Comments on: How to Enjoy Your Forgotten Superpowers

By: Amy

Amy — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 11:52:40 +0000

Very refreshing post David.

But I just wanted to say I love the knife! It just amazes me that you can just make something like that out of a piece of nothing!

Very impressive.
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By: G

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 15:37:03 +0000

I often feel appalled at the glass or plastic containers we throw away just for a drink of beer or juice. Recycling doesn’t mitigate the wastefulness. We have things organized all wrong.
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By: David

David — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:19:04 +0000

What a great comment. Thanks Drew, I think you’re right on. We’ve become extremely dependent on the mind, a tool we never seem to want to put down. Sports are one good way to get out attention off of our thoughts and onto something outside our heads. People are attracted to all sorts of activities that do just that. I find my thinking really quiets down when I’m using a sharp-as-hell knife.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:10:41 +0000

Sweet ^_^

By: Drew Tkac

Drew Tkac — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:13:15 +0000

Our intelligence, as a species, has remained unchanged for tens of thousands of years. Yet the knowledge today that we must acquire and process during the course of our lifetime has increased and continues to increase exponentially. The fact that we are coping with this is quite a testimony to the adaptability of our species. Perhaps it is why we are still alive, at least for now!

The theme of this discussion is tool appreciation and our ability to create them. But one nagging question continues to haunt me: What have we lost because of this? I’m not talking about the fact that I am an engineer and I can’t use a slide rule (device of the past). I am talking about our over-dependence on our mind. Our minds are so busy thinking that we forget that our mind in its self is a tool to be used by us, and put away when were done thinking.

Aghast, what would I be doing if my mind would not be thinking, about something. One favorite quote of mine is that our mind is like a crowd. If there are no people there is not a crowd and if there are no thoughts there is no mind.

I play quite a bit of tennis. I play my best when I don’t think. See the ball, run to the ball, hit the ball. It is so visceral, so in-the-moment, so feeling, so now, and so not using-the-mind.

Our ancestors spent more of there time in-the-moment. Unless we condition ourselves to live in the moment this may become a lost skill. It has been said that eternity is just another dimension of now. When we are fearful, lamenting, and any one of a thousands of other take-us-out-of-the-moment emotions we are wasting moments in our life.

I can’t help to wonder if I were brought up being taught the teachings of Buddha in place of the Catholic Church’s man made doctrine designed to make us dependent on that institution for a “donation” of 10% of your lifetime earnings, would I be better equipped to enjoy life, now. The answers we seek are right inside all of us. Oh the irony, so I lament now and I am not in the moment.

My point: Whatever the environment, put away your mind and experience now.

By: David

David — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:33:33 +0000

Hi Brad. By “the same” I’m referring to innate biological traits. Worldview varies wildly, even among people of the same era and area. Yes technology is definitely changing us. In one generation of heavy computer use, penmanship has gone to hell :)

By: Brad

Brad — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:38:26 +0000

Technology really is amazing. Just think – 10 years ago you wouldn’t have half the things you listed! It seems impossible. Back in the 90s I remember thinking about “the future” in the flying car sense, but things have changed so much since then that my whole idea of the word changed. Now I envision some freaky coalescence of humans and computers – people are almost always seconds away from plugging into a network as it is, if they so choose. Well, about 25% of the world. The earth I mean. Just think, in 10 years the whole idea of “the future” has changed. The rate of technological innovation is increasing, so what will the future possibly hold? Hopefully not disaster.

Anyway, aside from that tangent – I respectfully disagree that we are basically the same, mentally, as our ancestors. They necessarily had “ethnocentric” worldviews because they functioned as families or tribes, and outsiders were…outsiders. If I am alone and naked in the wilderness, I am sure going to revert to an egocentric worldview. So I think all of our interconnective technology is changing us. In just the past few decades, religious doctrine and absolutist views have been falling by the wayside. Alright, that’s enough elaboration.

By: David

David — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:37:55 +0000

I am grateful for you kind comment, thank you :)

By: David

David — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:37:31 +0000

Me too. A knife doesn’t confer automatic survival skills though. I wouldn’t know where to start :)

By: David

David — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:35:43 +0000

[blockquote]I await the day when people take time from their lives to humbly remember their ancestors who needed to drive to get to their destination and carry around a device in their pockets to communicate when desired.[/blockquote]

Great point Kai. I remember a time when people wrote letters on paper, it was crazy.