Hedonism, Asceticism and the Hermetic Answer
lukesmith.xyz
lukesmith.xyz
As a Digital Vegan [1] who is also a computer scientist I do have to reconcile my "love of technology for its own sake" within the poetic lifestyle. Creativity can itself become a distraction and vanity. Coding can be an indulgence. But then "all is vanity" :)
A missing disposition on Luke's list is Epicureanism. In a world where we are _forced_ to use technology against our better judgements (I a have grown tired to the pit of my soul with "hackers" who proclaim everything "inevitable", "ubiquitous", "inescapable" and see no vision of a positive future without abject surrender to technological domination), one must pick the best of all technologies. A few of only the finest things.
That means not using Google, Microsoft and Facebook because they are low quality from a humanist perspective.. Searching with Google is dining at the McDonalds of information. Maybe that makes me a "techno-snob" or elitist, a badge I'll wear with immense pride.
Anyway, variations on this Greek interpretation of values is found in many religions and philosophies from Vedic texts to William Blake. At root it is the struggle between love/life and death, Eros and Thanatos. To me "convenience and efficiency" are just modern twists on the darkness of "death and forgetfulness" that any technological society must go through and overcome on the road to humane technology [2]