Back in May of 2007, Steven Johnson gave a talk called The Long Zoom at The Long Now Foundation. He does a pretty good job of putting the disparate subjects he’s written about [here are a few] into a common context.
The Long Zoom
Steven Johnson began his long zoom survey with the “prior art” of Joyce’s Stephen Daedalus locating himself in himself, his neighborhood, Dublin, on out to the universe. The value of a long zoom is in identifying and employing every scale between the very large and very small, noticing how they change each other when held in the mind at the same time. 
(Long Now Summary)
My interest in this talk was rekindled by my playing Spore.
It’s well known to gamers, but if you don’t know about it, here’s the skinny: Spore centers around the creation of a cellular life form. You then take that creature and evolve it through a number of subsequent stages: creature, tribal, civilization, then advanced, space-faring civilization. The science is fast and loose, but the concepts are clear: life begins simply and evolves complexity. Scales change from small to galactic. I love that stuff.
Such observations were once considered odd, but times have changed. Against all odds, scientific thinking has trickled down enough that these concepts aren’t quite so foreign. Also, thinking about time-scales really hit the mainstream with modern environmental awareness. Though we’ve always thought about change, 
I get the feeling that we’re expanding our somewhat limited definitions.
Aging is the ultimate personal change – both enlightening and scary – but it’s certainly increased my sensitivity to the deep systems around us.
So goes my writing. 
It’s a small-scale change, but squarely in my field of vision, and really obvious if you go back to my early posts. Since I started looking upon this whole endeavor as another kind of sandbox, something shifted in my thinking. So the posts may be a bit less frequent, but they’ll be a little more fleshed out [or a smidge odder]. I’m still finding my voice, but it’s still fun, albeit periodically embarrassing.
Once you take the long view in a pursuit, the insurmountable really does seem manageable. I simply have a lot of time to get better at this – whatever the hell this is.
Footnotes
If you don’t have the time to listen to the talk, click here to download the PDF transcript, the better to scan through.
Remember, we’re Americans. We believe in progress.
For instance, the footnotes…
