Death in The Garden (Newsletter)

Recently, musician José González released a music video for his new song “Losing Game (Sick).” As I was watching it, I thought it was really cool. A music artist critiquing modernity, technology, and the soullessness of machines? This type of video should be made for someone like me. But then… the classic AI uncanniness started to peak through. A weird glitch in the movement. Some odd warping on the robots. That unmistakable sheen of polish on the STANDARD HUMAN bags.

Our video You’re Probably a Luddite is now available to watch for free on YouTube! Please go watch it! We’re really proud of this video and we hope people enjoy it. If you find value in this video, please consider liking it and sharing it. It helps us tremendously.

This is an extended version of the script for our newest video, You’re Probably a Luddite, made available exclusively for paid subscribers of Death in The Garden. If you’d like to read the entire essay, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. If you’re already a paid sub — thank you. This work is only possible because of your support.

Luddite. You’ve definitely been hearing this word a lot recently. A Luddite is “a person opposed to new technology or ways of working.” That is the definition, at least according to Google. In short, for over 200 years, it has been a derogatory term to label someone as irrationally afraid of technology or progress. But where did this term come from? What…

Playback speed × Share post Share post at current time Share from 0:00 0:00 / Preview The Score: How Quantification Has Shaped Society | BONUS EPISODE With Alex Leff of Human Nature Odyssey On this bonus episode of Death in The Garden with Alex Leff of Human Nature Odyssey, Alex takes us along on a deep-dive into The Score by game philosopher C. Thi Nguyen.

In twist that will surprise no-one, I (Maren) have not been able to keep up with my reading enough to do the book club this month. I’m going to use May to get back on track! Thank you as always for your patience! I want to take a moment to encourage you all to check out the True North Leadership, a 6-week online mentorship program headed by our friend, Thomas Doochin.

Regeneration Through Sheep by Jake Marquez “Until the human is understood as a dimension of the earth, we have no secure basis for understanding any aspect of the human. We can understand the human only through the earth.” - Thomas Berry Humans are a peculiar creature. In spite of our overall ignorance of the processes of nature and life, a culture has arisen which has nevertheless positioned mankind as masters of the Earth.

March selection: Right Story, Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking by Tyson Yunkaporta This is the type of book that you read, go out and pay attention to the world, talk to a lot of different people and think and dream, and then read again. I have no doubt I’ll pick this one up again. Written in a sequence of interconnecting yarns and trains of thought, Tyson Yunkaporta’s Right Story, Wrong Story is unlike any nonfiction book I’ve ever read.

February Selections: The Emergency by George Packer and The Invisibility of Success by Daniel Quinn George Packer’s The Emergency begins with the collapse of empire — a vague, amorphous one, but an empire that provided a unifying narrative for its people nonetheless. The novel closely follows one family and their individual ways of making sense of the collapse, known to them as the Emergency.

Helena Norberg-Hodge is the author of Ancient Futures, Local is Our Future, and many other books. She is the founder of Local Futures, the organization pioneering the world localization movement. To learn more about the movement for localization, please go to the Local Futures website or follow them on Instagram and YouTube.