Smartphones are one of the things I write most often about. In an essay for Pat McAndrew's blog The Low Tech Trek, I explained why I resist getting one. My first essay for Pat's blog was an account of my experiences on January 13, 2018, the day a false missile alert was issued in Hawai‘i.

Pat is a theater artist and coach whom I met through the Center for Humane Technology's forum. He had written a post about his blog and asked interested writers to contact him. Based on our communication, I believe he is a sincere, good-hearted, and large-hearted person, and I'm happy he's including my writing at his blog.

Medium.com is an online publication that allows people to create their own content. I have published a few pieces there, including an extended response to an article by Jordan Greenhall. I was intrigued by the differences he perceived between real thinking and what he calls simulated thinking. The article's conclusion particularly impressed me with its call to action:

[A]s you become more capable of real thinking, you also become more capable of real collaboration. Of real community and of real relationships. And, thence, of real thinking. It is a virtuous cycle.

So, while the going has been slow, it is no surprise that those people who have begun crossing the adaptive valley to thinking are beginning to find each-other. And when they do, they are bridging across the identities and pre-fab responses of our old scripts and routines. It has been slow going, but it is picking up steam and accelerating.

The train is leaving the station. Time to start thinking.