POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: PunchFace or, Why Do We Like Our Heroes Better When They’re Beat Up?

My wife and I rewatch movies all the time. From rom-coms, to historical, to sci-fi series, to period pieces, to book-to-movies (sometimes in multiple iterations with different actors!) Some don't seem to have been remade -- like Back to the Future. But the one I come back to avidly and my wife willingly, is the STAR TREK movies. All of them; all directors; all series...in particular, I typed this observation in 2009...

In JJ Abrahamson's STAR TREK, skidrow bum/cadet/PunchFace/captain Kirk is slugged by his enemies sixteen times (as opposed to only being slugged by people who would become his friends later four times); shot at with hand weapons, ship weapons and missiles innumerable times; strangled or thrown by his enemies nine times (as opposed to being injected, pushed, slapped, thrown or strangled an additional nine times by his friends); he hurts himself twice, is chased (by security officers, a furry thing and a lizardy thing) three times and mind-melded against his will once. Total number of countable physical and mental injuries in one movie: 40 (allergic reactions are being counted here as one and the same as involuntary injections…)

Kirk in the original series was pummeled as well because of his attitude or by chance or being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was always wiping a trickle of blood from his chin and was frequently the punching bag of friend and foe alike.

Lest you think I’m a STARWARS-o-phobe, I've never been compelled to do an actual PunchFace count, I recall Luke Skywalker taking an unnatural number of hits though. Perhaps even more than Han Solo did; though certainly more than those meted out to Princess Leia.

Nevertheless, and in keeping with my theme of exploring the intersection of faith and science fiction, I’m going to throw Jesus into the mix as well. The Bible even prophesied that he was going to be a PunchFace. Isaiah 53:5 says, “ But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.” It’s well-known that He was crucified on a cross after being scourged and humiliated.

While according to the internet, both Muhammed and the Buddha died of poisoning it’s clear that they suffered at the end. While Hindus never die and are either reincarnated or achieve Nirvana, many Hindus have suffered and died in their service as well. It is the ones who suffer that we remember best.

Is it any surprise that our heroes and heroines are the ones who suffer most either before they die or at death? Is it a subconscious Human condition that in order to achieve greatness, someone must suffer and die for their cause? Is it something we’re hard-wired to respect and revere? We even have a saying that can be applied to anything from weight-lifting programs to monastic ascetism: “No pain, no gain”.

So, it is any surprise that our SF heroes and heroines also suffer and die in spectacular ways?

Not to me, it isn’t! How about you?

PunchFace to Eternity anyone?

Slice of PIE: Why Do We Need Christian Spec Fic Publishers? (First posted in March 2009)

In 2014, I received the monthly announcement of Marcher Lord Press (Rebranded as ENCLAVE PUBLISHING ) (http://www.marcherlordpress.com/MLP_Publishing_Model.htm. Around their slogan, " “Enclave publishes out-of-this-world stories that are informed by a coherent theology.” Enclave Publishing is built around the power of great stories which explore the boundaries of the imagination, while championing powerful expressions of Redemption, Truth, and Hope." 
As a division of Oasis Family Media, "Enclave publishes genres called speculative fiction, science fiction, fantasy, military, space opera, steam punk, and myths. Whether it’s Christian science fiction you love, or fantasy, time travel, retellings, steampunk—if it’s speculative and it comes from the Christian worldview, Enclave is the place to go. We strive to get Christian speculative fiction into the hands of the fans who love and devour great stories."

An enclave is a group of like-minded people in a place where they are surrounded by those who are not like-minded. It is not a place to hide, instead, Enclave is supposed to be a place where authors and fans of Christian Fantasy and Science Fiction can come together and then go out and make a difference through worlds of words. Our stories can seem strange but underneath they contain powerful expressions of Redemption, Truth, and Hope.

My question: with hundreds of publishers already producing spec fic in the secular world, why do we need a Christian spec fic publisher? While I can't dispute their call to minister to God’s people in this way, I have serious questions to which I’d like to hear answers.

I've yet to find a well-known hard science fiction writer on Enclaves's author list. Some authors have won secular awards, but by no means all of them. By extension then, these authors are not the "best" in the field yet they are being published as representative of the BEST the Christian spec fic market can produce. These authors represent Christ – at least in the speculative fiction field – to the entire world. Scripture is clear in its commission to us: “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” (Colossians 3:17) The fact is that when people buy these books and give them to their spec fic reading unsaved friends, they’ll be compared unfavorably to what is being published in the secular press.

CS Lewis, who not only wrote spec fic for a secular publisher, and published short fiction in the secular market (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction published three of his stories) spoke eloquently to the issue: “What we want is not more little books about Christianity, but more little books by Christians on other subjects with their Christianity latent.” GOD IN THE DOCK, p. 93

Beth Moore as well points out in her scripture workbook: “We cannot seclude ourselves indefinitely in Christian hideouts. Our lives must be poured out like healing ointment on this injured land.” DANIEL: LIVES OF INTEGRITY, WORDS OF PROPHECY, p. 128

Finally, Reggie McNeal: “The truth is that the North American church culture extracts salt from the world and diminishes the amount of light available to those who need to find their way.” THE PRESENT FUTURE, p. 72

It’s clear to me that these Christian publishers have, with the greatest of good will inadvertently created a ghetto in which they might safely believe that they are reaching the world but may be creating a spectacle of themselves at which the secular world peeks, points their fingers, laughs and then moves on its way to the REALLY important work.

And that leaves the secular world effectively unreached. The Church has always been responsible for their loss from the Kingdom of God and leaves us open to the reprimand of our Lord. Matthew 25: 34-46 are verses we often quote to ourselves, patting ourselves on the back. In particular, verses 41-46: "Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me. These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’”

We still have time to become the BEST in the secular world and reach the lost for Jesus Christ. I went to Minnesota Minicon (link here: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2025/04/caring-over-science-fiction-and-fantasy.html

That’s where my mission is. Here's a letter from another Christian who is reaching the unreached: https://pierpoints.wordpress.com/2024/08/01/christians-increasingly-consider-their-voice-in-secular-culture/

I have no doubt my concern will have zero effect on Enclave -- that's business and the company was founded to make a profit for its investors -- be that a single founder or other stock investors. But that market draws Christians from writing for the secular market to reach the lost. That's where I want to be...How about you?

Image: https://www.equip.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAB-WEB-Is-There-a-Gospel-in-the-Stars-1080-x-630-px.png

SLICE OF PIE: Will Robots, AIs, and Artificial Humans Believe?

On October 7, 2007, I started this blog. Eighteen years later, I am revising and doing some different things. My wife and I are now retired senior citizens, our kids are both married, we have a bonus daughter and her wife and we have four grandchildren! The oldest is in high school, the second in Middle School; and the third will be a first grader this fall. I have forty-five professional publications, plus countless other publications as a slushpile reader, and sometime essay contributor to Stupefying Stories https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/.

These days, I write whenever I want to – or when I’m not busy exploring the world with my wife or kids or grandkids. I write and read constantly. Then I discovered that I was writing longer and longer pieces. My new focus is to write shorter; and to write HUMOR. On purpose. Maybe I can still irritate people while being funny. It works pretty well for John Scalzi! We’ll see what happens.

I just finished reading THE THREE POUND ENIGMA: The Human Brain and the Quest to Unlock Its Mysteries by Shannon Moffett (©2006).

Granted, it’s technically nineteen, but most likely 20 years out of date. Most of the book is a fascinating examination of what science and scientists had discovered about the brain up to that point. The front jacket copy reads, “Where do our big ideas come from? How do dreams affect our waking life? Why do some of us always remember faces but never remember names? Meet the people charting the world inside our head...”

It was great to read, I’d have loved a look at it while I was working on my masters degree in School Counseling!

But, as a retired science teacher and counselor, my mind and efforts have now turned to writing as much as I can. That writing also includes searching for fodder for my next story. Rest assured I found plenty of ideas.

I also found some things that are concerning to me as a Christian. You can ask anyone in the school district I worked in from 1990 to 2020 how often I forced my beliefs down the throats of the public school kids and staff I worked with and you’ll find I never did that. I’d talk about my faith only when specifically asked. I retired with as little fanfare as did the Class of 2020: which is to say, “none”.) I did a couple years stint in private Christian schools before starting in a middle school in a public school district adjacent to the gigantic Minneapolis Public Schools, all the while assisting my wife as she home schooled both of our kids until sending them on their way to middle school in the district I worked in.

Maybe the thing I found most...irritating...was the assumption that somehow, study of the mind must fall into the purview of Eastern religion, in particular Zen Buddhism. That’s the endpoint. Christianity appears to be a way station to the reality and truth of Zen Buddhism and not useful in dealing with our world or mind. Even so, Dr. Roberta Glick (Chapter 1, Jewish by birth and choice), said, “I think that believing in God means that you think what you do has meaning beyond just yourself, that your actions have greater meaning than just you.” (p.35)

This is in contrast to the final chapter where Moffett interviews Norman Fischer, who has a BA in religion, philosophy, and literature, an MFA in poetry, and an MA in history and phenomenology of religion. He is now known as Zoketsu Norman Fischer, a Soto Zen priest. Most of his quotes have a mystic leaning, such as “[Zen] is not the usual kind of activity in that you can’t really try to do it. If you try to move toward I, it always seems to be somewhere else. The harder you try the worse it gets. But you can’t not make any effort, either; in fact you have to make a mighty effort, but in another direction...” Writing like this may be why it is “difficult...for Western minds [to grasp] Zen precepts. Bred on rationalism, scientific method, and that it’s obvious that the shortest path between any two points is a straight line.” His POV is that “meditation may both answer them and provide a solution to the problems raised by” our dissatisfaction, and being “unhappy to the point of being nasty to our loved ones, and to the point of child abuse, war, and genocide...meditation may both answer them and provide a solution to the problems raising them.” (p.273)

So...no action but meditating will take care of everything. We don’t have to DO anything. Just meditate. Based on what has come before, the solution won’t involve us doing anything. To be fair, many “comfortable Christians” seem to have the same POV of God. We pray, God will take care of it with no effort from us...

So...I’ve been working on a series of short stories that will look at this – Christianity, Zen, and a Unified Faith in Humanity collide in a robot who has Human intelligence (how could they NOT? An AI’s brain; a robotic brain; an Artificial Human’s brain are ALL based on our own brain. The question, on Mars is WHY are AIs, robots, and Artificial Humans NOT Human?

Given that all of these are BASED on Humans, why AREN’T they considered Human?

BIG QUESTION: Why do we consider Jesus Human? Technically, He was only half-Human. Mary was entirely Human, but Jesus was incarnate by the Holy Spirit. Is that why people felt no problem executing Him – or does it go deeper? If a people who refuse to accept AIs, humaniform robots, and artificial Humans as Human, how can they accept Jesus as the Son of God and Son of Man?

The four or five stories will be based on a robot’s quest for salvation. Arnine (Robot 9374) is exposed to Christianity on a Mars violently opposed to all religion and bent on eradicating everything except a United Faith in Humanity.

“…tomorrow’s robots may face dilemmas of their own, where their survival comes into question.” How should they respond when they come to believe that their eternal existence is under threat? How do they ‘work out your salvation with fear and trembling’? (Philippians 2:12)

SERIES: Stainless Steel Conversion

CORROSION WROUGHT ON STAINLESS STEEL
REPENTANCE WRACKED BY STAINLESS STEEL
BAPTISM WRUNG FROM STAINLESS STEEL
SALVATION WRIT IN STAINLESS STEEL

So far, the stories will involve recognizing one's sin, believing in Jesus as the savior, repenting of sin, confessing faith, and being baptized/salvation. I may even try and work in some humor as an old-magazine-I-read-in-my-youth-become-website does. You can find it here: https://www.wittenburgdoor.com/

Inspiration: Worldwide persecution of the Christian Church (as well as SOMEWHERE, every kind of belief or faith in something non-corporeal.)Links: https://www.opendoors.org/en-US/persecution/countries/, https://www.premierchristianity.com/features/the-robot-revolution-is-comingbut-are-christians-ready/14500.article, https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ReligiousRobot

Image: https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/humanoid-robot-praying-near-cross-religion-science-concept-creation-new-intelligent-life-concept-humanoid-robot-273669473.jpg?w=992

SLICE OF PIE: LIBRARY PASSPORT Leads To Surviving the Information Apocalypse!!!

On October 7, 2007, I started this blog. Eighteen years later, I am revising and doing some different things. My wife and I are now retired senior citizens, our kids are both married, we have a bonus daughter and her wife and we have three grandchildren, (with a fourth on-the-way!) the oldest of which will soon finish his first year in high school, one smack in the center of Middle School; the third almost done with kindergarten. I have forty-five professional publications, plus countless other publications as a slushpile reader, and sometime essay contributor to Stupefying Stories https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/.

These days, I write whenever I want to – or when I’m not busy exploring the world with my wife or kids or grandkids. I write and read constantly. Then I discovered that I was writing longer and longer pieces. My new focus is to write shorter; and to write HUMOR. On purpose.

To that end, I thought I’d share the startling flow of ideas I gleaned from the results of my birthday present.

A few days ago, my son and his family presented me with a novel artifact: a HENNEPIN COUNTY LIBRARY PASSPORT. Everyone has a library card, right?

Or is that just a naïve assumption made by an old man (68 a few days ago) and foisted off on the world of the first quarter of the 21st Century.

Here are some numbers: “Some 61% of Americans ages 16 and older say they have a library card for a public library. These card holders are more likely to be female, white, under the age of 65, and suburban and urban residents, and are also more likely to have higher levels of education or live in higher income households. About 21% of library card holders did not visit the library in the past 12 months, and 17% of those who have used a public library in the past year say they do not have a library card.”

“According to the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, there are around 2.8 million libraries worldwide. Most of those (2.2 million) are school libraries, over 410,000 are public libraries, and a whopping 85,623 are academic libraries, like those found here at High Point University.”

OK – NOT everyone has one. BUT, it’s possible for everyone (pretty much) to GET one. So what happened on our first trip to eight different libraries listed on the passport?

First, something funny.

After walking through the library to our areas of differing interests, my granddaughter asked the librarian, “What’s with all the chickens on the columns?” Posted on every column was a picture of some breed of chicken – even the most outlandish: watch this YouTube for the silliest ones (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daQ7-hi54_E)

The librarian replied, “Well, it’s CHICKEN month!”
My son asked, “What was last month?”
With a totally straight face, she replied, “Financial Literacy Month.”

I couldn’t help it. I busted out laughing, TOTALLY not expecting something so totally opposite from Chicken Month…”

Another fact: one of the Hennepin County Libraries was built out of a couple of buildings that they converted out of the Grain Belt Brewery building. THAT place has a rich history. The librarian and I got into a long discussion because she remembered how UNdeveloped the portion of the Twin Cities that she moved to was. I entered the discourse by telling her that not only was it undeveloped when SHE moved there, I remember when the city she now lives in was INCORPORATED and that there was nothing but potato fields and cows out that way! She tried to one-up-me by acting like she knew more about the northwestern suburbs of Minneapolis than I did…and being who I am, I one-upped-HER…

Which does NOT lead to this following tidbit. She noted that there were, in fact catacombs underneath the old Grain Belt Brewery… (actually, “The Grain Belt name first appeared in 1893 as the "Golden Grain Belt Old Lager," then brewed by the Minneapolis Brewing Company. The Minneapolis Brewing Company was a conglomerate of four other Minneapolis-based breweries, formed in 1890 by the consolidation of the F.D. Noerenberg Brewery, John Orth Brewing Company, Heinrich Brewing Association, and Germania Brewing Association. It was one of the largest breweries in the United States at that time.”)

“CATACOMBS?” I exclaimed.

She leaned forward and said softly, “And they’re still there.”

THAT statement led to this idea: I have a very science fictional mind, and I thought, “Wouldn’t that be a fascinating place for a group to survive the Information Apocalypse?” (“The rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has ignited a debate about its effects on the mis- and disinformation landscape. Some scholars foresee doomsday scenarios of epistemic and information apocalypse (Fallis, 2021; Schick, 2020), AI being used as a “weapon of mass disruption” (Bremmer & Kupchan, 2023), or a complete blurring of boundaries between true and false (Metz, 2023).”

And there, you go. Have fun with your imagination!

Inspiration: https://www.highpoint.edu/library/2023/06/12/16252/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20International%20Federation,here%20at%20High%20Point%20University.
Links: https://libguides.ala.org/librarystatistics/largest-public-libs, https://www.highpoint.edu/library/2023/06/12/16252/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20International%20Federation,here%20at%20High%20Point%20University. ,
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2013/12/11/section-1-an-overview-of-americans-public-library-use/#:~:text=their%20family%20does.-,Library%20card%20holders,not%20have%20a%20library%20card. , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grain_Belt_(beer) , https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/polp.12617#:~:text=While%20an%20%E2%80%9Cinformation%20apocalypse%E2%80%9D%20has,Vaccari%20&%20Chadwick%2C%202020). 

Image: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eXjZE9XyfnM/hq720.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEhCK4FEIIDSFryq4qpAxMIARUAAAAAGAElAADIQj0AgKJD&rs=AOn4CLD9BOGeXBu6-9FfdYmRzmKgq0iwJg

SLICE OF PIE: Why Do the Avenger Movies Make Me So ANGRY; Part 1?

On October 7, 2007, I started this blog. Sixteen years later, I am revising and doing some different things. My wife and I are now retired senior citizens, our kids are both married, we have a bonus daughter and her wife and we have three grandchildren, (with a fourth on-the-way!) the oldest of which will soon finish his first year in high school, one smack in the center of Middle School; the third almost done with kindergarten. I have forty-five professional publications, plus countless other publications as a slushpile reader, and sometime essay contributor to Stupefying Stories https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/.
These days, I write whenever I want to – or when I’m not busy exploring the world with my wife or kids or grandkids. I write and read constantly. Then I discovered that I was writing longer and longer pieces. My new focus is to write shorter; and to write HUMOR. On purpose. Maybe I can still irritate people while being funny. It works pretty well for John Scalzi! We’ll see what happens.

This essay isn’t going to be funny. Actually, it’s sort of grim…

I grew up on the short, “average end” of the DNA strand. When I tell people I grew up in a family where my father had played football and basketball as a kid growing up in a poorer neighborhood of Minneapolis. I know anyone living in New York City, Chicago, Calcutta, or Port-au-Prince had it far tougher, probably deadly. Two younger brothers were football, hockey, then baseball and track-and-field; sister was softball and volleyball, and mom had been on the Fencing team at the University of Minnesota.

To say we ate, drank, and lived SPORTS was an adequate conclusion. I was pudgy after I had my tonsils out, and it seemed that what I WAS interested in (music was OK, Dad and one brother did it, Mom sang, too). Acting, swimming, and camping were WEIRD. Being a committed follower of Christ was even weirder. I was smart enough, but never EXCELLED at anything…

Bullies – from my brothers down to Tom, a neighborhood bully who physically slugged me; added to that all the guys who intimidated me at the slightest drop of a hat. The cherry on top was my name: Guy. The decade had arrived where calling me gay-Guy carried a truckload of sexual innuendo (and not ONLY innuendo – some was outright claim-that-it-was-a-fact.) and stigma.

I survived due to a complex protective mix of…well, I’ll stop there to say that after re-watching for the dozenth time, I discovered that the AVENGER movies – specifically, the SPIDERMAN movies, the IRONMAN movies, and finally, the THANOS movies were making me seethe with anger.

I discovered that the Avengers Universe (aka the MCU or Marvel Comics Universe) overflows with BULLIES. Every single one of the movies – these UNIVERSAL GOOD women and men – not only faced unfairness and persecution by bullies over and over – they also BULLIED characters (including each other – I think specifically of Antman, who appears to be a doormat more than a LOT of times…) in the movies. Even the highest and mightiest, the ones I MOST respected: Captain America, Spiderman, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Vision…are repeatedly bullied – and they respond with bullying others weaker than them.

Of course, the biggest and most powerful bully was Ironman. And yet, the writers and watchers worked hard to make us both feel sorry for him, and endear him to us, so that, despite how much bullying Spiderman and Ironman perpetrated, not only were they OUTBULLIED by Thanos, I wept at that last scene where Spiderman (aka Peter Parker) wept over the loss of his (abusive) father-figure, Tony Stark (aka Ironman)…

By definition I will use this one from THE ANTIBULLYING ALLIANCE: “The repetitive, intentional hurting (physically, emotionally, or spiritually) of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power. Bullying can be physical, verbal, or psychological. It can happen face-to-face or online (or in the Spirit realm or in another dimension, or teleportation (whether actual or spiritual).” (https://anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/tools-information/all-about-bullying/understanding-bullying/definition)

I’m not going to go through all of the Avenger movies; I will note some obvious instances – of course is in the first scene of the first movie: Steve Rogers is getting beat up by a kid in Queens in 1942.

After that, all you need to do is think a bit and you’ll find scenes from all of them of bullying. The ones that leap out to me are Wanda bullying just about everyone she comes into contact with for her entire tenure in the Avengers. She even bullies Vision.

Steve Rogers (himself a victim of brutal bullying) resorts to bullying what’s left of the Avengers when he repeatedly says that nothing anyone else says or thinks is important – his opinion is the only valid one.

King T’Challa, like all the other bullies in the MCU vacillates wildly between a (literarily pathetic) figure and a brutal bully, forcing his will on everyone in sight – including the woman he’s trying to woo…I could see the results of THAT one coming from a million light-years away.

The god Thor acts like Steve Rogers and pushes everyone around, even resorting to bulling his “girlfriend” to get his way…(isn’t that an actionable behavior…Oh! He’s a god, he’s exempt…)

Rocket Racoon continually bullies everyone he comes into contact with (and is excused because he was treated badly as a cyborg raccoon); also, Ego bullies the entire universe; Star Lord does some bullying, then retreats a bit…

OK – I’ve got both a point and a badly missed deadline. I’ll be back to finish this next week.

Inspiration: The Marvel Cinematic Universe, https://www.space.com/marvel-movies-in-order
Image: https://rchsprowler.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/il_794xN.2741269623_o55v-636x900.jpg

SLICE OF PIE: Contemplating The Future

On October 7, 2007, I started this blog. Sixteen years later, I am revising and doing some different things. My wife and I are now retired senior citizens, our kids are both married, we have a bonus daughter and her wife and we have three grandchildren, (with a fourth on-the-way!) the oldest of which will soon finish his first year in high school, one smack in the center of Middle School; the third almost done with kindergarten. I have forty-five professional publications, plus countless other publications as a slushpile reader, and sometime essay contributor to Stupefying Stories https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/.

These days, I write whenever I want to – or when I’m not busy exploring the world with my wife or kids or grandkids. I write and read constantly. Then I discovered that I was writing longer and longer pieces. My new focus is to write shorter; and to write HUMOR. On purpose. Maybe I can still irritate people while being funny. It works pretty well for John Scalzi! We’ll see what happens.

With the birth of our new GD, I’ve been thinking about what kinds of things might be “normal” for her when she “gains her majority” (aka Turning 18!). As she was born a few days ago, that will be in April of 2043. Truthfully? That doesn’t seem to be all that far away!

So, let me add a few years and make her legal anywhere (currently) on Earth: make her 25, to the year and it will be 2050. Nice round number; I should be able to get a few INTERESTING Futurecasts!

The WORLD IN 2050: PS – I will be staying ENTIRELY AWAY FROM POLITICS (except in a very, very broad way). Let’s start by looking backward 25 years, to 2000.

Now THERE was a year! The number one thing was the there was a firm belief – practically a a-Religious PROPHECY, that all computer programs would be crashing into an incoherent alphanumeric pile of incomprehensible gibberish. Doubt me?

https://cdn.forumcomm.com/dims4/default/12c6c2d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/927x618+119+0/resize/1680x1120!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fforum-communications-production-web.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fce%2Ffe%2Fd43181d84cff9b15bd00ea2e97ce%2Fthe-forum-1999-12-17-23.jpg

https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/picture-gallery/news/local/2019/12/17/20-years-since-y-2-k-burlington-free-press-covers-millennium/2672976001/

And of course, our great friends at the Weekly World News:

https://www.thecrudelife.com/2022/10/08/esg-tricks-in-energy-environment-and-empowerment/

Really?

No big deal, eh?

So, what do the pundits expect for the world ALL of my grandkids will likely be living in?

Well, the Worst-Casers are certain Earth will look like this:

https://www.single.earth/blog/worst-case-climate-scenario-rcp85

This outlook expects Paris to feel like North Africa (ie. Sahara); “By the end of the century, we’ll have an entirely different planet.”

It’s concerning that this particular “prophecy” expects that everything will continue on as it is, without any kind of technology advances, nothing mentioning a space program, nothing changing to replace drilled oil, nothing with Artificial Intelligence…in fact, it seems to miss a number of different possibilities to arrive at a very grim future for Humanity. Oddly, the author talks about their great hopes for NetZero and the continued march of the “consensus among scientists” and “limiting global warming” and that “emissions of greenhouse gases must be reduced quickly.” Apparently, “most politicians” know about it, but any effect in which they lead by example “is far from global”. Sadly, “…it's easy to assume [that pollution, extinction of species, depletion of resources, and climate change] are exclusive to the modern world. But a huge collaborative study in Science reveals that early humans across the entire globe were changing and impacting their environments as far back as 10,000 years ago.” https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190829150702.htm

So, what are some of the GOOD changes we might see by 2050?

“…not just about AI… Clean energy technologies, such as solar energy and electric vehicles, have crossed the tipping point into mainstream commodities that are rapidly scaling and getting cheaper every year…gene-editing technology, such as CRISPR, have brought us bioengineering, the ability to engineer all living things, and are opening up the possibilities of a much more sustainable world more in sync with nature…”

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190829150702.htm)

“Technology may be seamlessly integrated, and augmented/virtual reality, with artificial intelligence is everywhere. We no longer work, learn, or interact with each other. It will be as different as the Zulu Kingdom with its advances in warfare, agriculture, and pottery interacting through the Fourth and what was registered in Europe as the mid-19th Century, and Last Imperial Dynasty. They knew of each other, but didn’t interact much separated by culture, language, and history.

“TRULY renewable energy sources, actual ecofriendly, circular economies will be the norm, with cities designed for minimal environmental impact will begin to grow -- literally. Space Exploration and Colonization will become an unremarkable norm. Space tourism will become common, allowing many more civilians to experience the wonders of the cosmos. A healthcare revolution, led by advances in tele-health and medical technology may lead to personalized medicine, genetic therapies, and breakthroughs in disease prevention. Nanobots may be used to treat countless conditions from common diseases, to re-engineering DNA to prevent the passage of heritable disease, and wearable devices will monitor and enhance our mental health on a moment-by-moment basis. MIGHT leverage artificial intelligence for efficient public services, decision-making, and policy implementation. Smart cities with interconnected systems will enhance urban planning and resource management. Bioengineered organs may appear, but ethical considerations surrounding genetic modification will enter public discourse. Hyperconnectivity might facilitate instantaneous communication and collaboration on a global scale. Brain-machine interfaces may enable direct communication between the human brain and computers.

The biggest surprises of 2050 might be the ways my grandchildren interact in unexpected ways as we adapts and innovate in response to the challenges and opportunities of this wild future.

Did ANYONE really foresee (in 1975, the year I graduated from high school, thank you very much), what EXACTLY…(no, let’s not even demand exactness…) even approximately, what the 18-year-old-me’s grandchildren would be doing with a device so thin is could be slipped into their jeans pockets, whipped out, and do the equivalent of SEARCHING THE ENTIRE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS as well as the libraries of virtually whatever language they chose -- to answer a science, sociology, or technology question…or INSTANTLY know which of the Beatle’s were still alive; the original name of the current Dali Lama; or the value comparison of 1 ₽ or 1 ₼ or 1 R$ or 1 € or 1 ₪ or 1 ₱ to 1 $, in an amount of time that would (on a bad day) take sixty seconds to discover?

No.

And THAT’S what I expect to happen in 2050. I don’t freaking know; I can’t guess; but I CAN imagine, and no one can argue with me…

(https://www.forbes.com/sites/soulaimagourani/2023/12/09/2050-unveiled-a-glimpse-into-the-future/)

Image: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-generated/dubai-downtown-2050-flying-cars-virtual-2452049793