Endure Chapter 13: Analog

Welcome to chapter 13, chapter 13 of my book Endure. My name is Ben Greenfield and this is the weekly release of a chapter from my book Guide to Spiritual Stamina, which you can find in both physical and Digital version@getindure.com Get Indoor.com Chapter 13 Analog 1 May my wife and I were on a morning walk and chatting about how big of a month it was for our 13 year old twin sons. See, that month was their official rite of passage month, working in close conjunction with actually a former podcast guest of mine named Tim Corcoran and his twin eagles Wilderness School. Our sons had been preparing for a rite of passage into adolescence for several years, primarily via immersion wilderness survival training, plant foraging, nature awareness, and an overall unique but refreshingly ancestral approach to discovering how to creatively coexist with the giant magical garden upon which we humans were placed. The month of May that year culminated in a solo ego dissolving excursion into the wilderness, followed afterward by a ceremonial cutting of the cord in recognition of each of them taking one more giant step towards becoming a man who can protect and provide and survive, and doing so in a spirit of full love and presence with others. Yet on that same walk with my wife, we simultaneously discussed our observation that because of the boy's daily and constant immersion in an analog world chock full of unschooling real life experiences, time in nature, being with other people, tennis, jiu jitsu, sauna, breathwork, cold pools and trampoline parks, they're not very well versed in the ins and outs of the digital world. They don't have a smartphone. It's not that they're not allowed, they just don't have one. It's never really something that that they've decided that that they want to own. If they ever did want to own one, they're free to get one. They don't have a video gaming system. They don't own any virtual reality technology, though they each own a MacBook for school. They're not really very good at using computers, at least compared to other kids their age, or, as you'll learn shortly, me, their same age. They have social media accounts and a website for their online healthy cooking show called Go Greenfields, but they've chosen to outsource any work on those platforms to a virtual assistant and business manager who they hired with income they got from sponsorship advertisements and affiliate sales so that they would have more time to, well, go outside and throw snowballs. So yeah, they're they're kind of miniature Luddites. Me, I was raised in A highly digital world. One of my first memories is of playing memory. Ironic, I know. On one of the first personal computers that Apple developed, the 1984 Macintosh to be precise, which my family promptly bought. Along with purchasing just about every new fancy personal computing system that ever appeared in Costco, accompanied by high end graphics cards, new modems, smoking 28 8K modems, baby multifunction joysticks, and all the latest games released by wizard and ESPN Sports and Microsoft and beyond to support my own family's robust video gaming habits. For most of my teenage years I spent two to three hours on a computer each morning filing insurance claims for my father's non emergency medical ambulance service. Then another two to three hours each evening playing a cornucopia of video games, writing stories on a word processor, learning programming languages, and even tinkering with and taking apart my entire computer just to see what the insides look like. When my father shifted to the telecommunications industry and began to sell the very first cell phones, along with pagers, modems, answering machines and other hot new digital devices, our family vehicles were suddenly equipped with giant brick sized cell phones and massive antennas on the roof of each vehicle. Our friends were absolutely astonished that we could make phone calls while moving from a car. We also always upgraded to the fastest Internet in town as soon as it was released. We were the first in the neighborhood to get caller id. You mean we can actually see who's calling us on the phone? And perhaps most comically, my two brothers and I were required to wear personal pagers everywhere, basically looking like little drug dealers when really all the pagers were for was so that mom could keep tabs on us and remind us to pick up the milk. My older brother eventually hurled his pager out the window of his truck during one particularly stressful grocery shopping list request from Mom. Well, from Tetris and Frogger to World of Warcraft and World of StarCraft to SimCity and Doom, I was not only an avid video game enthusiast, but even had a private tutor in computer programming to support the technology aspect of my homeschooling curriculum and had my sights set in high school on being a computer programmer and video game designer. I wasn't half bad at playing strategy based video games either, but became pretty disillusioned with the entire world of gaming when cheat codes came around. It always annoyed me when people didn't play by the rules, so I quit. Which is, I'm sure the only reason I'm not an e gaming billionaire YouTube sensation. Now 2020 hindsight I suppose as a result of growing up in a digital, hyper connected environment, I've certainly faced an uphill battle in my adult years to develop a true appreciation for the arguably far more real palatable, enjoyable, meaningful and natural analog world. But slowly over the years, and ironically, through the use of YouTube videos, phone apps, podcasts and audiobooks, I've discovered how to identify edible and medicinal plants in my backyard. I've learned how to shoot a bow and hunt small and large game. I've learned how to navigate and interact with my environment using my senses of smell, touch, taste and feel. I've learned how to trees as actual living entities that I can know by name rather than as one big patch of a giant green, somewhat foreign and difficult to understand forest. Heck, I can't even walk down a nature trail now without taking my eyes off the dozen or so plants I can actually identify and actually appreciate. Currently I'm learning elk language with my sons. They're also learning bird language. But if I had to choose one animal language I actually have the time to learn, I'll choose an animal that I can also hunt and barbecue. Hence elk. Although I certainly also have a high amount of daily interaction with the digital world, such as owning cryptocurrency, operating multiple websites, blogging, podcasting, audiobooking, club housing, Instagram, storying, and even biohacking with a dizzying array of self optimization tools and toys, I also help raise goats and chickens, store gold silver guns and ammo, live on solar panels, well water and buried gas tanks, have pantries full of food for years, and spend anywhere from three to five hours every day living outdoors and embracing an escape from anything remotely digital. Except admittedly, the audiobooks I'm constantly listening to on my smartphone, which to me doesn't feel very digital at all and more like somebody following me around and peacefully reading a book to me while I'm working out, walking, shopping for groceries, et cetera. And I have to admit that despite my continued heavy reliance upon the digital world to operate my health empire of podcasting, blogging, speaking on zoom, consulting on the phone and Internet with clients, researching and interacting with a virtual team of contractors and employees, I actually now like the analog world a whole lot better than I like the digital world. Long term, I think I'm better for slowly embracing a bit of fully analog Luddite ism and making a concerted attempt not to be one of those who live in the digital matrix. Yeah, I said it. The Matrix. Okay, I'll briefly assume you may not be familiar with the Matrix. If you are feel free to skip this somewhat Spoiler alert free paragraph. In the early 21st century, a war between humanity and intelligent machines broke out, which humanity lost, after which all surviving humans were subsequently captured and pacified in a matrix which was basically a shared alternate reality designed to simulate the world as it existed. In 1999, folks could just live their whole little pleasant lives happily plugged into the matrix, blissfully unaware that they were floating naked in a glass human pod with IV vitamins and calories being pumped into their bodies to sustain their brains and bodies in what was actually a purely digital existence. Of course, films like Blade Runner 2049, V for Vendetta and Minority Report feature similar dystopian quite concerningly. To me at least, we don't seem to currently be that far behind these films. Allow me to give you a few examples of what the future of humans living digitally and virtually could look like. We remain on a path of nature distancing, technology infused analog obsolete existences. Examples that we all would perhaps have hardly laughed at 20 years ago, but that now seem to be inching their way towards becoming a very real part of our everyday life. So sex. Not that I endorse sex before marriage, but you can google youth having less sex to see examples of what rampant Internet access to pornography, virtual reality headsets, haptic suits, and decreased levels of hormones due to a relatively sedentary digital lifestyle are doing to the young humans on this planet. Supposedly in Japan, love dolls or sex dolls are evolving into highly advanced beings capable of giving a man or woman all the carnal pleasure they might desire from intercourse with an actual real human being. Doug Wilson's book Ride Sally Ride, which at the time I'm recording this, will soon be made into a movie, and I bet it'll be good. Describes quite hilariously the slippery slope we are sliding down as identity culture and sex doll advancement results in these little love robots being legally classified as actual artificially intelligence humans. Should us fellas desire to conceive in the future, perhaps we'll be able to just pop off a bit of sperm over to the local sperm bank, swipe left or swipe right to select the perfect mother we desire for our Insta family Phone and grow us a little baby from that mother who may or may not be a robot equipped with a digitally functioning uterus. Or perhaps we can just buy a stored embryo with a bit of bitcoin that we can sprinkle our seed on when the time comes. Of course, this birth of new life will only be permitted so long as our environment home and banking sensors detect that we have a low enough carbon footprint, adequate amounts of cryptocurrency and enough food in the refrigerator to responsibly introduce a new carbon consuming parasite into the world. Food why undertake the laborious measures necessary to harvest, grow, prepare, chew and digest food when the food of the future can simply be a symmetrical brownish orange block of perfectly comprised carbon molecules with a customizable and highly engineered protein, fat and carb composition? This sustenance will not only match your exact biological needs, but when paired with your VR goggles and a haptic headset that triggers neurons responsible for taste sensations of food, will allow you to experience all the bliss of happily mowing down a prime rib roast and a Bordeaux, blissfully unaware you're just eating brown soy mush and drinking tap water. Fortunately, you will be able to engage in family dinners as your children eat their virtual macaroni and cheese, your spouse their special diet of digital spin spinach and blueberries, and your entire family plays a rollicking round of Battleship inside your headsets. Fitness soon there'll be no need for a gym, health club, backyard park or garage workout space. All you'll need to do is pull on your electrical muscle stimulation suit lined with haptic sensors. Pair the suit with a virtual reality boxing, tennis or Himalayan hike workout and the hike will of course be synced with synthetic essential oil diffusers that mimic a walk in the forest and voila. We can all stumble, pale, clammy, electrocuted and sore out of our basement from our 6 mile trek up to a pristine mountain peak just in time to refuel with a post workout meal, two purple pods of engineered meat and a fabricated chain of maltodextrin beads blended in the perfect protein to carbohydrate ratio containing, as a pleasant bonus when paired with our haptic tasting headset, the addictively succulent flavor of roast chicken and dark chocolate. Beat that Rocky Balboa with your stupid jogging suit, freezing cold Russian snow workouts and raw eggs in a blender. Hunting Reminiscent of the old school Duck Hunt Nintendo game, you'll be able to take your bow with the fake rubber tipped arrows to a virtual hunting range, shoot at digitized animals of your choice, take part in online hunting competitions and have your supper that night be comprised of a virtual meat a palooza that allows you to track, hunt, shoot and subsequently eat elk. Soy elk that is in the span of a pre dinner hour. For those of us with ample acreage, our virtual hunting headsets might possibly blind us to the fact that our entire backyard garden has been eaten by a recent infestation of white tailed deer, a quite common occurrence now that hunting land doesn't need to be managed quite as intensively anymore, but it sure beats having to get up at 4am and trudge through the hills to find food. Or at least it wasn't the stray wolf pack who ate your neighbor's dog last week while he was in the same state of blinded indoor digital hunting Oblivion Plant Medicine why embark upon an expensive and time consuming trip to Peru for an Ayahuasca immersion when you will be able to simply strap on an oculus rift and use a software system like trip, perhaps paired with a carbon dioxide carbon like or xenon gas inhalation device. And yeah, I have friends who are actually doing this very thing to create a virtual reality highly psychedelic and hallucinogenic experience in which you can dissolve ego, simulate death and release trauma. All with none of the plane tickets, the mosquitoes or the puking. Heck, if you get to be a really good psychonaut, perhaps you can, while nestled in the comfort of your basement couch or perhaps while floating in a matrix esque tube with electrodes attached to your head, be utilized and employed by a high ranking government agency who can take your medicinalized ramblings and use your thoughts and ideas to create an oracle like scenario in which you help them predict the future, brainstorm difficult problems or solve crimes. Somewhat reminiscent of the CIA's secret MK Ultra program, a 1950s search for a mind control drug like LSD that could be weaponized against enemies. Sheesh. Even if 50 years from now some global government entity isn't planting us in a giant tube at birth and feeding us baby food through an umbilical cord we never got cut off so they can harvest our mitochondrial ATP energy to build new servers, our neural firing patterns and brainwaves to design better AI or our blood cells to develop new vaccines. Sometimes I wonder a we will eventually get to the point where we gladly volunteer ourselves and our children for that flavor of digital living because, well, it's paid for, we're fed and we get to play video games in our head all day, or b if we're simply repeating the Tower of Babel scenario all over again. Yep, I said it. The Tower of Babel. The Tower of Babel story as told in the Genesis 11:1:9 narrative describes a united human race in the generations following the great flood around 1285 B.C. who spoke a single language and eventually migrated eastward, where they then agreed to build a city and a tower tall enough to reach heaven, saying come, let us build ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth. But God came down to see the city and the tower the people were building, and he said if as one people speak in the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they won't understand each other, so God confounds their speech that they can no longer understand each other and subsequently scatters them from there over all the earth and they stop building the city and the Tower of Babel. But isn't an attempt to create a digital living scenario in which we have safety and complete control over each and every possible outcome, as opposed to the unpredictability, chaos and actual danger we may encounter when in a less controlled environment such as nature, an attempt to be a sort of God, or worse yet, to be God, just like the folks building the Tower of Babel seems to want to be. I don't know about you, but I'd personally rather exist in a slightly dangerous, unpredictable and chaotic analog world in which I know everything is real and in which I could get along just fine, thank you, without so much as a single smartphone compared to a safe, clean, predictable, yet ultimately fake and relatively unimpactful digital world. Hopefully I'll never have to choose between the two and could simply continue to embrace the analog while responsibly utilizing the digital. The hows of an Analog world Right then, so how does one embrace analog in a world gone digital? Well, here's a few tips. 1. Connect to nature. No, I mean really connect to it in a sensual way. Go outside, gather a handful of dirt up into your cupped palms and take a giant whiff of that rich, earthy smell. Go for walks in the wind and the rain and embrace those elements too. Next time you've got some privacy to yourself, Lay outside naked in the sunshine in your backyard every time you step outside, think of yourself as a newborn baby and curiously, fearlessly soak in something new every time. Number two Create real stuff you can feel, touch and smell. Yeah, I know that new Digital creations like NFTs are digitally attractive, but deep down in your soul, don't you know that it's more meaningful to get a framed analog photograph or a piece of art from your loved one as opposed to a digitally SMS snapshot? Or at least have some kind of tangible asset tied to the NFT humans built with the ability to see, touch, taste and smell created art. So despite how simple it can be to pride yourself upon an epically edited Instagram gallery, perhaps an instead try to dust off your physical creativity and take hands on moments with your opposable thumbs and all in life to paint a watercolor postcard, carve a wooden spoon, learn how to repair a bicycle, or even take a pottery or glassblowing class. And to embrace the flaws, imperfections and slight chaos that arises when building with objects other than zeros and ones. For inspiration, you could check out books like why We Make Things and why It Matters the Education of a Craftsman Making An Inspirational Guide to Becoming an Artist Craftsman. I'll link to those if you go to the resources webpage for this chapter@getendure.com Chapter 13 that's get indoor.com Chapter 13 next, know the dangers Educate yourself on a massive amount of unnatural EMFs you're likely exposed to if your digital life far outbalances your analog life. On the resources webpage for this chapter, I'll link to my favorite three podcasts I've recorded about these so called non native electromagnetic fields and what to do about them them. In addition, Dr. Joseph Mercola's book EMF is a fantastic overview of how exactly to choose wisely when selecting things like wearable smart appliances and home electronics, and how to protect your cells from the ever increasing volley of electronic exposure. Trust me, it's so much easier to place your phone in airplane mode and trade the VR headset in for a bicycling helmet when you understand your cells have a surprisingly finite capability to be able to withstand 24. 7 Bombardment with man made electricity. Next, learn how to survive in an analog world. Really, if you're following that first tip that I gave you about connecting to nature, you'll ideally also want to learn basic skills such as how to start a simple fire, how to identify edible or medicinal plants in your backyard, how to negotiate with or even defend yourself against threatening people or animals, and how to be prepared for the inevitable unpredictability of the analog world. Neil Strauss's book Emergency, in which Neil lives off grid in the middle of LA for several months, could be an inspiring read for you to get started. You can also Google name of your town Wilderness Survival and then go take a local hunter's education course or even sign up for something like a sheepdog course, which my wife and I have taken to learn how to engage in close quarter combat, identify potential threats or escape routes in areas such as parking lots or theaters, and how to handle basic weaponry. You don't have to necessarily earn a hard to kill or badass badge, but generally I don't think there's much wrong with having that moniker floating around in the back of your mind, or at least committing to having some sort of dependable chops that allow you to thrive even without a computer, a smartphone, or a grocery store. Next, use your memory. Look, I'll readily admit that by digitally outsourcing the rote memorization tasks we normally would have struggled with for much of human history, such as what are the step by step directions to grandma's house? Or what's my phone number? Or what's the square root of 1000, we likely have freed up our brain to engage in more creative or meaningful tasks. In other words, that brain surgeon whose job was replaced by a fully automated AI driven robot may be a physician who instead goes on to cure cancer or develop a safer drug, or discover a better vaccine. And that New York taxi cab driver who can now outsource to Google Maps may have just a bit more creative steam left upon arriving home from work to paint something inspiring for a local gallery. But science has also repeatedly demonstrated that memorizing facts and skills does indeed keep the brain young. So you shouldn't assume you should just use Google and Siri for everything. For example, I personally memorize chords on the guitar, memorize Bible verses, memorize card game and board game rules, and memorize names of plants, trees, and even physiological mechanisms I may need to describe on a podcast or in a speech. Build memory into your life somehow. For me, that's generally with music, nature and facts that I find myself frequently needing to recall. Anyways, author Arlene Taylor's work, which I'll link to on the Resources webpage for this chapter, is good for getting practical, fun quick tips and games for memory development and maintenance, as is Jim Kwik's book Limitless. Next, go analog with entertainment. Entertaining yourself with non technology options can be an entirely different multi sensorial experience, especially when compared with digital entertainment immersion. So while you don't need to completely eschew your Kindle, you should also read paper books and feel those pages turning in your hands or feel your pen scratching in the margins on the paper. Get a turntable and play a few records, get a Polaroid camera and print out some real photos. Ironically, those cameras seem to be gaining in popularity once again. Anyways, go to a live concert or play. Sure you can't quite so easily fast forward or quickly scroll to get to the parts you want, but this can force a sort of mindful attention that's often difficult to come by in a scroll and click type of existence. Next, play a ball or a balance sport and I'll admit that peloton bikes, tonal cable, weight machines, mirror workouts, Ergada rowing, fight club, boxing, catalyst, electrostimulation and other forms of relatively digital fitness are convenient and can even be highly effective and efficient hacks for getting fitter faster. But none involve the same level of the personal interaction, social environment, hand eye coordination, balance and unpredictability of playing an analog sport, particularly a ball or a balance sport that fully engages your senses, such as pickleball, tennis, volleyball, ping pong, pickup basketball, tossing a pig skin at the park, kicking a soccer ball with your kids, throwing a paddle board in the river, finding a new mountain bike Trail Learn to Navigate despite the nervousness and mild panic that may ensue if you try to so much as leave to shop for groceries without your precious phone navigation system, you really should try to rely just a little bit less on the voice in the phone to tell you where to turn next and actually pay mindful attention to where you are in the world and how your city and neighborhood is generally laid out, as I discuss in detail in a podcast that I'll link to on the resources webpage for this chapter. In a manner quite similar to birds, bees and sharks, human beings are actually equipped with a bit of what's called magnetite in our snouts that actually allow us to sense directions like north, south, east and west magnetically. Most humans, save for a few aboriginal tribes, have lost touch with this capability due to its modern lack of necessity in an era of GPS and Google Maps. But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't at least have a rough understanding of basic navigation skills. Know where the sun rises and sets. Know the major constellations and their positions in the night sky. Take a quick wayfinding map and compass course such as your local REI or even online via YouTube. Yeah, I get the irony of that. To learn daytime and nighttime navigation, ask a real person for directions. Trust me, they won't bite. I guarantee you'll find it slightly empowering and confidence instilling to know how to find your way from point A to point B without the use of digital technology, and then finally live with people in a culture. Knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, habits and traditions are a crucial part of family legacy and community building. While there's nothing inherently wrong with working from your laptop on an isolated beach in Thailand via a digital nomadic lifestyle. You may also want to think about actually setting up routes somewhere in a place you call home, a place with neighbors you frequently see, a coffee shop you might visit each day, or the same set of friends your children might play with each week. Take your family out in the town to restaurants and tennis outings and farmers markets. Go to a local church, throw dinner parties, plant a garden, mow your lawn, volunteer in the community, go pick up trash somewhere along the road. Engage in activities like this that constantly remind you that you are real human, living a remarkable life, and culturally evangelizing those around you with the peace, love, and joy that comes from loving others, loving God, and savoring his creation Ultimately, technology isn't bad. I use it every day more than most. Actually, in our digital world, it's easy for us to believe that technology must always take the form of tools such as digital smartphones and computers. But even crude tools like cooking knives, shovels, rakes, hoes, hammers, nails, and saws are all technological innovations. Arguably, one of the most important pieces of technology in all of human history is the printing press, which revolutionized the world, allowing books and other printed materials to be mass produced cheaply and efficiently, making them available for mass distribution not just for the wealthy or those with high societal status. Just imagine how much good has been done in the world now that everyone can own their own copy of a Bible and have access to libraries of other knowledge that kings of old would never have possessed in their wildest dreams. Similarly, social media, despite its increasingly common vilification, can be used to encourage others, bring together neighborhoods, spread news, rally community volunteers, share inspiring photographs, and communicate in ways that can be largely positive and even world changing. So technology itself isn't evil, but it can be used by broken and sinful people for nefarious and evil purposes. As Paul writes in First Corinthians 10:23 all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are are lawful for me, but not all things edify. Just watch a flick like the Social Dilemma to see what I mean. Technology, especially digital technology, can also take us so far away from savoring God's creation that we can slip into a pitiable existence in which we aren't fully tapping into the wondrous body, brain, and senses that God has blessed us with because we are simply too immersed in a somewhat fake digital world. Even AI, as described in the book the Age of Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity is being used in countries like China, Russia, North Korea, and Asia, Egypt, to demean certain people or deny them fundamental human rights. But that same AI technology can be used to ethically identify criminals, stop terrorist threats, or allow you to pay for a meal at a restaurant by just smiling at the camera. If we are in union with God and acting in a full spirit of loving others, we can redeem just about any human invention, including technology, for noble and righteous use. Especially if we resist the temptation to become so attached to that technology that in its absence, we cannot fully function as a human being, or cannot at least walk 10 steps without imagining that our phone is vibrating like a biological implant in our pocket. So we'd better check it. Summary well, look, Barring a solar flare or some other kind of natural or man made disaster, we'll likely continue to experience an onslaught of new technologies and digital infiltration into nearly every crook and cranny of our lives. AI and VR, extreme automation, sex dolls, and smartphone addictions may very well become the status quo in society, but you can choose to live analog in an increasingly digital world. You can develop a deeper connection in nature, in your own backyard, and beyond. Go dig up some dandelion greens and toss them in your salad. It's okay. Even if Uber Eats didn't deliver it, you won't die. You can engage and train your senses by foraging plants like this, and also by growing your own vegetables and barbecuing your own meat. You can create real stuff that's more tangible and meaningful than zeros and ones like cartoons, drawings, carvings, paintings, musical compositions, and handcrafted gifts. Gifts. Nobody cares if it sucks. They care. It's coming from you and that it's real. You can look people in the eye even if you can't see the rest of their face because of some darn mask, and see them as real human beings. Do that as much as you can. You can play tennis and golf and volleyball and badminton on a real lawn, with real friends, no devices required. Yes, you can continue to live a remarkable analog life while still being grateful for and retaining a responsible use of the conveniences of the digital world. After all, God made us his divine image bearers. And as tiny creators who are inspired by our Creator, we humans have learned to forge Earth's elements to fashion technology and computers and phones and circuit boards and all other manners of digital magic. And it's all a gift from God. But any gift from God can become a sin, an idol, and a curse, particularly when we grow so attached to that gift that it becomes a God from which we are incapable of detaching. Ourselves. So know how to detach from digital and embrace analog. Your life will be more full as a human being because of it. Now, how about you? Do you prefer the analog world and eschew the digital world? Do you try to elegantly blend both with responsibility? Do you think based upon our extreme reliance, addiction to and seemingly irrational embrace of every new technology, we're all going to hell in a handbasket? Well, whatever your thoughts are, I would encourage you to go to getindoor.com where I have a note taking section section in the physical and the digital version of the book where you can interact with this book and reflect upon questions like those that I've just asked you. And for resources, references, links, and additional reading and listening material for this chapter you can visit getindoor.com chapter 13 that's getindoor.com chapter 13.