Ed Dowding

Life is better shared. Rather, my life is so good it’s worth sharing. I’m not sure I want to share anyone else’s unless it’s at least as good.

An interesting Matrix-style thought experiment is presented in (yet another) great TED talk: what if we serve the plants? How does the world look then?

The second part of the 17m speech talks about the virtues of Polyface farming. There are some incredible yields possible.

Where art and engineering meet.

On the other hand, ancient Greek values held in low esteem economic activities that were not subordinated to the traditional activities of managing the family farm and obtaining goods for necessary consumption. So-called banausic work, which included manufacturing, business, and trade (which were not tied to the land and the family farm), and what we would call “capitalism” (investing money to make more money) were considered to be incompatible with active participation in the affairs of the polis and even as unnatural and morally corrupting. A life on the land, farming to produce only so much as was needed for consumption and leaving enough leisure time for active participation in the public life of the polis, was the social ideal. Production and exchange were to be undertaken only for personal need, to help out friends, or to benefit the community as a whole. Such activities were not to be undertaken simply to make a profit and certainly not to obtain capital for future investment and economic growth.

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Modern states undertake policies with specifically economic goals, desiring in particular to make their national economy more productive, to expand or grow, thereby increasing the per capita wealth of the state. Ancient Greek city-states, on the other hand, had an interest and involvement in what we would call economic activities (trade, minting coins, production, etc.) that, like oikonomia on the household level, were consumptive in nature and fulfilled traditional social and political needs, not strictly economic ones.

From: http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/engen.greece

Do you find conversations and thoughts about love are difficult?

It’s often hard to work out exactly what we think about someone, and even harder to tell them. Much of this is down to the very limited vocabulary we use when talking about love. Any word that can apply to “chocolate mousse” and “the person you’re longing to share the rest of their life with and adore with all your heart and soul” is probably going to fall short of requirement.

So it’s useful to look at what a other cultures have thought about love over the ages. The Greeks, those pioneers of almost everything great and common sense, had 5 different types:

Agape -  generally refers to a “pure”, ideal type of love rather than the physical attraction suggested by eros.

Eros – is passionate love, with sensual desire and longing. Some translations list it as “love of the body”.

Philia – a dispassionate virtuous love, includes loyalty to friends, family, and community, and requires virtue, equality and familiarity. Philia is motivated by practical reasons; one or both of the parties benefit from the relationship. Can also mean “love of the mind”.

Storge – is natural affection, like that felt by parents for offspring.

Xenia – hospitality, was an extremely important practice in ancient Greece. It was an almost ritualized friendship formed between a host and their guest, who could previously be strangers.

Another more ’scientific’ framework for thinking about love, suggests that it’s all a combination of “Intimacy”, “Passion”, and “Commitment”, so we end up with:

• Liking or friendship (intimacy)
• Infatuation or limerence (passion)
• Empty love (commitment)
• Romantic love (intimacy+passion)
• Companionate love (intimacy+commitment)
• Fatuous love (passion+commitment)
• Consummate love (intimacy+passion+commitment)

So if like me you find yourself torn by your love of someone’s mind and body, but can’t quite bring yourself to feel the commitment, it’s heartening to think of it as being Romantic Love, rather than a failed Consummate Love, allowing you to enjoy it for what it is, and not feel bad about what it isn’t.