28. 🌱 Counting the Rings...Seasons, Systems and Slow Tech

How we learn, design for futures, and what AI has to do with a Canberra autumn, a cold cottage and a systems map I’ve just made.

It’s been two weeks since I posted. The longest interval between posts. However, I’ve submitted my main assignments for my Cybernetics Course at ANU, moved into a new house for the rest of 2025, and now getting back into the swing of things. I didn’t realise how much I needed a breather until I took one. And now I’m back—and starting to grow the next ring of my own.

So, after that short breather, I’m back with a bumper issue—about a 15-minute read (or 20 if you listen).

A week for watching small children learning new things - in this case a robot dog at the ANU Open Day, March 2025: Photo Jax NiCarthaigh©2025

This morning, I took a walk through my new neighbourhood here in Canberra. I was passing the local childcare centre when I noticed a carer speaking to a small child in a red skivvy and floppy hat. The child, finger in mouth, was listening intently to his carer who was pointing to the stump of a tree at the fence line.

“See those round rings? Every year it grows one ring more,” she s…