Yoga, Spirituality & Ancient Wisdom Nature & Earth-Based Wisdom

Not All Networks Are Digital

My friends,

Rewilding has never been more needed than it is right now. Artificial intelligence programs such as ChatGPT and Grok, humanoid robots, quantum computing, transhuman advances like neuralink and others, and a host of other technologies are developing at an exponential rate. While some of these technologies promise to make the blind see and the lame walk, others will almost certainly put millions out of work. In just the last year, text-to-video AI programs have improved to the point where it is almost impossible to distinguish between real videos and deep fakes. Apps like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and others are already heavily populated with AI chatbots.

At some point in the next few years, you may be walking down the street, and a humanoid robot will be out and about running errands or doing manual labor. That will be a weird moment.

I’m not trying to freak you out; I am just trying to be real with you. Adult talk. George Lucas made Darth Vader the main character in the original Star Wars trilogy to explore the very issues we are living with today. What happens when people become more machine than mammal? When we live through screens and stop believing our own senses. When facts and data, cold calculations, dis-embodied information, have the last word?

I saw a meme the other day (haha, I know, the irony): “Not all networks are digital.”

The micro-rhyzal network of fungi that connects trees in the forest, passes information and shares energy; that is advanced technology. SO advanced it creates oxygen and atmosphere, gives life, births beauty, composts death, renews the world…

The most complex expression of organic matter ever discovered is mysteriously humming between our ears right now as you read these words, facilitating every thought, projecting an inner realm of multi-dimensional images, feelings, fantasies, dreams.

Not all networks are digital…

Technology is not bad. There are pros and cons to every human invention, but in our pursuit of progress and comfort, we have divorced ourselves en masse from the great mothering power of our original home. We have become too comfortable, to the point of great sickness, and we are realizing that this screen-centered, indoor, sedentary life that we have constructed around ourselves isn’t working. We are remembering that a barefoot walk in the grass, sunlight on our skin, and the gentle movement of wind in the trees is absolutely essential. We are remembering that a share circle around a fire with loved ones is so much better than bingeing the latest show. We are remembering that not knowing how to provide for ourselves—to find shelter, water, fire, and food—leaves us dependent and anxious.

The Akan people of Ghana have a beautiful symbol and teaching that they call “Sankofa”. It means that “there is nothing wrong with going back for something you have forgotten.” Especially when that “something” is so incredibly important. Rewilding means different rememberings for different people. For someone, it may be remembering how much they love to climb trees; or for someone else it is making time to catch sunsets over screen time; and for someone else, it may be getting that vegetable garden going again, or learning how to make a fire with friction, or a basket from foraged materials. All of these “ancestral skills” help us reconnect with our natural habitat, to rebuild, renew, and heal the lost connections with our friends and relatives in “the more than human world.”

This November, we gather to remember, to heal, to go back for those things we may have forgotten along the way. This year’s lineup of rewilding experts, scholars, leaders, and practitioners is truly astounding. And every single participant adds to that beautiful network of lived experience, embodied knowing, and ancestral skill. Together we create our own human network of beating hearts and helping hands.

Not all networks are digital…

Let’s do it together. I look forward to seeing you by the fire, in council, on the earth.

With love,

Micah

p.s. This blog was written without the help of A.I. 😊