Seek the desert and hear its voice
The world needs to accelerate wisdom to keep up with technology
In 1923, a tycoon named Lucien Lucius Nunn founded a small college on an isolated ranch in the high desert north of Death Valley. In a letter to its first class of students, Nunn explained why he chose the location: “The desert has a deep personality; it has a voice. Great leaders of all ages have sought the desert and heard its voice.”
For Nunn, the path to accelerating wisdom was by combining hard labor with reading Euclid, Shakespeare, and other greats. Self-governance was part of his formula too. So was isolation in the desert, akin to Jesus’ 40 days. His aim was to cultivate promising young men to become “trustees for a nation” for a life of service.
The school Nunn founded is called Deep Spring College. It’s a two-year college that to this day is centered around intense academic seminars, hardscrabble ranch work, and student-led self-governance. To reinforce their isolation and presence of mind, students there pledge to avoid drugs, alcohol, and social media.
Deep Springs is extremely exclusive. Only 14 students are admitted each year, the kind of kids with 99th percentile intellect and dirt in their nails. Tuition is free. The school went coed in 2018. Students typically transfer to other universities after their two years there.
I first learned about Deep Springs from a guy who transferred to my college from there. I didn’t know him well but still remember his face all these years later. He had long hair, rough hands, and the deep, disquieting stare of someone comfortable with silence and soul, as if he’d been solo hiking the Continental Divide Trail for months. Deep Springs captured my imagination since hearing about his experiences there, since seeing the desert in his eye.
He fasted for forty days and forty nights and afterwards was hungry.
I’ve been thinking about wisdom lately, particularly in view of AI and other powerful technologies. And I keep coming back to Nunn’s quote about seeking the desert and hearing its voice. I keep returning to the example he set by founding Deep Springs College.
My gentle exhortation is that we seek progress in human wisdom as we continue to make progress in technology — that we seek the desert and hear its voice even as we build the machines and accelerate. And likewise, that the tycoons of our day consider creating and investing in institutions that cultivate wisdom, as Nunn did.
The desert and parched land were glad.
When I first discussed this essay topic with a woman in my writing program, I looked at her in Zoom and spoke as though I was pitching a startup. “We need to marry wisdom accelerationism with techno-accelerationism,” I said with conviction, feeling clever.
“Ok,” she said, staring back. “How would you define wisdom?”
Awkward silence followed. “Uhhh.” I fumbled over some words, no longer feeling so clever. “I’m not sure,” I finally said.
Since then, I’ve reflected on what wisdom means to me, and I see it in two parts. The baseline of wisdom, borrowing from Aristotle, is knowing oneself. A more functional definition is the combination of knowledge, experience, and understanding that informs good decision-making and a good life.
He found them wandering through the desert, a desolate, wind-swept wilderness.
Several days later, on a long walk under a sub-tropical drizzle far from any desert, I asked myself whether wisdom can be accelerated. I concluded that yes, humans can advance wisdom both collectively and individually. This is precisely what Nunn was trying to do by setting up a college in the desert — providing the conditions for students to cultivate self-knowledge while studying literature, philosophy, and the written words of passed-down wisdom.
Spiritual and religious practices, service to others and yes, writing, are all ways to advance human wisdom. Life experiences are finite, but what we learn from them is not. Wisdom is the harvest we reap when we give ourselves time and space to know ourselves, to process our experiences, and to learn from others.
I don’t view myself as an avatar of wisdom, but much of the wisdom I do have comes from pain — from making dumb mistakes and then learning from them. There have been times in my life, like after my brother died, when I’ve journeyed to the edge of an abyss and started into the void, considering it. But eventually, I found water, hydrated, and returned with parched skin and new wisdom. The processing of these experiences, and willingness to learn, is where I find growth.
Education, too, has been critical to the cultivate of whatever wisdom I have, along with physical and spiritual practices. Sometimes a yoga session can feel like a hike in the desert. It’s just me and the mat. I have to confront myself where I am and as I am. I sweat in the heat. The blank page can be like this too, a desert-like tableau of nothingness and everything.
Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go.
In the tech world and within governments, there’s a debate over the risks and possibilities of powerful technology like AI. The core question is, how do we weigh the risks of humanity destroying itself with powerful technology against the benefits this technology can bring to humanity?
Edmund O. Wilson nailed the deeper challenge back in 2009 when he made the following comment on a panel at Harvard: “The real problem of humanity is the following: We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology. And it is terrifically dangerous, and it is now approaching a point of crisis overall.”
I believe wisdom is part of the answer. Wisdom, more than anything else, is what we need to navigate the Scylla-and-Charybdis-type tensions presented by powerful technology and other issues impacting the future of humanity. Wisdom is our best hope for maintaining the capacity to wield these incredible technology powers without the Scylla of destroying humanity or the Charybdis of yielding to intergalactic tyranny. Absent wisdom, how else do we address the conundrum Wilson articulated? It is not the be-all, end-all solution but a precondition for it.
So yes: If we want technology to serve humanity, then technology accelerationism must beget wisdom accelerationism. E/acc, short for effective accelerationism, must marry itself with wisdom/acc.
Concentrated technology power demands that those with this power spend time in the desert and listen, too. And some of them do.
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
In ancient Athens, the Lyceum started as a temple and then became a space for philosophical debate and physical exercise, a combination of high-mindedness and physicality that is echoed at Deep Springs College and among friends of mine who combine philosophical studies with getting jacked at the gym. Aristotle’s school was founded at the Lyceum, an ancient precursor to Nunn starting Deep Springs College.
The Greeks recognized that wisdom was part of human excellence. They built institutions that facilitated it. They invested in it. And so must we.
Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you.
Nunn was a lifelong bachelor (wink wink) who made his fortune from the advanced technology of his day, hydro-electric power plants. He was one of the great industrialists of his day, akin to a tech billionaire today, and also a man of the American West.
After making his fortune, he invested in educational projects like the Telluride Institute and Deep Springs College in order to prepare young people for a life of service to humanity. He had a point of view on cultivating wisdom and leadership that continues to echo today through the micro-college movement, which I love, and at other institutes and universities.
The year after he founded Deep Springs College, Nunn wrote another letter to his students, explaining: “When Jesus saw the vision of a blind and wandering people, he went apart to pray. ‘Come ye out from among them and be separate,’ and this is not to a fanatic life of asceticism but to a short season of preparation for the work of the few, the great work—the heavy toil of leadership.”
My gentle exhortation is to take the short seasons in the desert. Invest in wisdom, individually and collectively, as Nunn did. Find the deep springs within and offer up some water. The future of humanity depends on it.
Thank you to for reviewing early drafts.
References:
New Yorker article on LL Nunn
New York Times article on Deep Springs College
New York Times op-ed on micro-colleges
60 minutes video report on Deep Springs College
A list of micro-colleges
Brochure listing “Nunnian” schools
2009 conversation with James Watson and Edmund O. Wilson (source of quote)
Beautiful piece Jeff. I actually looked into joining the faculty of Deep Springs when I lived in the Owens Valley. Seems like an incredible place.
I think you're right that "wisdom" is only becoming increasingly more valuable in the coming tech era. Unfortunately, it seems to be growing increasingly rare as well. I've also thought a lot about how we gain wisdom and agree that we need to define it. Digging up an old note, I found my definition of wisdom is very aligned with yours. Here's what I came up with:
1. Wisdom is Self-Consistency - Alignment between your beliefs, values, and actions.
2. Wisdom is Causal Control - both the ability and propensity to consider the complex situation that you are in. Then, through your understanding if yourself, the world, other people, produce what is *on average* better outcomes. You can actually produce good outcomes.
3. Wisdom = Action x Knowledge x Good - its a multiplication so if any factor is zero or very low, the outcome is still low. We need to act, in an informed way, with good intentions toward good outcomes.
Good is so nebulous but I suppose there's an element of benevolence.
Finally, this makes me think of one of my favorite articles called "What Do You Want to Want?"
https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/advice/what-do-you-want-to-want/
Your writing is always so good and cogent Jeff. I'd guess that the wisdom you have to offer comes from life experience, which I believe is the real key to gaining wisdom. Real life engagement with nature, physical endeavors (ala Deep Springs), face to face relationships and hands on experiments and service. Those are the foundations of wisdom. Which leaves the question, how is wisdom shared or passed along. Storytelling. So I agree with your assessment of what is missing in the world. Wisdom. And add my vote for more personal experience storytelling.