Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Sunday, September 09, 2018

Sunday Walk

Beautiful long walk after brunch at our favorite Piedmont Street diner this afternoon, walking the crest of Mountain View Cemetery, "Millionaire's Row," where vast castles and pyramids and orientalist temples mingle before the most stunning views of Oakland and San Francisco and Berkeley and the endless stretch of blue Bay and blue sky to match... last week Eric Mom's and stepmom visited (I happen to feel much closer to and more congenial with Eric's family than my own, I'll admit) and we skipped our weekly jaunt, making our return to form that much more edifying today, creatures of habit that we are. The sun was hot as it has felt for months, and yet there was a real autumnal twang in the air as well. Trees and shrubs are settling in a bit, shadows seem already to be lengthening... Monday's are my long teaching day this term, two undergraduate lectures back to back, about three hours each, a survey of critical theory imparting so much information it feels exhausting to teach on its own, and then a topical course on digital anti-democratization via cyberlibertarianism (in David Golumbia's felicitous phrase) which is of course still urgent, but these days a topic that I feel a bit burned out about even as I keep flogging my usual anti-futurological critiques. The stage-fright and preparation worries (both over and under) are pretty ferocious the day before, so our long walks are an especially welcome distraction and grounding calm as I set out to look over my notes one more time before launching into the exactions of teacher-mode.   

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