States of Change Chapter 41: Treasure (Montana)

 

States of Change is an ongoing work of serial fiction.

The speculative story-line seeks to inspire thought on ethics, culture and our planet's future.

The year is 2076, decades after Oosa's defederalization. 

Fifty independent States have forged unique societies from 

revolutionary technology and ideology

"Straight beats three of a kind. That's another hundred Tanas for the homestead!"

"Ok, Silva, let's see if your luck holds for another hand!"

"Sorry, Rattler, as much as I'd like to spend all night with your rugged sense of humor, I have a server farm to oversee in the AM. Cash me out to the cloud, Dealer Pete."

"Yes ma'am. Account synching with the house. Would you like to add a donation to the wildlands conservancy?"

"Now why would I do a thing like that, Dealer Pete. I earned me my winnings. Your establishment got its scrape. If the wild places were worth anything they'd be built into the distributed economy."

"Well, Silva, I'm only an AI construct, but some say the wilderness has external value that the economy doesn't account for. I've integrated the donation protocol in compliance with all of the Liberated Montana Manifesto. No hidden taxes or fees, no mandatory service charges, and only optional donations and gratuities."

"Damn construct thinks it knows how people's business works. We ended all that Oosa big government "save nature" bull shit back at the Inflection."

"C'mon Silva, Pete's just trying to create a good atmosphere here. We got a good view of the valley here, good brew and occasionally a poker game that runs til midnight. Pete just likes his guests to expand their horizon a bit, being that he enjoys the real world, second hand, through our eyes."

"Thanks, for that Rattler. It's ironic that too many humans don't appreciate the world we all exist in."

"You wanna support the wilderness, Loser Man, you go ahead and give the AI a tip. I'm barely making ends meet with ten thousand servers mining crypto 24/7. You know how many tech cowboys I need to pay to ensure we're on top of the Tana algorithm...too many!"

"As you like it, Silva. Pete, put ten Tanas on the top of my bill. Use it for the wilderness fund or to pay the lights in your gambling house, as you see fit."

"Thanks, Rattler...and goodnight Silva. Hope to see you at next weeks tournament."

"Wouldn't miss it for the world!"

Elli's Story

Arf, arf, everyone! 

My name is Elli and I am just loving life!  You see, I am a very special dog, part Yorkie, part Terrier, who escaped from my original human caretakers. The truth is I just love to chase rabbits and once, given the opportunity, I escaped from them to live as a stray for several weeks in southern Florida. My encounters with alligators, pythons and Florida panthers will go untold.

Thankfully, with the help of the St. Lucie Humane Society I was rescued, provided safe haven and given a second chance to have a human family. My current caretakers, Judy and Woody, both in their eighties, adopted me in October of 2023.  They both love dogs, especially smaller ones like me and boy, do they have lots of experience loving little dogs, even if they misbehave on occasion. Of course, I never cause any problems.

So, apparently, one of their previous little dogs, Ladybug, was a huggable muttly that also liked to run unsupervised outside. Over the course of their eighteen year relationship, both Judy and Woody became well versed at keeping their dog safe inside. Now they are using their skills to manage my flighty nature. 

Their last dog, Lexi, was a bit plump, so rest assured the food plan here is just short of a cruise buffet. More importantly, I heard when Lexi came down with bone cancer the caring family love just shot off the charts, so I know I've found the family right for me!

Yes, my human family is a little bit older and indeed I gave them a little bit of a challenge getting housebroken at first. I even snuck outside a few times to chase those wily, wild rabbits but only because they want me to come out and play. Rest assured I always come home, even if it's a couple hours later. 

You see, the real reason I feel like a special doggie isn't because I'm spoiled with toys and treats or because I'm cuddled with joyful abandon. I feel special because I get to add my love to the family circle. I just love giving my humans a reason to get outside and exercise or simply being present to make our house in Hobe Sound a loving home.  

Natural (&) Humanity

the journey ongoing

It's been nearly 10 years since I scribbed my thoughts on the relationship between human and nature. It's a worthy reflection. Check out the short essay here: Human (&) Nature.

Natural and artificial can seem like opposites, alas where does one draw the line between the two. Humans were spawned by nature and we've come up with some creative "artificial" solutions: tools, protocols, culture, fictional stories, and ever improving intelligent systems that operate more less independently from our control. 

Frankly, many of homo sapiens' creative cousins have leveraged their skills to create tools, protocols, and culture. Perhaps, the only thing keeping other species from rising to challenge humanity's planetary hegemony, it's their inability to effectively communicate complex ideas across generations. If the birds ever gain tree notch codes or octopuses modular digital storage, the human super powers better watch out.

Nevertheless, humanity has its roots in natural origins. Evolution by natural selection is nature's protocol for sharing information forward. It relies on reproductive profligacy. The genes within the DNA of all Earth life are complex and in sufficient numbers have found solutions sufficient to iterate morphology across millennia. Still, DNA mutation and invoked fitness over time are simply analogous to the angle of repose, in which given the physical laws in play a self-ordering complexity emerges. 

That complexity will undulate over time. Look forward four to five billion years and our whole solar system will be a stellar nova unlikely to support life as we know it. Humanity itself may very well perish in spite of its highly adaptive skills. It seems quite likely we will push numerous other species over the cliff of extinction as our tribal nature sends much of this planet's balance spinning out of control.

With a deep sigh, any one of us as individuals can feel powerless to help return balance to the midterm future. Certainly, we can contemplate ethical stances or blindly pick one that our elders have passed down in writing. Our planet is a connected ecosystem that has shown no sign of supernatural gods or powerful extraterrestrials coming to our rescue. Sadly, humanity seems to have a natural tendency away from unified action. We are the proverbial unherdable collection of cats.

So can humanity find its natural place and prevent implosion, explosion, or simple deterioration? Only time will tell, and though it is not very satisfying, that will be the natural order of things (not good or evil, but indifferently natural), for in hindsight what has happened is the evidence at core of what is. What has yet to happen in our world, on the other hand, begins with what each of us (all sentient creatures included) does now combined with everything else that is happening (motion, forces, matter, et al) around us.

States of Change Chapter 40: Mount Rushmore (South Dakota)

 

States of Change is an ongoing work of serial fiction.

The speculative story-line seeks to inspire thought on ethics, culture and our planet's future.

The year is 2076, decades after Oosa's defederalization. 

Fifty independent States have forged unique societies from 

revolutionary technology and ideology

"Protocol polar bear sandwich!"

Pickleball drone alpha arced behind Crooks in a deft swoop. Terry's spin slam was vicious, but Crooks was able to deflect it upward enabling his alpha drone to meteor a kill shot that pulled Terry's drone far back in the court for the save resulting in a high lob back to Crooks. Terry compensated by shifting to midcourt, but before the drone could recover Crooks sent the graphene pickleball sailing to the corner out of reach of both Terry and his drone.

"Polar bear sandwich. What kind of protocol label is that, Crooks?"  Terry's cardinal scalp tufts   were matted from the last two hours of gameplay, but his normally gentle demeanor had finally cracked.

"Standard drone shuttle pass shift. Though I must admit the name itself was designed to get your metaphoric goat. You vegans are so thin skinned."

"Well come on. You're a conservation freak too. The polar bear extinction is a soft spot for anyone who is concerned about global ecosystems."

The two twenty-somethings approached the net, each dousing their thirst with chilled water from drink spheres.

"The extinction is a ruse, I tell you. The WALDEN report is meant to keep us down and focused for confinement. Post Oosa has been a boon for wildlife everywhere in the state. Just look at the comeback of bears down by Rapid City."

The pickleball drones dropped in parallel to the charging posts at either end of the net. Their deflector shields swiveling to their apex to permit electrical contact.

"Well, that's because we stopped hunting them, and gave them a bit more space. Until WALDEN came along the slaughter of wildlife was out of control. Oosa and corporate globalism be damned."

Crooks laughed with a wise-cracking snort to punctuate her words.

"Not arguing with you, Terr. In fact, there are two verified brown bear sightings up north in the Black Hills. That sounds like a win to me."

"Really, you'll have to send me the feed...with citations please."

The two friends, pickleball gear in tow walk toward the waiting public shuttle. Mount Rushmore glints in the distance, four adjacent solar panel pyramids that power the entire northwest.  It's unlikely anyone in South Dakota nowadays could name the Oosa fab four. 

History moves forward.

Prime Directive...Reformed!

I've been a Star Trek fan since my childhood. The Star Fleet universe captured my imagination well beyond the Star Wars paradigm. A friend of mine describes Star Trek as "competence porn," meaning that throughout all of the series, the show highlights the organization of skillsets from many different backgrounds, coordinated with compassion and zeal to overcome obstacles that solve challenges.

Star Trek Discovery is closing out its series run with Season 5, and I am totally enthralled by the variety of characters and character development. Captain Michael Burnham rising from rebellious prisoner to starship command as a woman of color takes center stage. Lieutenant Tilly kicks butt as a no-nonsense science officer. Open and welcome non-binary, trans, gay couples, and diverse humanoids of color (blue, green and brown) round out the starship's crew. In this sense, Discovery has followed through with the Roddenberry dream of a future of diversity and progress and succeeded in spades.

However, the plot of season five has had all the watcher appeal of a cheesy, half baked escape room. Replete with an ultimate weapon that must be found by season end, a faltering attempt at a villainous lover duo serving as parallel nemeses, and not so  cryptic "clues" that should at least be named something more compelling like "astral-prints," "quantum-quips," or frankly anything that a writer spent more than five seconds concocting (that's all the time I spent coming up with those two far superior replacements...lol)

Nevertheless, I must say Season 5 Episode 6 Whistlespeak knocked it out of the galactic park for me. (Spoilers lie beyond here). 

The episode has the Discovery hunting down the next "clue" [groan] on their path to find the progenitor's ultimate weapon. (generally I'm dismayed with the choice to have all humanoids of the galaxy unified by a god-like progenitor race who spread the humanoid life spark...it stinks a little too much like alien creationism trying to suplex darwinian evolution from behind).

Anyway, the infamous "Prime Directive" comes into play, as in order to search for the missing puzzle piece, Discovery must avoid affecting the local, primitive (pre-warp drive) civilization. This trope has gotten a touch worn over the years, but this latest treatment really connects with the idea that there is a compassionate way for an "advanced" culture to communicate with a less advanced once. Captain Burnham has a tour de force scene where in order to save the lives of her crew member and a local humanoid, she must confront the local tribe's shaman. She manages to discuss with loving intensity the imperative to leave behind an old tradition for a more well thought out decision making.  All while not causing offense to the shaman's belief in gods. (and as is typical with Star Trek competence porn, it's done in an exceedingly (if unbelievable) time constraint, that permits the episode to wrap up in under 60 minutes).

My world view as a hybrid atheist/agnostic/vegan/secular humanist/sentientist (yeah, that's quite a mouthful) resonates so amazingly with this scene. There are so many backward traditions our Earth civilization holds (gods/fossil fuels/meat eating/tribal hating) AND YET, I get it, people hold these generally misguided traditions as sacrosanct. Nevertheless, I feel it is my task as a compassionate and well-reasoned human to find a gentle way of influencing beyond the Prime Directive (live and let live, essentially).  

For all of us I suggest considering adopting a Zeroth Directive in our lives! What better application of ethics is there but to compassionately encourage family, friends, and anyone we come across to consider the evidence to reform out-of-date beliefs to improve the well-being of self, community, and planet.

Competence porn aside, Captain Picard used to be my favorite captain (James Kirk was a bit too much of a sexist brute imho), but Captain Burnham moves ahead of the pack as ultimate starship captain, for now. (damn, I hope she turns out to be vegan).

Your Name (an anime film analysis)

Your Name delights the senses with its Japanese stylized, animated near-future sci-fi fantasy flourishes. The main characters Taki and Mitsuha are reluctant soul mates in a plot that pushes an array of Freaky Friday, Deep Impact, Back to the Future and Romeo and Juliet buttons. The film manages to pull the human viewer into an imagined world where star-crossed lovers fight all odds to find each other. Despite being a swirl of derivative ideas, it is a film well worth watching...

...and contemplating upon.

I found the primary premise (two minds swapping bodies every other day) to be an interesting take on the typical Freaky Friday exchange. The dualistic belief that our bodies and our minds exist separately is completely bonkers given the modern understanding of neuroscience. Yet something primitive, perhaps primed by our cultural upbringing and evolutionary nature succumbs to the possibility of this ultimate form of empathy.

Soul switching, impossible as it is, conveys the idea that we can put ourselves in another's shoes. And when it comes to loving someone, that imagining might very well permit us to care for someone as if they were ourselves. Such duality belief leads to the two parts of the same being abstraction and metaphor. Truly, if one finds deep love with another person, the hope that both lives can be enhanced bye each other in an ongoing relationship is a compelling pursuit.

Perhaps, all our mental abstractions fall short of the reality. The perception of free will, imagining of an afterlife, wish for telepathic understanding, and the possible union of souls all build upon our human need for social fulfillment. The fact that our minds are marooned in a body and brain doesn't minimize the power of such abstraction. In truth, we are all marooned on the same planet and though imperfect we can communicate with each other, share experiences, and work together to accomplish goals. It is a bit depressing to recognize our fantasies can never be truly realized.

At one level all this magical connection is wishful think voodoo madness, at another it is delightful and entertaining metaphor. Maybe, loving someone as deeply as we can benefits from a little abstraction, encouraging us to strive for supernatural levels of compassion to max out our real life love experience. 

In Your Name, Taki and Mitsuha only find each other after weeks of knowing from a great distance and in each others body. When they finally meet face to face, it felt as if a miracle had happened. Maybe our modern human minds need a bit of training to feel the same way when we make a connection with someone real. 

States of Change Chapter 39: Flickertail (North Dakota)

 

States of Change is an ongoing work of serial fiction.

The speculative story-line seeks to inspire thought on ethics, culture and our planet's future.

The year is 2076, decades after Oosa's defederalization. 

Fifty independent States have forged unique societies from 

revolutionary technology and ideology

"What's for dinner, Jean Henri?" 

"Flickertail."

"Not again? Well I guess I shouldn't even ask. Other than Old Man Crayburn down in the valley, we haven't seen a critter bigger than a cockroach in ages."

"Cockroach pie is always an alternative, if you capture enough for me to make buggy mince pie with."

"Durn climate change. Who'd have guessed that all the animals west of Fargo would die off or migrate in one man's lifetime, all 'cept the damn ground squirrels."

"I'll take that as a yes to roast flickertail. What kind of sauce would you like with your meal?"

"Doesn't matter."

"Spiced flickerblood it is."

"Hey, Lumas. Any chance there's a can of beans somewhere in the old store house?"

"Not unless it's buried under the cockroaches and cobbies."

"Funny. You know, one of these days one of us is gonna get tired of this desert expanse, and go and string up the other for supper."

"Think so?"

"Yeah, I do. I know we's childhood friends since the 40's but sometimes life needs a bit of a change."

"Time will take care o' change, all by itself. No matter climate change, AI ultimatums, or viral outbreak. Death'll get us all one by one."

"Ya going philosophic on me, man?"

"Just questioning and speculating...if that is philosophy than I'm guilty as charged."

"Well shut up and hand me that flickertail so a man eat in peace then. Questioning ain't done anyone any good from where I's sitting. Life is shit and we's in it."

"I got no answer to that un, 'cept life must be good enough that we keep gettin' on."

"Clearly. Maybe we can try the story night thing again if'n the stars come out."

"I'd like that."

"I said maybe. Now eat somethin' y'self, or I'll be talking with a corpse later."

"Right ya be."