Sup friends,
Just dropping by to announce a book club/writing group I’m running next month called Befriending Technology.
It’s for anyone who’s confused about what it means to be in a fruitful relationship with technology, especially AI, and who wants a calm, reflective space away from The Discourse to explore and untangle it.
For six weeks, we’ll be reading two books side by side, one that’s optimistic about where technology is taking us, and one that’s urging us to pump the brakes. The goal isn’t so much to “find the right answers” as it is to inhabit the tension between opposing perspectives, and use that space to reflect on what we actually want from technology versus what the zeitgeist tells us we should want.
Each week, I’ll be hosting three reading/writing/discussion sessions. Each one is about 25 minutes of reading, 20 of writing, and 15 of sharing and listening to our fellow reflective humans. They’ll be on different days and times, so no matter where you are in the world, at least one should work for you.
I came into this looking for authors who take the sanctity of the human soul seriously, even if they come to wildly different conclusions about technology. So I’ll be reading Kevin Kelly’s The Inevitable as my optimistic book, and Paul Kingsnorth’s Against The Machine as the anti-tech perspective. But if you want to bring different books, the more the merrier. Pick something that calls to you and ideally challenges you a bit.
Also worth noting, there’s zero requirement to finish any of the books. This isn’t a check-the-box, finish-your-homework kind of thing. It’s about participating in a process together that will lead us somewhere new and interesting, regardless of whether we “do it perfectly.”
Beyond the sessions, there’s gonna be a private writing space, a group chat, and the occasional Q&A and show-and-tell. And it’s all going to live on Dark Forest OS, Yancey Strickler’s new platform for cozy, intimate internet spaces.
The details:
Starts Friday, November 6
Runs six weeks, wrapping up the week before Christmas
Sessions Mondays 9am, Wednesdays noon, Fridays 3pm. All pacific time.
Pay what feels right, $50, $100 or $250. Or if money’s tight, hit reply and we’ll figure something out.
Sign up at befriending.tech
So yeah, this is an experience I’ve been craving for myself for a while, and I have a hunch that something quite nourishing will emerge from a group of earnest humans reflecting on this together.
If you have any questions, leave a comment or hit reply and I’ll get back to you quickly.
Hope to see you there 🫡
-Rob