Do you ever get the feeling that you have woken up and are a character in a low budget badly written Science Fiction novel or movie?
I know I do at times, in part because I read a lot of pulp science fiction as a teenager. It was an escape from the drudgery of school and sometimes explored some interesting ideas or concepts.
Our current era feels like a sci-fi novel because we are in the middle of a pandemic and that seems to have caught a lot of people by surprise even though human history has lots of them. These days we have human viruses and computer viruses, that’s an interesting sci-fi concept. I am of the age that personal computers, the internet, cell phones and zoom meetings are still a novelty.
When the pandemic started politicians and bureaucrats were flip flopping and flop flipping, so fast it was like watching a speed pancake flipping contest and yes many landed on the floor and created quite a splatter.
Whenever a lockdown was announced, people would rush out to stock up on toilet paper and liquor, which apparently are the things some people need most during a lock down. These are both things produced in copious amounts in Canada so be calm. There is no fear of running out. Since everyone is into graphs, I would really like to see a graph of liquor sales and how they correlate to the pandemic and CERB payments.
I read an article recently, that since the pandemic started, the world has seen its biggest transfer of wealth as the rich get richer and the rest of us don’t. It was rather interesting, but it does seem most of the rules that come in favor the big stores and businesses and penalize the small privately run ones. Also, some professions and groups who have job security have been getting their usual pay raises, perks and bonuses. That all seems like a plot of a pulp science fiction novel.
Now the very rich all seem to be getting into low orbit or space joy rides. There is even talk about sending Captain Kirk, aka William Shatner of Star Trek fame on a free trip and he is 990. I hope he doesn’t come back with a load of Tribbles which are cute furry little critters which eat everything in sight and reproduce at an alarming rate. Wait a minute, maybe Tribbles have disguised themselves as stuffed animals and they are already here.
Ah yes, even space travel is being privatized by the ultra-rich and there is talk of commercial space flights, tourism, hotels, and colonies on the moon and even mars. You may have heard of offshore tax havens; it is only a matter of time before someone establishes an off-planet one.
Now would be an interesting time for a few aliens to arrive. If a spaceship landed in front of you and some critter stuck its head out and said, “Take me to your leader.” Who could you possibly suggest as the planet’s leader? Or would you try to sell the planet to them at a bargain rate? On the other hand, if an intelligent species did show up, that might be a welcome relief and divergence.
So, if the pandemic is getting you down, just think of it as a badly written pulp science fiction novel and hopefully, we can learn a few lessons from it. After all, trial and error has been the way we have learned most things. If we keep trying, we are bound to get it right eventually.
So, I am somewhat optimistic about the future because we got this far without really knowing what we were doing. Just imagine what could be accomplished if we took the time to figure things out. Something to think about.
