In Australia, a new branch of engineering is being established by the cultural anthropologist and futurist Genevieve Bell at the 3A Institute to explore the ethics of what we’re creating.

former tech executive and writer Linda Stone calls “continuous partial attention,” where no one is really paying attention to anything (other than their phones), and we’ve lost sight of the important stuff, like love, truth, wisdom.

The promise of technology is that it makes things efficient. It saves time, and it allows us to get things done. Rest does, too. So what if we started thinking of rest as a technology?

As a culture we are divided about this. Some of us seem to believe that technology is going to solve every problem; others believe that it will destroy civilization. I fall somewhere in the middle. Technology is wonderful! And also terrible. And both and neither, just like the people who use it.

It’s time for more balance across the board—for industry, for government, and for ourselves. Because this is a personal reckoning for each of us, too, to own our role in all of this, something we have intimate control over. How can we do things in the way we live that will restore balance? How can we make our own rules and regulations to help us ge

Edison, Albert Einstein, and Salvador Dalí all recognized that sleep spurred their creativity, and developed a similar practice to harness it. They would put something heavy in their hand (Edison used steel balls, Dalí and Einstein, a key) and sit in a chair. When they grew drowsy and relaxed, they would drop the object and wake up. That’s when the

Academics have this great idea that every seven years you need to take a break from your everyday work to rest, reset, and refresh your mind. “Sabbatical” actually takes its name from “Sabbath.”

The word “culture” comes from the Latin word colere, which means “to cultivate the soil.” Giving yourself time to cultivate this practice of reflecting on your week, writing down what you appreciate, what you are grateful for, and saying it out loud, is the fertilizer.

Media theorist Howard Rheingold says, “Pay attention to what you are paying attention to.” When we pay attention, it reflects our values and attitudes.