210716-shade

today i awoke to the existence of something i dreamt of fifteen years ago:

shade map [web]

when we were looking to move rural we understood the importance of sunshine, but the best we could do was go by the often-repeated advice (for the northern hemisphere): find something with southwestern exposure. that formula is ridiculously oversimplified if you live somewhere with steep winding valleys.

i imagined the thing linked above: basically a map with date ranges showing sun exposure.

my reaction today upon discovery was a curious mix: initial enthusiasm given this is a nice use of computers processing data into physical reality usefully, but immediately boredom given a decade's familiarity with the valley's shadow-shapes, and lastly a irksome trepidation that this is the sort of data that fuels land prospecting in a time of scarcity.

which made me recall my pre-move excitement for a herd of whatever where i might fit them all with radio-frequency-id tags and have my computer display a map of their whereabouts, you know, because data is interesting... or more precisely, perhaps i didn't know where to apply my skills? now i cringe upon hearing "internet of things."

i am interested in technology yet it has become a tsunami of dread. the ship promises the shipwreck. technological solutionism is absurd, and it is the new optimism.

but standing in the presence of a tree in the wind, sun or shade, there is respite in now and being.

(this feels like a draft and i'm going to publish it anyway.)

tehn@nnnnnnnn.co