liked

In the folklore of the Anishinaabe peoples of North America, the Prophecy of the Seventh Fire predicts that there will come a time when we must choose between two paths. LaDuke—member of the Ojibwe Nation of the Anishinaabe peoples—says now is that time. For more than twenty-five years she has been a leading advocate and organizer for Native American groups working to recover their ancestral lands, natural resources, and cultures. During last year’s Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, LaDuke called for us to choose the path that is green. As a Water Protector, she believes that the times we are living in require us to take action and fight for environmental justice, indigenous rights, and a just transition. As a society we must let go of some of "the baggage" we’re used to and work together to understand and respect the natural world as well as the rights of Mother Earth. LaDuke instructs us to “Get someplace, stick there, and fight for it.”

Why is there almost nothing on the left hand side of the USA? Water scarcity! We’re missing 300 million Americans. We’re missing  30 global cities west of 100 degrees longitude. We shoul…

A critical new book explores how humans can better share space with animals on the move.

In 2018, legal scholar Tim Wu wrote in the New York Times that: Today’s cult of convenience fails to acknowledge that difficulty is a constitutive feature of human experience. Convenience is all destination and no journey. This piece well predates the current AI boom, but “all destination and no journey” is a pretty good explanation for why using AI to create art is mainly compelling to people who think about creativity in terms of producing content and generating intellectual property. They just want the thing they can market and sell for money or clout; they don’t care how they got there. I know you’re sick of talking about AI. I am too. This is only a little bit about AI, I promise. Like all my writing about technology, it’s mostly about people.

A couple of weeks ago I turned 50 years old, which is a sentence my fingers feel strange typing because in my mind I’m still somewhere in my late 20s. Age...

A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

This is a comic about AI art.

Oh, don't worry. It's probably nothing...

When even a simple stroll down the sidewalk is an exercise in self-loathing, why don’t more women run away to the woods?

Hope you all have been holding up, fighting the good fight, and finding peace where you can. As usual, I have some upcoming events and recommendations to...

I recently watched author Robert Macfarlane give an interview on the How I Write podcast. Macfarlane’s books — among them Is a River Alive?, Underland, and Mountains of the Mind — have redefined how we think about landscape writing. How I Write host David Perell asks his Macfarlane about his approach to writing. The entire interview is worth listening to, but below are some of points that resonated with me. Begin Each Book with a “Portal Question” Macfarlane begins each project with what he calls a “portal question” — seemingly simple questions like “Why do we climb mountains?” or “Is a river alive?” These questions, when combined with a child-like wonder and openness, can lead the writer through interesting, complicated, difficult terrain. These questions are the basis for a kind of intellectual exploration.

For years I’ve tried to think about something interesting to write about, but when I started to question who I was writing for, I realized that the most common answer was: me.

What freedoms and independence does the disabled concessionary bus pass truly afford people with disabilities? Dan Bowhay spent 10 Days, 19 hours, 33 minutes, and 15 seconds travelling the length of England, from Land’s End to the Scottish Border near Berwick-upon-Tweed, on local buses and within the restrictions of a disabled bus pass.

The Wirecutter’s review of the IKEA air purifier is a mishmash of scientific errors, shoddy testing, and self-contradictory logic.

Visual artists, illustrators and graphic designers share their stories about how AI is being used to lower wages, degrade work and even replace it altogether, in this installment of AI Killed My Job.

I’ve been blogging since 2008 at various sites, starting with a focus around guitar and music and moving into what I think is the natural progression to a personal one. I think in those early days …

After years of devastating wildfires, many producers are wondering if prescribed burns might improve their acreage. Here’s how to keep land, livestock, buildings, and selves safe.

To all the folks frustrated, jaded, pessimistic about art in the age of AI: Be weird as hell. Subvert expectations with your art / music / whatever

When I decided to leave Instagram, I knew that I didn’t want to quit sharing my life and work — I just wanted to do it somewhere other than social media. So in the process of leaving social platforms, I challenged myself to come up with as many ways to share what I’m up to in my personal life and my

A surprisingly practical guide, because everyone deserves a personal website.

It’s believed that many of us spend seven hours or more in front of screens each day. In 2011, researcher Emmanuel Stamatakis, found that “…even those who exercise can’t overcome the detrimental ef…

It's about coming home to your art.

I am an AI hater. This is considered rude, but I do not care, because I am a hater.

How to turn curiosity into a superpower.