By Craig Campbell

West Texas on the border with New Mexico and Mexico. Franklin Mountains. Recording environmental audio in the “Aztec Caves” for a project on deep time and promethean hype. Deep time refers to discourses about how we perceive time, particularly in relation to the new geological era that has recently been declared: the Anthropocene.

Prometheus (forethought) of course stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. His brother is named Epimetheus (afterthought). The gift from Prometheus was not without consequence. It ended up being a curse of sorts. Anyway in terms of contemporary thinking about technology and change in society, the ‘prometheans’ might be cast as techno-optimists while the ‘epimetheans’ as techno-pessimists. Sort-of.

Craig Campbell
Anthropology | College of Liberal Arts
University of Texas at Austin