One of the ways I deal with isolation is listening to people talk. We live in this great age where we can consume some of our books by audio using the audible app. I still call them books on tape because I started doing this before smart phones and the internet. I am lucky and can paint murals and do graphic work and listen to things at the same time. It was also a great help for long car rides where the radio would be nothing but static.
As my life and technology progressed I found as a domestic technician(stay at home mom). I do a lot of repetitive work and talked to young non-verbal children. I needed something else for my brain, while doing those things so audio stories and discussions improved the quality of my life.
I recently had this fun moment of having three separate areas seemed to synthesis without outside coordination. I get my brain is the one finding the pattern and hooking everything together. I have this hard wired connection of ideas system in my head. Helps with memory and well, makes for this magic perception of coincidences. They happen all the time and they always amuse me. Kind of this random life proof I pay attention to about the idea of the collective unconscious which really has crystallized, since the mainstream internet collision began.
One my friends got me hooked on the series Red Rising by Pierce Brown. It is a futuristic story that spins the idea that humans become class saturated to a point they genetically modify each other and dictate where their place in society is based on physical traits and who they are born to. To the types of beating they can take to how easy they are to kill. Which parts of them are amplified. The society basing itself on Roman Emperor period after the overthrow of democracy. This future seeing people left to their own devices as slothful and self destructive. Only people born and tested in bloodthirsty games of honor and wits can make decisions for the other people and classes. They even enslave people with lies of a future where they will no longer be in the social condition they are in when they finish taking a hit for everyone and terraforming planets.
The character you follow was born in this caste and happy with his lot but, his wife wants more for him and mankind. So machinations are put in order and well It looks like it is five book saga and I am completely hooked. The friend who recommended it was shocked since there is a lot of battle and war in it, I tend to steer clear of war stories. The thing is, it plows the depths of ethics and motivations of people including the first person narrator you are listening to. And it just speaks to the part of me that knows we all want to be free to make our own decisions but we need to stay aware that we all need each other. The weighing of collective gains and the rights of an individual.
Another friend wanted to share this podcast they were listening to by an Lex Fridman where he was talking to a Stanford Economics Professor Erik Brynjoifsson about Social Networks and Technology. In the conversation they get into the meat of the future economic quadries about our society harnessing technology and freeing up time for humans to do things beyond the world of food, clothing, shelter and health. How are current economic is built on the scarcity model. What will success actually look like? How close are we to artificial intelligence taking on the menial jobs. They went back to the quote that was in the underlying theme of the ruling class in the sci-fi series I am reading. “Our labors preserve us from three great evils -- weariness, vice and want” Voltaire. How will this change society? What will we value? What happens if people decide to lose touch with our animals roots.
Currently, we are all in an epidemic. I believe you may be aware. I have several conversations on some level about class and the growing disparity happening as a result of this medical crisis. In my own home my oldest has started college and my youngest is medically compromised. My conversations with my son with this change have been about the idea of change and uncertainty is the norm. Learning to pivot.
In two years my life will change too. I will be rejoining the workforce. I find myself at times running ragged trying to figure out so many things. But these thoughts together: the fiction, the philosophical discussion and constant truth woven through them and my day remind me we will get through this. I will get through this. These discussions need to be going on and I am not alone we are trying to figure it out.
But my goodness the sweetness of the magic of coincidence. This silver lining amusement it will keep me sane. Keep it coming friends.
Thank you
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