28/09/2026
As technology use grows & data centres replace land, Iāve been reflecting a lot on the way I have interacted with spaces in nature over the years, how theyāve guided me through transitory periods and shaped how I move forwardā¦
Dartmoor was a huge part of building APE, and not from a business perspective but as a personal rehabilitation from the many years of working in London. Both Izzi & I needed to become reacquainted with the land & taken into its raw & sometimes less comfortable conditions in order to find some sort of revival from the sterility city life had embedded.
There is something special about revisiting a particular place week after week witnessing the changes in season both nature & human.
Our recent trip up to the same stretch of river weāve visited for the past decade really brought this home. And although our lives now are much closer to nature day to day, thereās still so much to be gained, a deep level of stillness, from visiting places like this that are still wild and unspoiled.
I believe everyone needs that one particular place outside that holds sentimental value in the same way human relationships do. Throughout our evolution we would have held an affinity to so many areas in nature and now so many donāt even have one.
It got me thinking that Iām sure some of these spaces being developed are someoneās piece of the earth that holds the same value this river does for us and this isnāt something governments even consider, never mind value.
With dis-ease, illness & mental health problems the answer isnāt more consumption, more synthetic or more technology.
Itās fostering a relationship with somewhere outside in the real, even if itās just a simple view of a field from a park bench or tending your garden.
At some point in the future itās going to be realised how important this is and that destroying these places was a huge error.
I hope this isnāt before itās too late.
Thereās a link in our bio for the petition to ban the construction of new AI data centres.
