Life In the Wake of Peak Humanity Is Boring

The mind wanders, it never rests.

ScottCDunn
5 min readSep 7, 2024

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Every day I go walking. I have a little world in my head. On my trails, I run thought experiments to try to understand my experience in this world. When I’m walking, I think. I don’t play any music. No podcasts. I don’t talk on the phone with anyone. This is my time.

I walk to hear my own voice, I want to know what I’m thinking. I walk to decide what I want to do with my time. Sometimes I walk for writing prompts.

While I’m walking, I’m planning my walk so that I have 10,000 steps by the end of the day. I’m planning the evening. What I want to do while my kids wash up for the day. What I’m going to talk about with my wife. Or maybe I’ll plan the next day. There is always something to do.

In this life, there is no escape from something to do. Pay the bills. Do the wash. Clean the kitchen. Wash the car. Gas the car. Take the car in for service. Check my email. Check Twitter. Spend too much time on Twitter. Figure out how to limit the time my kids spend on their computers, even though they’re only doing what their parents do. Take care of myself.

All of us are looking for something to do with our time on this earthly plane, in this experience. When we’re busy, we think we’re trying to escape boredom.

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