I move each day. Never staying in the same place twice. And as I go I photograph the places and whatever interests me along the way. Sometimes that's beaches and pretty sunsets, but also the beautiful decay of human things, where nature takes over and takes back. When I walk those beaches I imagine I can't see the footprints and litter and other signs of humanity so for me it could be 100,000 years in the past, or maybe in the future, when there are no other humans around.
Our view of how we experience the world has two origins. Both born in ancient Greece, both from about two and half thousand years ago and both impossible to prove. One from Heraclitus and the other from Parmenides.
Heraclitus thought that reality was in constant flux. He thought that everything changes all the time, and that "we do not step into the same river twice, for new waters flow ever about us." He saw existence as 'becoming', everything is impermanent, the only constant is change.
Parmenides took the view that nothing changes in reality; only our senses convey the appearance of change. His is the view of 'being'. That which exists either materially or immaterially is said to 'be'. Parmenides explained the world of appearances. in which one's senses lead to conceptions. Appearances may be deceiving but reality can be reached through reasoning.
Parmenides won. His ideas shaped western thinking the most. The world can only be measured if it does not change before your eyes. Without him we would have no scientific method, mathematics, engineering, technology, laptops or mobile phones to read email newsletters.
Of course, in everyday life it isn’t a choice between one or the other. We need some stability and some change. The life of a digital nomad has lots of change, perhaps more 'becoming' than 'being'. It foregoes the stability that living in one place provides. It embraces change, accepts it as part of what it means to be a digital nomad. A different place everyday. A different view each morning.
While I think of it, why the term digital nomad? A nomad is someone who doesn't live in one location. Digital uses technology to do the work. So a digital nomad is someone who lives anywhere and works anywhere. In these post-geographic times, where work doesn't, or can't, happen by putting everyone together in one place come many benefits, many challenges and even more as-yet unknowns. The shift from working in fields to factories took decades to figure out. This will too.