The technium
Kevin Kelly Interview – transcript:
http://edge.org/conversation/the-technium
Sums up many of his ideas. I find his clarity inspiring. There are just some ideas he explains well.
with new tools:
So you have the power to do evil expanded. You have the power to do good expanded. You think that’s a wash. In fact, we now have a choice that we did not have before, and that tips it very, very slightly in the category of the sum of good.
Does it? I can’t quite make that moral leap, but what is clear is that there are more options. For the baddies too! The root of evil may be ignorance and there fore as knowledge tools improve so does good?
I like this idea too:
It may be that for us to really master the issues of attention management, critical thinking, learning how technological devices work and how they bite back, all this techno-literacy may be something that we have to spend several years being trained to do. Maybe you can’t just learn it by hanging around people who do it or else just hanging around trying to learn it by osmosis. It may require training and teaching, a techno-literacy, and learning how to manage your attention and distractions is something that is probably going to require training.
I think the same about relationship. We now have so many relationship tools that need teaching that we need, as he puts it (in relationship to new media):
We know that from plenty of studies of literate and illiterate people from the same culture—that reading and writing changes how your brain works. That only came about because of four or five years of deliberate practice and study…
I get inspired like this with Kevin Kelly usually because I like what he says about the future and tools, but sense that I have a psychological perspective that he, and the whole Edge buch miss.
The evolution of psyche.
Then I want to get writing.
I also like:
There’s this conundrum, this dilemma of remaining different while connected, because if you’re just different but not connected, there’s no power in that, and that’s actually easy to do, but can you remain different while connected? You’re different in certain degrees, yet you’re part of the uniform standard. So it’s like you don’t want to make up new words that don’t mean anything. You want to write a book that uses the standard words in the dictionary, so you’re going to be different while connected to the standard. You’re connected to the English language, but you’re going to be different with what the words say.
I suppose that is what we get heretics, they speak to powers they are connected with. Not just to the desert.
I now want to read the “new economy”
Language in couple therapy.
I am highly conscious of the language in couple therapy I do at the moment. I used to use the Imago language in couple therapy for many years. I was resistant to the rather ugly “sender and receiver” words. Though not as accurate for what was actually happening I preferred talker and listener in the last few years. However after listening to audios by Hedy Schleifer I’ve shifted to the “crossing the bridge” language of “visitor and host”. As one client told me, that is a bit fruity, whatever that means.
The thing is that is not just a change in language, but a whole different mode of being. Sending is a metaphor for posting something into space and it is then received like an email. This is not a metaphor that is very connecting. It also leaves the receiver wanting to respond… it invites reply. Responding is close to reactivity, and replies are close to argument and debate.
Host and visitor are quite different. Each person is having a turn at the same time, one as visitor, on a trip to another land, as a learner, a witness as an explorer a learner. The other as a host, a presenter, a storyteller. with this metaphor for the work there is not the same need to coach appreciations… I just say, be a good host and be a good visitor, and immediately they say such things as “Thanks for inviting me into your world, I appreciate you taking the initiative, I know it might not be easy for you.”
In the visit I use the exact mirroring , summary, validation and empathy structures.
In every culture there is some protocol and ritual for crossing the bridge into another persons territory or space. The protocols for visiting a neighbour apply. The leave taking can be quite lovely. I’ve heard people say.”Thank you for having me.” or more fully, such things as: “Thank you for inviting me, I appreciate you showing me how things work in your land. I will be much more aware how not to stomp on those areas that are so sore. I enjoyed meeting your little child and seeing how burdened your mother was while she had three under four.”
The language and the change facilitates dramatic enactment. Show me your world is an action cue for sculptures and role reversals with the social and cultural atom.
With maori clients and some other kiwis as well I have used some of the concepts from a meeting on a marae. The visitors are: manuhiri and the hosts the, the people of the land, the tangata whenua.
The depth of meaning of the pōwhiri or welcome could well be used to make the crossing into each others worlds more meaningful. For example the concept of Pōwhiri – the Māori welcome carries with it all the richness of the english word dialogue and more: “… po can be translated as a venture into ‘the unknown’ or a new experience, while whiri is derived from whiriwhiri meaning the act or experience of exchanging information and knowledge.
FP3
Sketching again! Flower Power.
Its been a while, and I won’t have many as I’m working on some serious writing projects, but have loved doing these as I am more rested over the holiday period.
I’m on a roll here… they could be a series. The aim is to make flowers, not… I know… flower power.
New watercolour app
The app is Waterlogue .
It is not really independently creative, first you need a photo, then choose a variety of options, and then decide to save one you like. I did dozens to get the ones above. I’ll post more in the art blog .
Happy New Year
I’m looking forward to it.
Family times. Tramping trips. Psychodrama events. Writing projects. Arty stuff. Work is good too.
Time for a talk? Create a good warm up.
You are fed up. This is been on your mind for a while. You need to tell the other person. Its not fair. They are a problem. You’ve been meaning to do this but they’d never listen…
Those thoughts and feelings are your warm up. A warm up like that needs some attention. The other party is not likely to listen. When the time comes to talk you need better warm up. The six steps will create a good warm up for a productive conversation. “It is all in the warm up.”
Create a Topic
What is the title of this conversation? One that is of interest to both parties. Create a topic that is constructive. Do this well before you approach the other person. This will determine everything from here on.
Begin with the impulse for the talk, e.g. “Your careless behaviour over the years has made me resentful and bitter and it is time you changed.”
Remove blame: “I think you are careless and I resent that and I’d like you to change.” Notice the subtle difference with the words: “I think…”
Remove resentment: Resentment is something you have allowed to build up, own it. “I think you are careless and I have found this difficult to raise with you, and I’d like you to change.”
Convert judgmental words, and be specific about outcomes: “I think the jobs can be done more efficiently.”
Make it collaborative: “I think we can do this more efficiently.”
Topic: “How we can do some things more efficiently”
Make a Request
How you do that also creates a warm up. More on that soon.
Interview: Thomas Maier, Author Of ‘Masters Of Sex’ : NPR
Interview: Thomas Maier, Author Of ‘Masters Of Sex’ : NPR
I enjoyed the interview – and as I’ve been working on the Six Principles of Sociometry – Moreno’s methodology I reflected how they apply to the masters and johnson work. I found it quite challenging, and fun in a casual way to do this as I listened.
Nice photo!
Writing
I’ve been writing but not in this blog.
I’ve been working on three papers to qualify as a Trainer, Educator and Practitioner in psychodrama. Now more or less done. A paper, study on Moreno’s social science methodology, needs a lot more work and research. A book proposal, I’m doing that at the same time as the research paper, it uses a different part of my brain.
Maybe I can put more snipets here as I think about this work?
The reason I don’t is that I use Evernote – and it replaces one function of this blog, notes to myself.
Can I be more journalistic here?
Maybe.