SailingShip.Black.ModernEra

My friend Werner Pfeffer kindly threw this link in my mailbox. And I was stunned—looking at my house on google.map with this kind of three word description of a specific 3-meter by 3-meter location.

What Chris Sheldrick is doing is not just sticking to a nerds hobby. It strikes me because it seems to connect poetical and political layers. He and his team have divided the entire planet into three-meter squares and assigned each a unique, three-word identifier, like famous.splice.writers or blocks.evenly.breed, giving a precise address to the billions of people worldwide who don't have one.

© Gantas-Vaiciulenas, unsplash

So, this is where the title of this blogpost comes from. Because with SEGELSCHIFF.SCHWARZES.NEUZEIT you can put a sign on the door of the building where we will set up our StoryCamp 2024 in a few days. And even if this three word combination is random it starts playing with my mind.

Sailing Ship.Black.Modern Era. Its a bit creepy, I have to admit. The black sailing ship. Where are the colors? I feel that this ship is sailing in the past. And the colors will be carried in by the participants who will arrive soon. In this pure HEAR & NOW we want to celebrate.

Looking so much forward to seeing you all and get inspired!

By the way: In this TED Talk Chris Sheldrick explains the economic and political implications of giving everyone an accurate address -- from building infrastructure to sending aid to disaster zones to delivering hot pizza.

Can you here me?

Right now, we are planning the next StoryCamp in VALLEY and the accompanying pillow book called READER which circles around the title HEAR & NOW. Wonderful articles from all over the world are arriving – fueling the curating process and deepening the relations between all the people involved.

Meanwhile, in another universe, there is this kind of flat discourse around AI – representing a final rebellion of the old spirit, which – algorithmically recharged – becomes a sparkling weapon. It is compliance disguised as innovation, ambitiously simulating creativity but not able to be creative. The amusing part is that most of their apologists are dinosaurs whose days are numbered.

I don’t say that it cannot make fun to play with programs like chatGPT. But the problem is, that it overrates the responses and avoids questioning. So, the dialogue process – if intended – often starts refreshing and soon becomes boring. To exemplify this statement I want to share my latest example of a dialogue (with chatGPT) about the project I care so much.

Can you reflect on this phrase? "HEAR & NOW” …

The phrase "HEAR & NOW" carries a powerful message about being present in the moment and actively engaging with what is happening around us.

"Hear" implies not just listening passively, but truly understanding and absorbing what is being said or experienced. It suggests being attuned to the sounds, voices, and messages in our environment. It also encourages empathy and openness to others' perspectives and emotions.

© unsplash by anastasiya-badun

"Now" emphasizes the importance of living in the present moment. It urges us to let go of distractions from the past or worries about the future, and instead, focus our attention on the here and now. By doing so, we can fully experience and appreciate the richness of life as it unfolds in front of us.

Together, "HEAR & NOW" serves as a reminder to actively listen, engage, and participate in the present moment with awareness, mindfulness, and openness. It encourages us to embrace the beauty, challenges, and opportunities that exist in the here and now.

Why do you think we write "HEAR & NOW" and not more common "HERE & NOW"?

The choice to write "HEAR & NOW" instead of the more common "HERE & NOW" could be intentional to emphasize the act of listening and active engagement. While "here" typically refers to a physical location, "hear" implies not just physical presence, but also mental attentiveness and understanding.

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The agony of choice

You know it? You stand somewhere at a crossroads in your life and you don't know whether to turn right or left. Or if your life were a forest, whether you should pass the next tree on the right or left.

Both options seem tempting. Especially when I'm looking for mushrooms. It can happen that after choosing the right option, I also choose the left, out of fear that my decision was wrong and that great happiness awaits me on the left loop.

I love getting lost in the woods, following all the rules of mushroom hunting. Outwitting, disabling my sense of direction, which in normal life is quite excellent. I love surrendering almost spinelessly to the whirlwind of possibilities and the secret forces that act upon me and around me.

When I become pure possibility, I step out of the prison of my own four walls, the supposedly self-made identity that is only a kit provided by others. When I become pure possibility, I can lose myself under the radar and discover myself anew as something spacious and future-oriented.

Then, the quiet sorrow of unused possibilities, which in the either-or space did not stand for doors, but for windowless corridors, is forgotten.

Life is like a game of chess. It's simply very complicated. Claude Shannon attempted to count the trees that make up this forest. His result should not burden us, but encourage us – to play, to embrace the possibilities that arise, rather than to mourn those that we missed.

According to Shannon, there are 400 possibilities for the first two moves in chess. After each player has moved a piece five times, there are already 69,352,859,712,417 (sixty-nine trillion, three hundred fifty-two billion, eight hundred ninety million, seven hundred twelve thousand, four hundred seventeen) alternative games that have not been played.

We can't go back to the beginning.