[FRIAM] !RE: A million tech jobs unfilled

[Steven A Smith]

Marcus -

> In fact, I don't even want my tax revenue to go to parts of the country that I see as having regressive tendencies.    The greater good isn't for the greater good.  For me, I am fine to mainly supporting the people around me who do good work.   I don’t see that as tribal, just the facts of life that I tried to prevent from happening in the first place.   I'm glad there are people trying to get things on track again, but building an ark is a sensible contingency too.

I'm with you on this... I think the practical application of "supporting 
those around me who do good work" is often mistaken for (or overlaps 
with?) tribalism.

On the topic of "Arks":  I just finished reading a SF novel (Man in the 
Tree <https://www.amazon.com/Man-Tree-Novel-Sage-Walker/dp/0765379929>) 
by a (semi) local author/friend, Sage Walker. It is "yet another" Space 
Ark story, but as she didn't start writing SF (her first novel was 
Whiteout <https://www.amazon.com/Sage-Walker/e/B001HOR1TQ/>) until she 
(semi) retired as an MD in her 60's(?) and she is now in her 70's, has 
an unusually rich awareness of human nature and social constructs 
(ad-hoc family/friend groupings as well as formal structures such as 
hospitals and local/regional/national health-care systems).

Complementarily, I finally took an interest in Musk's aspirations for 
colonizing Mars which has lead me to contemplate the myriad (mostly 
sociopolitical vs technical) implications of that. Similarly, the SFI 
"expoplanet" initiative informs this consideration as well.   I'm also a 
big fan of the urbanist Paolo Soleri and his "Arcologies" which is a 
portmanteau of "Architected Ecology" but represents ultra-high density 
urban constructs designed on principles similar to what might otherwise 
be reserved for generation-ships or space-arks.  Not absolutely/fully 
self-contained, but designed to provide virtually all of their own 
needs...  direct solar energy, food production, rain capture and water 
recycling, etc.   Not formally as isolated as say Biosphere I/II but in 
principle, significantly self-sustainable and probably hardenable to be 
less fragile to external conditions.

Right here in River City (Tesuque-Pojoaque Rivers) is the Tesuque Seed 
Bank 
<https://gardenwarriorsgoodseeds.com/2014/07/27/tesuque-pueblo-farm-nm/>.   
While not an Ark exactly, they are trying hard to attend to one of the 
central goals of an Ark.

I've drifted in and out of the periphery of prepper and survivalist 
communities, though they almost to an individual are much too 
"individualistic" (rabid libertarian) for my taste, which also includes 
being gun nuts and ammo hoarders.   I like some of the basic questions 
they ask, but am not so much on board for their answers.

It is interesting to see similar if not identical awareness coming from 
the likes of you.   I'm not sure what an Ark implies for you.

- Steve

>
> Marcus
>
>
>
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