Quote of the Day: Godfrey Reggio on Science & Tech

The hinge word here is “live.” Not “use,” not “own,” not even “depend on”, “live” suggests an atmosphere, like air you don’t notice until it changes. That’s why Godfrey Reggio lands the line so cleanly: “It’s not that we use technology, we live technology.”

If you use something, you can put it down. If you live something, it shapes you while you’re busy doing other things. That distinction matters because most of our digital choices don’t feel like choices: the morning scroll that becomes an hour, the notification that hijacks a thought, the algorithm that quietly edits what “normal” looks like. When technology is an environment, your defaults become your destiny.

The practical move is to reclaim your “conscious moments.” Don’t aim for a dramatic detox; aim for deliberate contact. Before you open an app, name the purpose in one sentence: “I’m here to message three people,” or “I’m here to learn one thing.” When you finish, leave. This is agency in miniature, small boundaries that protect attention, deepen freedom, and reduce the low-grade anxiety of being perpetually on-call.

Godfrey Reggio earned this perspective by showing it, not merely saying it, most notably through his Qatsi Trilogy, films that make modern systems visible and felt, revealing the hidden rhythms technology writes into human life.

Today, try one simple ritual: choose a single “tech sabbath” window, just 30 minutes, where your phone is out of reach and your mind can return to itself. Use that time to read, walk, or have an unbroken conversation and let humanity back into the room. May your tools serve your life, not substitute for it.