Human-Nature

Our relationship with the natural world.

Peter H Kahn Jr., Ph.D.

What We Shouldn’t Learn from the Movie HER

Is it possible for people to have loving relations with operating systems?

Can Technology Replace Nature?

Is Animal Research Acceptable?

It's a sick culture, it's pathological, the way we condone research on our animal kin. How can we just accept it as normal life?

Nature and Technology -- Can We Imagine the Future?

It is hard to imagine the future. But if we want to survive and thrive as a species, we had better get going on it.

Why Do We Need Wild Nature?

Sure, without wild nature we can live as biological meat.  But we won't thrive.

What is your Response to Man's Inhumanity to Man?

Old men are like babies. With their boneless gums they're beggars for love and supplicants for life...You want to know the Truth? My friend, Listen!...

What Happens When Two Water Buffaloes Strain in Opposite Directions?

Think of two harnessed water buffalos pointed in opposite directions. They are connected with a metal chain. They each give everything they have going forward. What do you think happens? ... Those water buffalos are our minds. 

What Does it Mean to Say "We'll Adapt" to Big Cities and to Little Nature?

A reader posted the following response to an earlier discussion of mine. He said, "We can't turn back time, we need to adapt." But adaptation is many things. Sometimes when we adapt it's good for us - biologically and psychologically. And sometimes it's bad for us. I'd like to discuss different types of adaptation. This discussion forms part of the argument for smaller cities, fewer people, and bigger nature.

The Wild Side of Love in the Style of Kabir

There's a marvelous body of ecstatic poems by the Indian poet Kabir from the 15th century. The translations by Robert Bly are especially beautiful. It's in that style that I'd like to continue my dialog about how wildness exists not just "out there" but through relation. 

Can We Adapt to Big Cities and to Little Nature?

By destroying nature, we're destroying the wellsprings of our life. But some people argue that we can adapt to these changes. I think it's a pernicious argument, and wrong, but grounded in some truth. I'd like to explain what I see going on here.

Glimpsing the Beloved

We do the bidding of our jealousy and anger. We do the bidding of our hatred. We do the bidding as procreation thrives. There are as many ways to mask a slave as there are rooms in my Father's mansion. But what if the truth is this: 

The Tepid Pool? -- Choices We Make in Connecting with Nature

There's a mountain pool that you find hiking up the wild river. The water emerges into it from porous volcanic rock. The water flows from the cold country. It's too cold to plunge in. But you're in. You're in because your lover is nearby and you need to prove your manly-hood....

We Don't Know What We're Missing

There are experiences with nature - so beautiful, so deep - that we're losing. We don't have to lose them. We can chose otherwise.

Primal Passions -- A (Short) Rant

It's easy to get caught up and caught out with the daily demands of the world. We can shut down. We can go through the motions. Sometimes it drives me half-crazy. But what if....

Please Don't Visit Zoos!

I know many of you don't want to hear this. I know many of you love zoos. You might take your children to zoos on a Sunday afternoon. The human-animal relationship is a beautiful and powerful one in human life. But would you take your children to gape at interesting-looking people in a jail?

Beautiful Passions -- Primal Passions

The wild ways exist in our relation to external nature. They also exist within. Both are essential parts of our human nature.

Deepening Our Wild Relationship with Nature -- The Old Way

I want to talk about what wildness is. I want to suggest that we need it deeply and intimately in our lives. It's part of our essential nature. It gives life meaning. Yet our interactions with the wild are becoming increasingly domesticated, and even perverted.

Is it Elitist to Limit Easy Access to Natural Areas?

Imagine that you live in a town with access to a beautiful river, and have on many occasions meandered down river off trail over sharp rocks and small waterfalls to secluded spots of immense beauty. Imagine that other people want easier access to those secluded spots. They say, "you're elitist by limiting access." I think there is much to say in response. One thing is this: By increasing easy access to nature we deny our children - and our species - profound experiences (Biblical in kind) of interacting with nature.

Why Do We Destroy the Nature We Love?

 I love trees. I like hugging them. I run high ridges. I walk along the ocean's edge. I love nature. We all do. How could it be otherwise? For tens and even hundreds of thousands of years, we as a species came of age through daily and intimate connection with the natural world. That propensity and need to connect - deeply and intimately - with nature is with us still.