Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Amy Letter's avatar

I think we make choices about whether what we're doing is for utility or beauty or both -- when my child speaks to me, I make choices about how I respond: am I saying things that bring joy and disturb the current, things that tickle and delight, things that make a moment matter, or am I just hurrying them to get to the next thing and then the next. So I think in this way our choices can amount to art but they can also be many other things with many other moods: a rush, a slog, a merry-go-round, a circus, a war, and so on.

Expand full comment
Philip Harris's avatar

In our culture / civilisation we are subject to training of several kinds. Leaving aside education and work, the corporate world through advertising has become increasingly effective over recent generations at commanding indirect as well as direct strategies - perhaps the methods are quasi-science? The recent devices reach even more effectively than before because data collection provides 'feedback'. We can expect AI to take these methods for modifying attention and intention to new levels. There are better 'fixes' available. I listened to Nate Hagens 'Frankly' this afternoon recounting the remedial effects of his recent stay among convivial people in India who retain a traditional culture and art forms.

Expand full comment
4 more comments...

No posts