I remember the smoke
above the horizon,
spreading out until dusk
swallowed it whole.
People stared across
the plain, tested the wind,
wondered which way
the fire would turn.
But I was transfixed
by something invisible
attending to our sorrows.
* This poem is based upon a memory of a prairie fire near Littleton, Colorado when I was three years old. It is one of my earliest memories.
A teacher mentioned that in pre-modern times knowledge was seen primarily as a public good. This can be seen by how scholars would borrow and cut-and-paste, often without attribution, views and knowledge from other scholars and incorporate that into their own works. This can also be seen through how sciences and arts were funded by public funds in order to serve the public good.
Today, copyright laws and patent laws indicate that knowledge and ingenuity indicate that profit-motives are primary motives.
How does that affect how we think of knowledge, how new-ideas are used vis-a-vis society and the public good?
Is it a losing proposition to rethink these structures?
If so, is it still good to reintroduce the former view, of the pre-moderns, as an ideal that we ought to keep in mind and develop in our own sub-cultures and communities?
T
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/your-smartphone-is-making-you-stupid/article37511900/
Worthwhile read that makes me wonder about my life a lot.
I also wonder how this plays into our ability to concentrate in religious rituals; the information in the article about how much the average attention span has shrunken is telling.
T
ʿIlmprocess 