In Wildness - Talk

After finishing my Masters at the end of 2021, I ran away from my desk (a pandemic refuge) to be a hiking guide in the Tasmanian wilderness on the six-day Overland Track. In the end I spent 103 days on the Overland Track across 16 trips in about 12 months.

Through my journeys in this parallel universe of Tasmanian pine trees as old as time, open buttongrass plains, vibrant fields of funghi, and cathedrals of dolerite, I am convinced this track is the most magical place on earth. In this talk we sauntered through a meta-Overland Track and I shared a few musings on the nature of Wildness, why I find value in it, and whether AI can ever find the same purpose and meaning in wild things as humans do.