Far Fetching

To me life is much fuller if you take time to remember the universe is humongous and impenetrably mysterious.  Perhaps the most enriching route to that goal is to imagine the incredible things that might be out there. While the particular fantastic idea you dwell on will have a microscopic chance of being true, it is certain that countless things just as fantastic are. Also, countless things you aren't even capable of imagining are. Therefore, seek the calmness necessary to realize your imaginings are nothing more than that, and to realize that nonetheless they are bounties of inspiration and insight. They are for you, puny human, to use to better understand who you are and what it means to be human. For extra punch, extrapolate carefully from known facts into the boundlessness of time and space. In this way you can reasonably feel that however different the details might be, there is a meaningful chance that a strange sister to your idea exists out there.

So basically what i'm talking about is religion, without the pitiful blindness of the orthodox. It is currently known as science fiction, or more inclusively, as speculative fiction. I believe its role could become much more than a simple fiction genre. I believe it could become the narrative that walks alongside science and brings it alive in our minds, so that we can contemplate and shape our future with vigor and zest. In fact, i think it is destined to become thus. I point to the increasing dominance of speculative fiction among our biggest shows, and the devotion of fans.

Recall that for most of human history, all cultures had canons of traditional tales featuring their gods, spirits, and heroes. Over those thousands of years, those canons were the basis of decision-making. Everyone knew the stories by heart, everyone referred to them when in doubt, everyone adapted the stories in their minds to better fit their own lives and personal questions, and as time passed the stories morphed to fit the changing conditions of the people they nourished. Print froze the stories in place, sapping their ability to flow with time.  Cultures became nations and then empires. Their authority structures stiffened into the machinery necessary to oversee vast populations. This too sapped our stories of life, especially once our sophistication lifted science into prominence. As science created industry, our cultures were shattered into a million pieces that rearranged themselves into entirely new systems that can no longer be nourished by the old stories. Cultures are still described as being Christian, but the label has become hollow and abstract, a fetter as often as a guide, divisive, increasingly irrelevant.

Now, Star Trek and Star Wars are not a new canon, but they are a glimmer. They represent the new canvas on which our whole lives can be illuminated, expanded upon, experimented with. They and their ilk can be filled out to become a framework that can usefully ponder the implications of whatever the future may hold. The Fukushima reactors fail and Christianity shrugs, maybe mutters something about the will of god. The Star Trek canon says Thou Shalt Always Build a Backup System, lest the Wrath of Murphy be visited upon you.

At the Unconscious Ball

My dreams don't often make me laugh out loud. There i was last night giggling to myself in the dark, stifling it to not wake my husband. That was wee hour sleep brain, but i still find it amusing in the light of day. And just generally fascinating how complex dreams are, and how convoluted they get.

So i was on a spaceship on a mission to an alien star system. We had to fetch a special tool from the human colony there. This was a future with many populated worlds, the planet we were going to was one we'd never seen and knew nothing about. Heavy borrowing so far from my teen science fiction reading - i'd say a mix of Robert Heinlein and Arthur C Clarke. We were greeted by a small group of technicians when we arrived. A visit from off-worlders was a big enough deal to have a little reception with food. We especially liked the cheese and complimented it. Our hosts responded, 'well, better dance on its lungs, then'. What? At that point we had to stifle giggling as we realized these people had a culture so different as to be soundly weird to us, but that we really shouldn't offend them. And things are always so much funnier when you have to try  not to laugh, of course. They said a couple more alien weird things i don't remember, which only made it worse.

Shortly after that i woke up. So now i was realizing this joke was manufactured by my unconscious for its own inscrutable purposes. A joke on me, by me. Now i had three layers of funny going on. The glory of an untameable inner mind methodically pulling the strings of my little ego always intrigues me, and its nice when it does so without subjecting me to fear, anger, embarrassment, or any of the other unpleasant options that regularly feature in memorable dreams. Alien cheese. That's pretty amusing just right there.

Havens

There is an avocado tree in our yard. It's just small, we planted it as a large sapling a bit over a year ago. It has a number of flowers now that if protected could lead to a dozen or so avocados. I love avocados. This area of Mexico is the world's leading producer, and those in the north rarely have access to such fine avocados as we routinely enjoy. Rich satin mellowness.

Thus i enjoy calculating that in the passive solar greenhouse we plan to build in Canada, a tree several times its volume would fit. In its coddled clime, such a tree might produce more than a hundred avocados each year. Plus there would be room for as many as four other fruiting trees, as well as a wealth of veggies, herbs, and ornamentals, and some small grassy patches for the chickens who would winter inside it. It is a grand plan we've worked hard on. I dwell on it often in the free spaces in my day, as i miss Canada sharply.

I feel like a playing piece that has been plucked off a game board and set to the side, future deployment unknown. I watch the game continue from a suspended state that makes everything look very different. I came to Mexico with the idea that i could create here, maybe, the conditions i needed to be a working artist, living cheaply here and returning to Canada to sell pieces. I didn't expect to meet my husband. Now he makes the dough and i just help him out, as i can. I make artwork in fits and starts, and get into other projects as they move me. I'm damn lucky, because i certainly would not have been able to manage my fatigue enough to execute the plan i had. I was pretty deep in denial about that. Not that i had many options.  I knew my energy was failing me ever more, i just didn't understand it wasn't going to be enough to get away from it all, eat better, exercise, and return to doing what i had once loved and done well. My husband Aldo is my saviour. He could see how tired i always was and accepted it. He was glad just to have me there to listen to him. That's my main job these days. The rest is hobbies.

Anyhow... Not having the energy to do much of anything much of the time leaves a lot of time to think. Rather slowly and foggily, often, but thinking still happens. As mentioned, one straightforward theme is our return to Canada. Being the chief proponent of that in this marriage, i have focused myself on planning a tempting future there to outshine the successful construction company Aldo has here in his home country. (Note: events over the past few years in Mexico have made that considerably easier. You may have read a few things in the news.) We'll build a passive solar house, and a similar but larger all-season greenhouse, out in the country near Niagara Falls. (Aldo loves Niagara Falls.) I was able to research the technique and build a spreadsheet to test the design.

So the fruits of this will be passing my all-open-ended lifestyle to my husband. Heating and cooling costs will be minimal to none, we'll be able to produce the majority of our food ourselves, we won't have a mortgage. Solar power generation systems are still mighty costly and inefficient, but there are so many people working on that now i expect the problem to be cracked in under a decade. With one installed we'd have no electricity bills either. With enough power generation installed, we could make our greenhouse(s) productive enough to pay for all our other needs. LED lights make that possible, once their price comes down. They require a fraction of the power of conventional grow-lights, and strings of tiny ones can be positioned so close to foliage as to ensure most of the light goes to leaves, not to lighting everything else too. Aldo will always build things, that's him, but he'll build what he wants. It's a lifestyle so different from everything i was prepared for growing up, it makes me question many of the underpinning assumptions of my culture. A happy society depends on people having the means of production themselves, but not in the Marxist sense. Big organizations aren't good for people, that's pretty clear to everyone except the people who run them. What will humanity become once most of us live the way Aldo and i will live? For us it will be a fortunate luxury, as time goes on it will be possible on ever less land for an ever cheaper price.

Maybe it's just a personal dream of the future. I'll be posting the many indications i see that we are heading inexorably down that path. 3D printers will be everywhere in a decade, and even now several firms are working on ways to 3D print entire houses. Home power generation is going to become a reality, and will soon be an effective option on rural properties. Self-driving cars will also be common in 15 years or maybe less. Sending high-speed internet over a long-range router for a number of miles is actually pretty easy and cheap. If you aren't concerned about power or communications infrastructure, and driving time becomes reading/surfing/chatting time, where then do you choose to make your home? If you can build a home in the countryside with all the infrastructure you need for less than the price of a condo, how does that change your life? Your relationships? The world?