“One of the many possible ways to describe a life would be as a series of encounters with various bodies of water. Time spent in, on, under, or near water interspersed with the periods spent thinking about where, when, and how to reach it next. My first body of water, of course, was experienced as a zygote in my mother’s womb. And the last—at least as I now imagine it—will be in the form of ashes, cast over the Pacific. In between, I’ve been fascinated by and privileged to know many ponds, tanks, rivers, bottles, pools, lakes, streams, buckets, waterfalls, quarries, tubs, mists, oceans, downpours, and puddles.”
—Wallace J. Nichols, preface to Blue Mind
I took the photo above in 1997 while living on the Big Island of Hawai’i for one extraordinary year. That’s a spinner dolphin. They would come into the local bay by the hundreds. When a dear friend emailed me a few days ago about an event this summer at Esalen with marine biologisit Dr. Wallace Nichols and I noticed the title of the book he’s written—Blue Mind—I found myself transported to what I came to call the Blue Room…a place of deep meditation, discovery, remembrance, restoration, and play.
My friend’s timing was excellent since I was literally preparing for a short and much-needed trip off grid to connect with my Blue Mind in a place I love—Morro Bay. Both my mother and my father loved and lived in intimacy with this bay for more than 25 years. My mother would call me to describe the colors of the water that evening. I never lived here but thanks to them, I have come to love it. Which is a round-about-way to say, as soon as I post this, I’m going off grid and into Blue Mind.
I’ll be reading Nichols’ book, and I’ll be reading the Berkman Klein Center paper on AI and youth that I mention and link to below…
“People protect what they love.”
—Jacques Costeau
What I’m reading:
“Youth and Artificial Intelligence: Where We Stand”
I really appreciate the work of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard. I first encountered them when I was working on international education projects in the immersive web with Linden Lab. The Berkman Klein Center (at the time in 2008, it was just Berkman Center) was doing very innovative work holding classes in the immersive world of Second Life. When they created the Digital Literacy Toolkit, I contributed to the peer review. Here’s their overview:
“This spotlight seeks to share Youth and Media’s initial learnings and key questions around the intersection between artificial intelligence (AI) and youth (ages 12-18), in the context of domains such as education, health and well-being, and the future of work. It aims to encourage various stakeholders — including policymakers, educators, and parents and caregivers — to consider how we can empower young people to meaningfully interact with AI-based technologies to promote and bolster learning, creative expression, and well-being, while also addressing key challenges and concerns.”
