thinking far into the future

flowerbug

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something i try to do as often as possible, reading science fiction as soon as i found out what it was all those years ago, plus fantasy too and being a general science nerd it just seems like something i aim to do even when i'm out in the gardens pondering what will happen to this bit of dirt i'm only temporarily in charge of...

the internet being what it is i sometimes wander around looking at various things and watching videos, things to keep my mind fed with things to ponder and compare and contrast or even music that i like or trying to find more music that i like. yesterday and the day before i was watching videos about the collapse of various civilisations and about the oldest stories known and then last night i was watching music vids that i never really understand but it gets you to thinking about the music i do like and then the progressive rock musicians that are passing away and such and what is a legacy like and how do you actually get one set up that you want and will it continue to do what you might want it to some years from now, or what... these are all things i like to ponder. fall perhaps feeds into that, the coming of winter, the end of the season, hunkering down for what comes next, ... :) none of this is particularly gloomy or depressing to me either, it is just the way it is...

today's fun find is a project called "The Long Now" and the clock they are working on that will keep time for 10,000 years, but they have other interesting projects (like a long term library and the preservation of languages which appeal to the librarian in me) i've only just started to scratch the surface but it at least is interesting. of course when there are gadgets and engineering involved that tends to perk me up too, but also the contrasting ideas of how you would keep something simple enough to be able to last that long, can it be repaired and understood, etc. all things interesting to ponder when you are thinking about long-range space journeys and how to keep people alive that long and such...

how does this relate to sufficient self? well the garden i was working on today, the soil in there was our mostly clay, but it had been one of the first gardens i amended many years ago with worms from my worm farm and also the various things i have done to it since then. the garden was adapted from a field, broken into small pieces. i put a few of those pieces back together to make it bigger, but i also had to raise it up because of the flash flooding that kept running across that area. now there is a berm which protects that area, but that may not be a permanent solution. there really isn't a permanent solution because our location is in the middle of flash flood flows once the rains get above a certain amount. yes, i can build things up and make plantings and features to deflect forces and to buffer against the water flows, but over the many years gravity and erosion will win if there is no other means of building up this little spot. do i even want to keep putting efforts into this after Mom is gone? i waver on this question quite often. it's a longer term question but not the 10,000 year question the folks above are asking or pondering about. but anyways back to that garden, the worms were doing pretty well in there so i was happy to see that and now it is put up for the winter and i can move on to the next garden.
 

frustratedearthmother

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I think you and my DH might be long-lost cousins! He has that far reaching, never shuts off, kind of mind. I've got to give him a nudge to look into The Long Now. He'll love it! He loves languages (and speaks a smattering of several) and all kinds of music. Basically - he's a big ol' loveable geek!
 

flowerbug

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I think you and my DH might be long-lost cousins! He has that far reaching, never shuts off, kind of mind. I've got to give him a nudge to look into The Long Now. He'll love it! He loves languages (and speaks a smattering of several) and all kinds of music. Basically - he's a big ol' loveable geek!

is he a Rush fan? :)
 

flowerbug

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as a kid i somehow found the local classical music station on the radio, but i also listened to the local soul music station along with the pop rock station. there really was so much to listen to at that time with so much difference on the various radio stations.

then when i went to college my first roomie was a drummer for a punk rock band and he also drummed for the jazz band on campus for that year and the next. interesting character and we are still in touch and funny enough he's taken up writing science fiction stories. :) we both agreed that we were rather sick of REO Speedwagon and made a mobile for our room out of a record that we heated up, impressed various things in the surface and then broke it apart and hung it from the ceiling (the guys in the room next to us played that album a few times a day).

i don't really have favorites in music, but once we talk about what era i can usually name those that i like or know of v.s. those i don't or haven't heard. i also know that some music i don't like much at all and won't listen to it if i can help it.
 
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