Reflections on Technology, Humans, and Botanic Gardens (Ethnobotechny!)

I've been writing this from my personal computer, as the computer here at the Gardens I usually use has been in the local Apple computer hospital due to a temperamental power button, which is a pretty crucial part of the machine. After someone at the Genius Bar checked out the machine, he explained that he hoped the problem had to do with the power supply rather than the power button itself, because if it was the power button, the entire interior of the machine would have to be dismantled and rebuilt... practicality definitely seems to be taking a backseat to design elegance. Just look at an Apple product and see if you could even think of a way to simply open the thing up without cracking the screen. Ironically, I wrote that last sentence before Apple called me and informed me that the computer wouldn't be ready for a few more days because they had to order a new screen, as they cracked the original one when they were replacing it!

Magic seems to be the only thing that can be used to open this thing up.  Photo credit: apple.com

During the computer's absence, I've been reflecting on how vitally integrated computers and the Internet have become for staff in botanic gardens and many other industries and areas of life as well. I use a computer to keep plant records, map plants, produce labels, research and write plant profiles, blog, plan, choose plants for our collections, educate others, communicate with others, learn how to do something new, purchase products, etc. Almost everything I do here at the Gardens involves personal computers and the Internet (neither of which even existed one hundred years ago!) as a major, crucial component. After I got back from taking the computer in, I had to sit in the office for a few minutes and literally think really hard about what things I could do now that I didn't have a computer. I found myself wishing I could experience what it would have been like to work at a botanic garden during the 1700s or 1800s: working with paper records, making labels by hand, visiting libraries for research, writing out pamphlets for education, keeping a notebook, setting up physical meetings with others, communicating via letters, and tracking down specific plants only after extensive travels. Liberty Hyde Bailey and Asa Gray would know something about all that:

Liberty Hyde Bailey.  Photo credit: huh.harvard.edu

Asa Gray at his desk.  Photo credit: huh.harvard.edu

I then began to think about why exactly we develop and adopt new technology. Today, developing and adopting new technology has become so ingrained in our society that there don't really seem to be questions of "if" or "why"; it's assumed that further technological advancement is beneficial progress.

It seems the major reason humans have historically embraced technology and chosen to develop it is the perceived promise of making life easier, simpler, longer, and better overall. Theoretically, if technology makes it quicker and easier to do something, we would have less work to do since we can now do what once took eight hours in two hours and what once took a month in a day. The irony is that the more technology makes things easier and simpler, the more stressful work seems to become, and we still work the same amount of time (more in most cases, to provide for a longer life!). This is because the overall business climate of the world is competitive and profit/goal-driven and 40+ hour work weeks have become the "norm," so if time can be saved by technology, businesses will not normally give their workers an equivalent amount of time off, but will instead require them to complete more tasks at a quicker pace, while at the same time having to learn how to work with constantly updated technological tools, all of which thereby increases productivity/profit, but also stress. Something similar happens with our personal lives, where technology makes many tasks much quicker and easier (e.g. laundry, dishes, cooking, heating the home, errands around town, etc.), and yet many of us feel like we barely have time to breathe! Sure, technological development and progress in the past was slower, but was that necessarily a bad thing?

Photo credit: intentblog.com

After seeing this a while back I laughed, but not for too long.

The tools technology offers us are certainly extremely powerful and extremely useful, but I wonder if there is a point where that power, speed, utility, entertainment, and lifespan could be considered by us to be "good enough" or perhaps even "optimum." It's pretty easy to learn from experience that "more" is never enough, and that one desire satisfied makes way for another unless one understands and embraces contentment. Contentment, however, is not one of mankind's "default settings"... it's something we have to dig deep to find in our "system settings" and enable. The trouble is that our society holds accumulation of wealth and the fulfillment of desires (both of which are diametrically opposed to contentment, and also driving forces for technological development) as the ultimate measures of success and happiness.

Photo credit: maninthemaze.blogspot.com

This, of course, is a lie that is too often taken for truth. If the promise of technology is to make life better overall, then why are so many technologically-optimized people who accumulate the most wealth and fulfill the most desires in developed countries so miserable? There are indigenous people I lived with in the Peruvian rainforest who have little more than their families, their simple homes, arts and crafts, and their surrounding natural environment who seem to demonstrate that the opposite is true. I certainly admit that technology has given us many blessings, but I also think that, like the relationship between earnings and happiness, there is an optimum peak to the rate of technological development and the nature of its adoption during a person's life as it relates to human well-being and contentment.

John Muir at Yosemite, with a walking stick as the extent of his technology.  Photo credit: sierraclub.org

Steve Jobs showcasing what is clearly a better, more technologically advanced experience, no walking stick necessary.  Photo credit: bulletblogbyjakee.blogspot.com

I see plants as ideal models for us of contentment; they spend their time living with what they have rather than obsessively developing newer technologies they think might improve their quality of life. They seem to have learned that since more is never enough, life with a good supply of the necessities is optimal; no more, no less. Could we not also thrive and bloom beautifully with only good provisions for our basic needs of fresh air, water, food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and hygiene? How much technology do we really need for optimum well-being and what good could we do with the resources we would normally allocate to technological development if we chose to be content with a more elemental existence, as plants are?

An explosion of life and beauty exuding optimum well-being with just air, water, and sunlight. The resources it doesn't use are made available to and used by other plants to thrive.

Technology has no power on its own (yet), only what is given to it by humans; it is not inherently evil in itself, but is a valuable tool that can be used however we see fit, for our good or otherwise. I suppose everyone has a different idea regarding what kinds of technology are worth adapting and to what extent.

Technology making life better than it's ever been!  Photo credit: blogs.sungard.com

So where do botanic gardens fit in with all this? I've always perceived botanic gardens as places to "get off the technological treadmill" as it were, places to experience the world in a more elemental form. It is so powerful for me to feel the relative silence in which the natural world and the universe in general exist without us and how restorative this quietness can be to the human spirit. One thing that's neat about gardens is that they can fit into crowded spaces, so they can exist precisely where they are needed most. I hope botanic gardens will always exist as sanctuaries where one can experience the natural world more directly, inspiring reflection and important questions like: What is life on this earth all about and is there an "optimum" way to live here in relationship with Earth's other creatures, both individually and globally? What am I doing in my life and why? What can I learn from the natural world around me, which has existed without humans for millions of years? Are technology and what society puts forth as valuable distracting me from what is truly important? Perhaps there will be a time when questions like these will hardly ever be asked by the general population due to technological exposure almost every moment of the day from birth to death, causing us to be estranged from ourselves, our ultimate purposes for our lives on earth, and the sources of true joy and fulfillment, as in Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. It is scary how strangely similar the world in that book seems to our own today, but there is reason for hope if gardens remain, where humans can go to get back in touch with their humanity and glean profound insights in the company of Earth's quietest creatures.

Rick Hederstrom
Associate Director

Aquascape Garden Snorkel Trip

It's been some time since I wrote my last blog on the Aquascape Garden back in July of 2012. If you recall, our Aquascape Garden is a collection of plants that resemble a diversity of aquatic organisms found in reefs, along with a number of resident "sea creatures" hidden throughout the coral stone foundation. It really does look like one of Key Largo's reefs has been lifted up out of the water and onto dry land!

Recently, we decided it would be a great idea to put together a little virtual tour of the Aquascape Garden to showcase some of the specific plants and their "aquatic equivalents." When the Garden was being built, we could get a general idea from the look of a plant if it resembled something we would find in a coral reef, but we didn't have specific resemblances in mind. So I began searching to see if I could find anything under the sea that reminded me of plants we have. Since the underwater realm is not really my specialty, I had to do a lot of searching and ended up coming up with quite a few uncanny resemblances! Here's a plant we have (Dyckia 'Cherry Coke') that I thought looked a bit like a hermit crab:

Pretty cool, right?

What I ended up doing is putting together a number of these photo pairs with a plant from the Aquascape Garden and its aquatic equivalent to make a virtual "snorkeling tour" of our Aquascape Garden. Since I'm lacking quite a bit in the area of undersea identification, I haven't been able to put names to a number of the aquatic "faces," so if you have any idea as to what some of the unidentified undersea creatures are, please do let me know!

Enjoy your "snorkel" and be sure to stop by the Gardens for a tour with me sometime to see these specimens in person!

 Echeveria rosea and an unidentified hard coral.

 Fenestraria aurantiaca and a sunflower mushroom coral.

Gymnocalycium mihanovichii 'Hibotan' and sea anemones.

Euphorbia lactea f. cristata and an elkhorn coral.

Stapelia gigantea and unidentified hard coral.

Senecio mandraliscae and an unidentified coral.

Sedum praealtum f. cristata and an unidentified soft coral.

Portulaca 'Maraca' and an unidentified hard coral.

Manfreda undulata 'Chocolate Chips' and an octopus.

Mammillaria gracilis and an unidentified soft coral.

Euphorbia trigona and an unidentified coral.

Stapelia gigantea and a sea star.

Mammillaria 'Red Cap' cristata and a developing brain coral.

Orthophytum navioides and a sea urchin.

Sansevieria trifasciata and seagrass.

Euphorbia obesa and a sea urchin shell.

Rick Hederstrom

Associate Director

"Welcome to Earth"

I often wonder what it would be like if we each were born in a base station on a completely desolate planet and came to earth as a young adult. One of the most tragic aspects of our lives is that we lose early-life memories, including the sense of wonder we experience during our first years on Earth when everything is completely new and the simplest things are mind-blowing. If we arrived to Earth later in life, that memory would remain with us for much longer, and maybe we'd live much differently because of that. Imagine growing up on a planet not unlike our own moon, and this is all you've ever known:

...and then one day leaving in a space shuttle with a group of others who have come of age for a distant planet that is only the stuff of dreams and fairy tales. The journey to Earth would take several months. One day, the shuttle captain gives word to look off into the distance, as our planet is now in view:

Earth is the tiny speck in the topmost sunbeam, as viewed from 3.7 billion miles away by Voyager 1.

Excitement begins to build, and in a few more weeks, the shuttle reaches the last stage of its long journey. At last, on the final day of the trip, the destination planet fills the windows. Tears roll down the cheeks of all the passengers who never imagined something of such beauty existed in the entire universe:

Wow.  This, in the "vast nothingness" of space.

After landing, everyone is warmly welcomed and given a month-long tour of their new home planet. There is complete silence among the travelers, not because they cannot talk, but because they are so overwhelmed with wonder and have no words to convey what is going on inside of them. Everything is new and the simplest things are mind-blowing. Their senses are coming alive to the point of being overwhelmed: the smell of air made by plants and their flowers, rather than machines at the base station; the taste of fresh fruits and vegetables as opposed to vacuum packed, processed meals; the soft texture of grass on their feet contrasting with the concrete of the base station floor; the magnificence of redwood forests in comparison with a barren landscape; the rainbow of colors in the sky throughout the day, as opposed to no color at all; the freedom to be able to run through fields of wildflowers and travel the whole rest of Earth without a space suit; the exhilaration of jumping into an azure ocean and being surrounded by corals and fish of unimaginable colors; the colorful miracle of the season of Fall; the vibrance and warmth of summer and the stillness and beauty of a winter snow; creatures of seemingly endless diversity running to and fro; and many other such experiences. Here are a few snapshots of only one of the beautiful places (our gardens) they would have no doubt visited:

Look at this for a while, then look at the first photo again - Earth truly is an overwhelming miracle of life!

After this incredible tour of Earth, the travelers cannot believe their fortune of having the opportunity to live on such a planet. They all express their great desire to know how they may live on Earth in the best possible way in gratitude for such an incredible gift. In response to this, they are presented with a thin handbook entitled "Welcome to Earth." It is a surprisingly short and simple guidebook containing what have been determined to be the vital basics newcomers should understand and remember as they prepare to live on this new planet. I have included a copy here:

Welcome to Earth!

Earth is an incredibly complex planet. All the different plants and animals you will find here each have an important function that contributes to creating and maintaining the beautiful life-filled planet you see. You can even look at Earth itself as one large living, breathing organism. The extinction of one of its creatures has great impact throughout the wider world, as each creature depends on others for survival. We humans, in particular, are completely dependent upon the other life, especially plants, on this planet for our survival and well-being (oxygen, food, clothing, shelter, medicine, materials, fragrance, etc.) Incredibly, plants need only energy they receive from the sun, carbon they obtain from the air, nutrients from the soil, and water to produce these things that are freely available and so very useful to us. In whatever ways possible, take care of these precious providers.

The creatures here act not only as providers, but teachers as well. We have learned how to properly live on Earth from the creatures who have inhabited this planet for thousands and millions of years before us. We have learned from plants how to capture and use the free energy given to us by the sun to provide the energy we need for our activities (warmth, electricity, transportation, etc.). Our "solar panels" are our version of plant leaves. We have also learned that many plants and animals can share Earth because they use only what they need and do not accumulate unnecessary things for themselves; whatever they do not need is made available for other creatures to use, and so Earth can be filled with many creatures. In order to be able to share Earth with as many other creatures as possible, we follow this example. There are many further lessons the creatures here can teach us, so look forward to learning much more!

To summarize, if you want to live "gently" on Earth, make use of the resources the creatures of Earth provide, but be frugal and use only what you need, as the creatures here teach us to do. Also, make use of the energy freely available (sun, wind, water) or through other renewable means to provide for your needs, as Earth's plant's do.

This welcome guide could be much larger if it were filled with specifics, but most every decision regarding how to properly live on Earth can be made easily if we stay aware of and in touch with the planet's vital signs and maintain the attitude of respect, reverence, and gratitude for our gift of life on Earth that you feel so keenly today.

Enjoy your stay!

And with that, they go forth excitedly to begin their lives in this wonder-filled world.


Rick Hederstrom
Associate Director