Orientation to outfit and clarify some definitions and equip ourselves with a few basic understandings. What is our base camp?
Some universities have a day or two of base camp for new students. They may call it an orientation day. Almost always a mountain climb has one. The military also uses base camps. Certainly jungle safaris use a base camp. A base camp is a good place for us all to get oriented and on the same page.
This journey of exploration and discovery we are embarking on is going to be a learning experience, much like a long university education. Like students, we are preparing for a future life. The Technojungle is huge and complex. It could be viewed as a mountain. We are going to climb our way, maybe not to the top, if there even is one, but high enough to get a better view. The Technojungle corporations don’t want us to know exactly what they are doing. In this respect, our assault is a war. Finally, since we are embarking on a safari journey through the Technojungle, it seems a good idea to set up a metaphoric Base Camp.
Construction of a building always begins with a foundation. At Basecamp, we are going to begin a sort of orientation to build some foundational understandings of terminology and some basic concepts that will turn up from time to time in this book and when you are on your own ongoing safari. We put on some protective jungle clothing, or knowledge, to protect our minds. Educational programs are designed to begin with simple learning, such as terminology, and build toward more complex learning and understanding. We outfit ourselves with some basic equipment that will help us on our metaphoric safari and on our real everyday safaris.
I may be, in some ways, your guide or Bwana, yet, in this rapidly changing Technojungle, I don’t think anyone can lay claim to being the ultimate expert and that includes me.
[Image: A safari base camp (to be added).]
You also need to get to know me and how this book came to be. Once you are familiar with these things, we will take a short safari to look around in the Technojungle and then return to base camp to debrief and look further at Technojungle issues and how they relate to you being a human being. We can attempt to begin to reach a few conclusions.
We can change the world and make it more human. The more you engage, the more you will get from of this book, the more your life will improve, and the more human you will become. While I am the person who has written this book and am guiding you, it is up to you to participate.
I am going to ask plenty of questions and I ask that you go even further to question my conclusions—even question my questions. This is definitely not particularly comfortable or easy. Most of us are used to reading to consume and accept what we read. Here you must read to be challenged—challenged to look at, and possibly even change, your thinking, assumptions, perspectives and perhaps even areas of your human life and the ways you live.
Let’s get ready for our safari, ready to learn about being human beings and living in a world of technology.
We are now in Base Camp preparing for safari. Let’s talk about the journey.
The Technojungle Safari 