An architect and a bee walk into a bar...
“Progress, as we define it now, ignores or downplays the scale of its side effects. Our typical approach to technological innovation today harms much that is not only beautiful and inspiring, but also fundamentally necessary for the health and well-being of all life on Earth. Developing a more mature approach to our idea of progress holds the key to a viable, long-term future for humanity.” The Consilience Project
I see you. Those of you making bank with your technologic expertise jumping on the self-driving AI fueled bandwagon. But I am first and foremost a writer— an observer. Data science has always been a tool to explore information and ask bigger questions. Geospatial analysis meant that the new columns in my spreadsheets were now filled with location and spatial datasets.
Traveling around the globe speaking about infrastructure and quantitative storytelling was the main focus of 2024, in addition to submitting final chapters of a new book and building learning platforms for both storytelling and data science. This year already feels different…
I notice exponential growth in manels* at conferences. Main stage talks at geospatial conferences or AI hype-fests invites are for those properly indoctrinated with growth at all cost mentality. It isn’t that technology doesn’t amaze — it does. But why are we not talking about the externalities? The rivalrous dynamics of our tech infused virulent strain of capitalism?
*men only “expert” panels
I also know that as Upton Sinclair describes, It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.
Voice for the Planet changed the way I engaged from the podium. I want audiences to feel what I feel when I write about our planet. I fused cinema and TED style speaking into a new framework for story.
It is often the voice of reason we need speaking to power and influence. Davos is evolving into something different and it is important to hold people accountable.
After all, we are not a hive of bees…
“A spider conducts operations that resemble those of a weaver, and a bee puts to shame many an architect in the construction of her cells. But what distinguishes the worst architect from the best of bees is this, that the architect raises his structure in imagination before he erects it in reality.” — Karl Marx, Capital