Tractors

Why would anyone want a tractor. That isn't a real question, so it doesn't deserve a question mark. The real question may deal with why you wouldn't want a tractor.

But, here's the digression. Just to put some numbers out. Could each person have an acreage? Maybe. But, let's go the other way. And, I'm going to use numbers from the future a bit. An Earthly population of nine billion. You'll get there soon enough. And, something less dense than New York City. That city seems to do fairly well.

Now, since habitable region is a bit hard to find, I'll just add a bit more land. But, with those two numbers, all the population of Earth could fit in the combined area of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Leaving the rest of the planet human-free. That wouldn't really work, but it's a start. And, look at all that farmland that could be opened up. Same would go for manufacturing. That type of density doesn't take into account all the manufacturing needed.

But it is safe to say that the area of the United States could provide housing for all the humans on Earth, provide the needed food, and manufacturing. Now, of course, it does make sense that some manufacturing would be in other places where the resources are. So you would need humans elsewhere. But, you get the point. The Earth is a long way from being overpopulated. Some areas are certainly having issues, but that isn't with the Earth's ability to house humans, it's the human's ability to house themselves.

But, going the other way, there's enough land on Earth for every human in this future to have a bit under two acres. A quarter under, to be more exact. Of course, this is an estimate based on habitable regions being just about half the land-area. But, that is enough land for a tractor. Maybe not the largest one, but definitely a useful one.

And, why tractors. Sorry, no tea today, just some ice water.

To some, a tractor is just a slow, plodding device farmers use to disrupt traffic. But, it's certainly much more, especially if you like eating. A untouched field of grass is quickly transformed into clean, plowed ground ready for the seed of something humans prefer to eat. The tractor will also plant that seed. Protect those seeds from weeds and insects. Even provide water to those sown fields. When the crop is ready, it's the tractor that provides the harvest. Transports the harvest to a distribution point. And readies the field for the next set of crops. And, it even finds time to mow the larger lawns to keep them beautiful, and it will even harvest that grass to feed to your animals.

To be fair, most farmers use trucks to haul their harvest from place to place, but many of those trucks are tractor-trailers.

And, of course, the tractor isn't idle when there isn't a growing season. The tractor clears the snow, or simply moves it to where the water would be more beneficial. It repairs the roads heaved by the freezing water. Or, creates new roads.

In short, if you want something done, you need a tractor. In one of its many forms.

So, yes, my eventual goal is still that tractor with all its implements. That isn't about to change, but it does compete with my desire to buy back every car I've owned on this Earth. I may just need a bit more land.

Just Things

There's a few things I've been wanting to talk about, so they go here.

And I'm skipping the tea tonight. I did bring a bit of tea back from my vacation, but it's the loose stuff instead of bags. And, aside from a tea pot, I misplaced my cup pieces. Somewhere. But, this is also a shorter piece. But, I may take a quick trip to start the dishwasher, hopefully it doesn't interrupt your reading to much.

It's spring now, so my Earth-daughter is wanting to visit the local playground. Of course, she was asking to go with a few feet of snow on the ground, but she does know that wasn't going to be a positive result. But, since the sun is out, it's a good time to go.

And that is something I noticed around here. There are many trees in the park, but none near the playground. Just a lot of plastic coatings absorbing the full blast of the sun. Why not a few trees to shade these areas. It would certainly help the kids that aren't in snow suits.

But, don't read that for its surface value. This is a consistent problem on Earth. And at least one other planet that I know.

So, no, it isn't only humans that haven't figured out common sense. But, there's a bit more lacking going on here. Trees. They are cheap and grow easily. This is probably a decision made by the small-cart people that don't have the cognition to determine their small-cart doesn't fit with the normal carts. This also moves over to the home improvement carts. Those basket carts don't really belong with the bigger flat carts. I won't go into what people are putting on the wrong cart.

I'll be back shortly. I have a dishwasher to start up.

And grab a few crushed corn chips sweetened with strawberries.

What I also find odd on Earth is the backlash against personal weapons. Not really all weapons, just ones that go bang. Or pop. Even whoosh. But less so the quiet weapons. Even though they have laws against certain sizes, they are not really inspected or talked about. But, they are very good at causing a lot of damage without causing a lot attention coming your way. It takes a visual witness instead of a audio witness. Even the whoosh weapons wouldn't get a lot of attention before causing much attention. Especially when people don't know what that sound means.

I don't bring this up in relation to carts or shaded lots, but rodent control. Pop and whoosh are very effective with rodents. Bangs are good as well, but are much more likely to break through fences on a ricochet. Pop is very effective, but won't penetrate the common cedar fence. And much less chance in your neighbor's window. Of course, common sense says you only shoot at rodents when they're on the ground. That's where ricochet comes in.

And, even the wimpy long bow is outlawed in cities. Why. Really. Now, I did mention this type would cause a lot of damage if a mentally damaged person wanted to use it to become famous, but the reload time is pretty slow. And moving quickly isn't the best option with a long bow. Pretty much the reason you won't read about my battles using a long bow. Yes, I used one. No, it wasn't interesting.

Since I'm out of both water and crunchy snacks, I'll just hit one more thing. It goes alongside playing pool. Not the water type, but the type with fifteen colored balls.

Like everything here, this is also from a news article. Galaxies. The article I ran across said scientists couldn't figure out the colliding galaxies when they know the universe is expanding, which means all galaxies are moving away from each other.

I'm not going to link that article, or copy it with credits. Mainly because the other article I'm going to mention is much older. And I certainly don't have that article handy. Primarily due to the memory hole.

The subject of that old article was counting both red and blue shift galaxies. One is moving away, and one is coming closer. In an expanding universe that would have started with a bang, galaxies would be primarily red with no or very few blue. The article count was much closer to half and half. Fifty-fifty if you like that term better.

So, what would that mean. Easy, the universe didn't start with a bang. And that goes against the current religious beliefs. Yes, Earth's scientists are extremely religious in that sense. This is something that Aushlin simply can't understand, and usually just walks away in disbelief.

But, back to the galaxies. Even Aushlin hasn't visited more than a couple. I think I have a similar count, but most of those memories aren't in my current form. And I don't intend on going back to ethereal for some time as you understand it. For me, it could be tomorrow.

One subject Aushlin did bring up in our conversations was what he observed in galactic groups. You may know your home galaxy is in what your scientists call the local cluster. Along with the Andromeda galaxy and a few smaller clusters hanging around. What he mentioned was he has been able to witness a similar cluster fall into a single location. A black hole in your terminology. This particular black hole wondered into a neighboring cluster and swallowed it up.

And then it barfed. As with stars, there was just too much material in a small location. He didn't mention when or where that was, but it may show up on your telescopes sometime in the future. If it hasn't already blown by Earth. So, not a big bang, but maybe big enough to confuse the religious types.

There's more to talk about, but that can be saved for another time. Sometime before tomorrow.

I may change this color scheme. It looks okay on my computer now, but it may be a bit difficult. We'll see.

I do enjoy some of the Earthly festivities. But, they fade with time. And money. Based on this date, some may guess I'm speaking about the independence celebration of the country in which I'm currently residing. Just remove ten days.

I not only have my own memories, but those of my human host. But, I'll rely on my own the most tonight. I don't really need to go back very far in time.

I'm also going to change the title. Maybe. It does fit what hasn't been typed out yet, but it's a bit generic. If it's still generic when you read this, you may call me lazy. Same with the color scheme.

But first, since this is the internet, unless you happen to be reading a book sometime in the future, I wanted to ask a few questions. The most important is how your companies seem to be placing quite a bit of their customer's information on the internet. Easily accessible to outside intruders. If I were so inclined, I could take over a hospital, power generation plant, or water treatment plant. All without leaving the comfort of my own home.

You know I wouldn't, I really don't like staying in one place that long, or in a single building. A couple days is fine, any more and it's just a prison.

But, I've been reading about break-ins to these types of facilities where the person breaking in can be anywhere on the planet. I'm excluding your limited number of humans not on the surface of the planet, just because I know how lousy their internet connections are.

It does go along the same lines of the commercials that tell the common human to safeguard their computers to keep their personal information private. Why. All that data is in the hands of large corporations that are statistically much easier to crack. Yes, your personal computer or phone would be easy, but it has only a single point of ingress. A bank, hospital, or government facility has thousands. And many of those points of ingress like to talk about where they work. In these same pages. It just makes the person wanting to steal that information have to work that much less.

There are some that seem reasonable. Afterall, having access to your medical records is a nice convenience. But at what cost. And I do recognize someone having access to your medical records is a bit of a small fish. Having access to the facility that treats the water you drink is much bigger fish. Fish eating whales in a single bite type fish.

And there really is no reason that level of control should be accessible outside the facility. Same for power companies. If those systems that controlled those places were air-gapped to only inside the facility, there would be no danger of a bad actor turning off the lights. I guess I'm not the only lazy one. Still the same color scheme and title.

But, back to what I started a few words ago. My Earth family typically spends about a hundred dollars on this independence celebration each year. Not a lot, but enough to have an hour or so of entertainment.

This year, not so much. That hundred dollars was worth about fifteen to twenty minutes. After stretching a bit. The difference is only a few years, as well. If I've covered the math properly with reported inflation, we should have been in the forty to fifty minute range. As with a doubling grocery bill, something just stinks about the way your governments report things such as inflation.

Was I being generous in my time to eliminate money, or just didn't want the headache of people not being able to live.

Speaking of the latter, the area I reside it has been under a heat advisory. And don't pretend you haven't figured out my location.

One part of this advisory stated people should remain in air conditioned facilities. Well, that's the root of the problem. People here have been overly-accustomed to air conditioning to a point where you can't work outside without risk of exposure illnesses. I have memories of living without air conditioning, in much hotter weather that lasted longer. No one became ill or died. Sweaty, yes. Dead, no.

This is the same in many other places that see hot much more often. They wouldn't die from heat, they've already adjusted, as had many thousands of generations of humans before now. The heat advisory should really be to turn down the air conditioning and become more accustomed to working in the elements.

Of course you would also have to leave your cities. Which is the only way humans will survive. Really.

Is it Common

Just Thinking

As you may guess, I accumulate some things I'd like to discuss over the course of days. Now, time to plot them all down in some random order. Or maybe the order I see them on my notes app. Which was written randomly based on what was where when written wisely.

If you're keeping up to date, it's basically the holiday season. And for my family, we're condensing two into one this year, as my second Earth-child is getting large enough to make travel uncomfortable for my wife. I don't blame her, adding twenty-ish pounds in a matter of a few months can't be too comforting. Losing it will be more painful, I think.

One game I've always enjoyed on Earth is Tetris. There are many copiers, but I still like the original. Which means I'm going to take a pause and look up something real quick.

Okay, I'm less interested. Nearly forty dollars for Tetris. It would be good if I played it enough. I may think some more.

But, that wasn't where I was going. I was recently behind someone at the grocery store. And, they obviously never heard of Tetris. She had maybe enough items to cover half the belt. But, she made sure to lay them out to fully cover the belt, even after the checker started ringing things in. For the record, I had twice as much and took up a bit more than half the belt. The guy behind me, who watched, seemed amused as he unloaded behind my stack.

Games have meaning in real life. I could make some other assumptions about that person, but I'm sticking with a general lack of intelligence necessary to put things in order. And, yes, cold was mixed with warm which was mixed with freezer section. All mixed up. Maybe she had other talents, but she wasn't gifted with the other obvious one that would have made her life easier.

Speaking of mindless patterns, it seems the order the universe shows is often ignored by the people that should see it most. I won't speak of atoms, as I believe you'll find the model you're using to be a bit, well, wrong. Close, maybe, but not quite. I really didn't get much from Aushlin aside from a laugh. So, we'll just start there. No, let's look bigger.

Start with the solar system you find yourself in now. A bunch of smaller things orbiting a bigger thing.

I'm going to pause again, but this time to change direction momentarily.

I recently was around a conversation regarding the various nebulae that are being photographed from Earth. I do like seeing the colors. It makes them appear much more interesting than they really are.

But, that wasn't the conversation. We all know they aren't shown in their true colors. Someone questioned how we were able to find ourselves in such a clear area of space that we could see out. It took a minute to figure out they believed Earth wasn't in a nebula. It is.

But, when you see that structure from far away, you lose the perspective of just how big they are. Think of driving or walking in a fog. From a distance, everything is obscure. But, you can easily see everything close due to the low density of the fog. It's a similar effect. You can't see the nebula we are currently in because it isn't dense enough. Humans, however...

Within this galaxy, there are billions of stars and systems all working the same as this solar system. And they are all orbiting a big thing in the middle of the galaxy. And, this galaxy is orbiting another big thing along with many other galaxies close by. This pattern repeats, with these galactic clusters orbiting something bigger. Keep going a few more layers. But, even Aushlin's ships haven't wondered outside this cluster. He has some interest from our conversations, but he has more interest in seeing more of this galaxy first.

What was missing was this expansion that humans think exists. It does, if you don't look at the big picture. As for big booms, those happen more frequently that you want to imagine. Maybe not as frequent on a human time scale though.

I'm sure there are more than a few humans that would like to join him in those explorations. But, I'll warn you there will be some time involved. I know he is capable of reaching the next closest major galaxy in a single human generation, but he doesn't move the fast usually. And you wouldn't either if you had his life span.

Which is another question. Can humanity handle longer lifespans. Can you?

It does sound nice on the outside. No worry of death. I won't say Aushlin is a true immortal, but he hasn't had any accidents that could have tested that. He isn't a god, after all. Just a mortal that found the key to extended life. That same key exists in your building blocks. But it hasn't been turned.

Do I worry about the end of my life. Not really. I'll just continue to the next life. I do plan to stay on Earth for some time, as you would measure it. Maybe a few millennia. Not too long. I'm sure I'll get bored by then.

I can tell you there are side effects of a long life that aren't easy to deal with. I have some help in this form with fractured memories. But, they are coming back as this mind is molded to handle the amount of information it needs to compute. Just wait.

If I had all the day's memories I've witnessed, it could become quite difficult to keep everything organized. Especially those especially emotional memories. If you look around, you'll notice humans having issues with emotional memories in the extremely short times you currently witness. Multiply that by a few thousand centuries. Even if your long-life gene was unlocked, you wouldn't be immune from accidents and injury that can take your life. So, you would still carry the sorrow of losing loved ones. But weighted by knowing they could have been around so much longer.

Boredom. What would you do to keep your mind sharp over the centuries. Entertained. Make a list of every hobby you know about. Dedicate fifty years to mastering each hobby. Have you hit ten millennia? You might list something like sky diving or racing. Doesn't that risk of shortening your life become much greater with a life span of several hundred millennia versus a couple years. So, those may be left off your list. Or they become something different.

At what point do you yearn for an end. I can tell you there are more things available. But, humans definitely have to get over their love of money and power first, and concentrate on organization. Four dimensional Tetris.

I have more notes in my app, but I'm going to save those for another day. Or the blog.

It's been a while

Holidays. And that isn't all.

I find it amusing how fast your time moves. Maybe it has to do with a few lifetimes of memories in my head already, in addition to the life I'm living on your planet. Few. Yes.

At first, most of the memories I found were from my first life. I'm seeing others. Mostly before meeting Aushlin. And I've known Aushlin longer than your planet has been rock. He believes some of my memories are from the planet system that was here before your own.

Cycles. I may have touched on them before, but I'll touch again just in case. Most of these are memories of my time with Aushlin. I'm not sure how long we've spent together, especially in time references you'll find yourself accustom to.

One of the more recent conversations we had was around what some species call a big bang theory. Sorry, you aren't the first species to think of it. Doubtful you'll be the last. The ones that survive will grow on that theory and realize where it may have come from. You may call it a bang-bang theory, but there have been many more bangs.

But, that's a bit advanced to start with. So let's talk about the meaning of life. It's a bit simpler.

The smallest life you reference is generally the single-cell variety. That's small enough. The smaller ones matter, of course, but they may only serve as a dilutant to this shortened story. These single-cell creatures could certainly take over a planet, making it their own. But they would be less successful than they are now. In the simplest terms, they serve a purpose for larger creatures. To keep it simple, let's jump a bit and call them bugs.

Naturally, bugs don't really feast on single-cell creatures, but they are two parts of a ladder and that is the important part at this time. The purpose behind the smaller is to support the larger. I could easily jump to humans after bugs. But, then you really only have a ladder instead of the bulbous mass that really exists.

But, let's keep these three rungs for now. And expand at the bug level. Humans are currently on top of the chain on Earth, so there is that single rung. And since we also stopped the other way with single-cells, they occupy their own unique rung.

The bug level in this case expands quite well laterally. Think of a creature, whether you think of it as a plant or animal or fungus. They are all on this center rung, feeding off the lower to support the upper. Some may not believe it, but humans rely on the amoeba as much as they do cows and the grass those cows eat.

And, as with a ladder, the responsibility really does go both ways. If you want the best tasting cow, you need to serve it the best tasting grass, which relies on the best tasting soil, which relies on the many inhabitants chewing through its spread. Right down to the single-cell.

I know of at least one person that has repeatedly said the best way to bring a species back from near extinction is to introduce that animal as food for humans. A better truth could be said.

But, remember that humans are only the top rung on Earth's ladder. That you're aware of. You're obviously aware of myself and Aushlin, but we aren't the only ones beyond your Earthly glow. You just have to ask if you're being cultivated, and, if so, to what end.

I may shed some light here and there.

Back to the bang-bang-bang theory.

This really isn't much different than the circle of life. Just a slightly larger scale.

As you may be aware, your galaxy interacts with several neighboring galaxies in a vast, timeless dance. Eventually, this group of galaxies will become a single galaxy. And, you can even think of this group as a single galaxy if it eases your thoughts.

Your local group is also interacting with other galactic groups. You really don't need to go to very many higher levels to get the point. And, a single group can set off a series of events as below.

Once this group of galaxies merges, which means their central masses are combined, it's possible they will reach a tipping point. When this point is met, that central mass will eject all its matter into the nearby universe, seeding the next batch of stars, star systems, star clusters, and, eventually, galaxies.

The mystery Aushlin has been trying to solve is how that energy is stored and released with such efficiency. By using the efficiency of his own technology, a system such as your own galaxy couldn't have gone through more than a hundred of these cycles. But the real number is much larger.

If you want some perspective, how about an example. You can currently buy a battery for your house that will power it for a day without much issue before needing recharged. If Aushlin made that battery with his technology, it would last for more years than there are seconds in that day. To keep your frame of reference.

Of course, Aushlin wouldn't make a battery. The technology is too old.

Now, there's a baby boy in my house that needs a bit of attention. He's been around for several hours, but not several days. Maybe I'll have some intermittent time to shower you with more stories and memories. But, not now.