Contemplative computing may sound like an oxymoron, but it's really quite simple. It's about how to use information technologies and social media so they're not endlessly distracting and demanding, but instead help us be more mindful, focused and creative.
My book on contemplative computing, The Distraction Addiction, will be published by Little, Brown and Co. in August 2013. In the meantime, this 2011 talk is a good introduction to the project and its big ideas.
« Pre-order The Distraction Addiction! | Main | You damn kids get off my lawn, with your misinterpretations of neuroplasticity and media history! »
In the opening paragraph of Mystics and Zen Masters, he contrasts "the monk or the Zen man" to "people dedicated to lives that are, shall we say, aggressively noncontemplative."
That pretty much describes us all these days. Though it's worth noting that Merton published his book in 1961, before the Internet, when even long-distance telephone calls were a rarity in some parts of the U.S.
| |
| | |
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c74ed53ef017d3d71ffd4970c
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference A Thomas Merton line I must use one day:
The comments to this entry are closed.
I write about people, technology, and the worlds they make.
I'm a senior consultant at Strategic Business Insights, a Menlo Park, CA consulting and research firm. I also have two academic appointments: I'm a visitor at the Peace Innovation Lab at Stanford University, and an Associate Fellow at Oxford University's Saïd Business School.
I began thinking seriously about contemplative computing in the winter of 2011 while a Visiting Researcher in the Socio-Digital Systems Group at Microsoft Research, Cambridge.
My book on contemplative computing, The Distraction Addiction, will be published by Little, Brown and Company in 2013. (It will also appear in Dutch, Russian, Spanish, Chinese and Korean in 2013 and 2014.)
My episodically-maintained personal blog is Relevant History; a c.v. of uncertain vintage is available as a PDF. I also have profiles on Linked In, Google Scholar, Academia.edu, and Amazon.
My latest book, and the first book from the contemplative computing project. The Distraction Addiction will appear in summer 2013, published by Little, Brown and Co.. (You can pre-order it through Amazon or IndieBound now, though!)
My first book, Empire and the Sun: Victorian Solar Eclipse Expeditions, was published with Stanford University Press in 2002 (order via Amazon).
IN PROGRESS
IN PRESS
PUBLISHED IN 2012
PUBLISHED IN 2011
A Banquet of Consequences: Living in the “Nobody-Could-Have-Predicted” Era.
Using Futures 2.0 to Manage Intractable Futures: The Case of Weight Loss
Thinking Big: Large Media, Creativity, and Collaboration [pdf]
Citizen Satellites (with Bob Twiggs)
PUBLISHED IN 2010
Feasting at the Banquet of Consequence
Futures 2.0: Rethinking the Discipline
Paper Spaces: Visualizing the Future
Social Scanning: Improving Futures Through Web 2.0
Global Scenarios: Their Current State and Future
PUBLISHED IN 2009
Future Knowledge Ecosystems: The Next 20 Years of Technology-Led Economic Development
Comments