A few summers ago I shared a clearing with two guys I'd met that same afternoon. Dispersed site, forest service road, one flat spot and three parties who all wanted it. We were polite about it — nods, small talk, everybody on their own patch of dirt. Then somebody got a fire going and offered to share it, because building a second one six feet away would have been strange, and within an hour the three of us were talking like we'd known each other for years. One of them told a story about his father I don't think he'd told many people. I know I said things I don't usually say to strangers. In the morning we drove off in three directions and I never saw either of them again. I've thought about that night a lot, and not because anything happened. Because of what the fire did. I've come around to thinking a campfire is a piece of technology — an old one, maybe the oldest one we've got — and that we walked away from it without noticing what came with it. It's the only thing I know of that makes people put their phones down without anyone asking. Nobody announces it. You sit down in front of one and after a few minutes the phone is in a pocket or face down on a log, and it stays there, and I've watched this happen to people who cannot put a phone down anywhere else. What I think is going on is that a fire is the reverse of a screen: a screen demands nothing and tends you, and a fire gives you plenty but only if you keep up your end. It keeps your hands a little busy and your eyes somewhere to rest, and that turns out to be the exact condition under which people actually talk to each other — sideways, pointed at a third thing, where a silence is just a pause instead of a failure. Chapters: (00:00) A clearing, two strangers, one fire (01:30) Why a fire counts as technology (02:01) The only thing that puts phones down (03:14) Occupied, not busy (03:53) The best conversations happen sideways (05:42) The condition, not the magic (06:22) What we retired along with the fire (07:49) The third night, and the actual truth (09:01) Everybody who's bad at fires rushes it (09:34) Cast iron, coals, and the coffee Full episode notes and transcript: https://milesofquiet.com/episodes/the-campfire-as-a-technology/ This episode is sponsored by RVGearPro: https://milesofquiet.com/rvgear