The first time I saw Elon Musk’s Cybertruck I thought to myself that this was a prototype vehicle for use on Mars. The idea that he would sell it on Earth seems to me just to be a precursor, a funding snowball for the future development of the fundamentals needed to survive the Martian climate.
A few years ago Musk gave up his stunning block of homes in Beverly Hills in order to be a bit more stealthy. He, like others, has spoken up for ‘tiny homes’. It should be obvious that somebody under the Musk umbrella is going to have to figure out habitats for the Moon and for Mars. Now I think humanity can afford to do the multiplanetary thing, but if Musk is the prime mover, then it means at some point he’s going to have to start building habs here. It turns out that he’s got an interest in a tiny town called Hanksville in Utah. So for our generation, a new generation of construction for harsh environments is the most promising set of concepts. NEOM is at the tip of that spear for high-handed next-gen eco development.
This is a brief explanation of why I don’t fret about global warming. NEOM provides the WEIRD / TED / DAVOS top down view. They are grandiose and possess, like with venture capital, shotgun approaches to accuracy. It’s always good to keep those in mind, as some elephant fights actually fertilize low lying ground. What makes a Porsche run well sometimes trickles down to the VW level.
As a peasant, I prefer those things I can take a shot at myself. Here is the bottom up view. I’m really impressed with what is developing at the Dustup Ranch.
As I watched videos of Shaun Overton schlepping prickly pears with hotdog tongs I wanted to volunteer time to hang out with him and add a helping hand. I’m not entirely too old for that kind of work, and I find his spirit really admirable. He’s all about discovery. He’s all about humility. Without being millenarian about end-times, he’s making classic moves ahead of the curve. He’s doing what is socially impractical, but it is loaded to the limits with truth, and those of us who seek truth home in on its beacon.
If you bother, like I did, to binge and subscribe to his videos, you’ll be rewarded with insight as well as a rapid understanding of exactly what is making life on Mars and in space so damned near impossible, and life on Earth so simple.
Waiting for rain in the desert is something very few of us have the patience for mostly because we are too ignorant to read the land.
Not ironically, these are among the reasons I was first attracted to the game of golf. It’s all about reading the land, a literacy few of us WEIRDos develop or exercise. I’m fortunate in having learned to read the surf as a youngster, and much later in life, I learned a few things about cattle.
So I would like to see people recover ancient wisdom which is organized around the principles of self-sufficiency in a world of scarce luxuries. Today, it is a bit too easy for us to sustain our expectations of lifestyle without regard to the fundamentals, often the agrarian fundamentals, of what is actually sustaining us. I think it’s taking $7 Big Macs to get that through our skulls. No toilet paper or hospital PPE didn’t quite do it 4 years ago.
Thus I am excited for ‘bridge methodologies’ that step us forward in time that leverage simple, practical ideas that do not require mega investments of capital, but serious investments of personal skill and time. For me personally, this means initiation of the next phase of my development which will be Pastoral Education.
So far all I have done in the past six months is planted a naked rose bush. But it’s a start.