Preparing for the collapse of civilization


It's Tuesday, February 2021, and as usual there are a lot of people preparing for the collapse of civilization. Some of them are my friends, some are just fellow-travelers with me on the Big Blue Marble. And while seeing things from their point of view often makes me sad, this morning it seems to be making every little thing better for me.

As a time-traveler, I like to imagine what the world looked like in the past, and also what it will look like in the future. I developed a taste for science fiction stories when I was a teenager, and I especially like "what if" scenarios for the future. My favorite, by the way, is a future where everything is run by apes!

I'm also a big fan of the movie "the Road Warrior", which had a scenario that was all about driving around like crazy, looking for gasoline in a future where civilization has collapsed. I've been watching that movie since I was a kid, and as a nerdy kid, I often wondered why they weren't looking for water? But that probably wouldn't have been a very interesting movie!

And of course, when civilization collapses, the first thing you will need will be water. If you live somewhere like the Australian Outback, or the Sonoran Desert (which is where I live), you're gonna have a hard time of it. There are certain places on planet earth where people can only live with good technology. Choosing to live there puts you in a technology trap (like choosing to step into an elevator, or getting on an airplane), you just have to hope that the technology doesn't fail.

Where I grew up, in Minneapolis, there's a LOT of water. So when I left there, and moved to Phoenix, I stepped into a technology trap. Phoenix has plenty of water, and it always has, but it all comes rushing through after the big snow melts up north, and if you don't have a way of capturing the water, damming it, and storing it, you're sunk. Luckily, Phoenix has a very robust system of dams and reservoirs.

And so, this morning as I ponder preparations for the collapse of civilization, sitting here at my computer, drinking my coffee, everything ordinary suddenly seems so remarkable. I go into the kitchen, turning on lights, then make my coffee, which requires water, and coffee, and electricity, and suddenly these things are not so ordinary after all. There are countless people out there, people who have created these systems, people who maintain them. Every once in a while I imagine that someone stayed up all night working to repair something so that I can easily flip a switch, make some coffee, and do ordinary stuff.

Good morning! It's gonna be a great day!
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