The lost world of physicality

Re:The lost world of physicality by joshklein on Tuesday August 30, 2011 @10:09AM (#2941482)

The OP would do well to read "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau or, perhaps more pointedly, read up on the teachings of Epicurus[1]. And, more generally, I highly recommend "The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work" by Alain De Botton. And then there's the defining entry from 1960's philosophy, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Persig, which is precisely about the intersection between nature and technology.

These concerns with modernity go pretty far back in our history, and some very smart people have come up with workable solutions you can adopt as an individual without needing to go change society.

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurus

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Re:The lost world of physicality by sheeps on Tuesday August 30, 2011 @10:30AM (#2941570)

Another relevant one is E.M. Forster's "The Machine Stops":

http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html

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Re:The lost world of physicality by jgrahamc on Tuesday August 30, 2011 @10:34AM (#2941592)

Thank you both for these suggestions. I recall reading E. M. Forster's story at school and my contribution to English class was that he was wrong about there being a separate button for everything: in reality things would have been multiplexed and the person would have used a keypad or similar :-)

I have not read Walden. Will put it on my Kindle.

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Re:The lost world of physicality by keithpeter on Tuesday August 30, 2011 @11:47AM (#2941926)

"I have not read Walden. Will put it on my Kindle"

I think that sentence sort of encapsulates what you are saying in your article. It certainly pulled me up sharp.

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Re:The lost world of physicality by technomancy on Tuesday August 30, 2011 @03:07PM (#2942787)

The flip side of this is that without the Kindle, it would have been "I may go pick up a copy from the public library, if I find myself visiting it soon and remember this thread when I'm there."

He's a lot more likely to actually get around to reading it when it's instantly and freely available. Hurrah for the public domain.

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Re:The lost world of physicality by Tichy on Tuesday August 30, 2011 @11:29AM (#2941844)

Upvoted for using a Kindle

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Re:The lost world of physicality by actf on Tuesday August 30, 2011 @06:13PM (#2943481)

I'd also highly recommend the book "Shopcraft as Soulcraft" by Matthew Crawford. It's certainly not a classic like "Walden" or "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and found it very applicable to this type of philosophical discussion.

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