We, the authors of Seldon's Gate, come from different backgrounds and perspectives. But we share a common awareness that the unfolding ecological crisis is far greater in scale and implication than most people yet realize. It is terraforming our planet -- changing it into a different world, with radically new physical and ecological systems. This planetary catastrophe is devastating the climate, ecology, and resources that nurtured the first five thousand years of human civilization. The resulting upheaval will force massive transformation in human societies as they struggle to adapt. It will change everything.
Not someday, but now. In our lifetime. In our routine, ordinary lives as individuals, trying to make ends meet and get through the day. The planetary cataclysm will not be a distant event seen only on television screens. It is all around us, even now. In the people we know who are unemployed, poor, sick, anxious, fearful, and lost. Energy and resources are becoming scarce, services and institutions eroding away. Politics shifting, driven by tyranny and hate. It's all going to get worse, putting an end to the abundance and tranquility that Americans, at least, have always taken for granted. Something new is in the process of being born. The story of its emergence will define the remainder of our lives.
All of us will be forced to ask: what do the changes mean, and what should we do now?
This blog now has four authors trying to answer those questions, instead of just me. Reave Vanshar has already posted his first contribution as one of my co-bloggers here. Also new to our cast of characters here are ilorien and Mentat. All three of them are smart, articulate, opinionated, and in every imaginable way supremely cool. All three of them are my friends.
Our writings here will vary quite a bit, in tone, topic, and perspective. The unifying thread will be the background awareness of what's happening to our planet and our people. But the individual posts might cover anything, from the frivolous to the profound. Each of the authors chafes against excessive specialization. Life is a landscape, not a niche.
The four of us together bring quite a considerable array of knowledge to this little corner of the webular-inter-tubes. As a collective, we know more than a little bit about history, politics, literature, information technology, ecology, economics, geology, medicine, and public health, to name a few. All four of us are lifelong fans of science fiction and fantasy. We know who Hari Seldon is. We grew up dreaming of new worlds and new civilizations. Which, I think, is significant. In the face of what's coming, we will need not just knowledge but imagination.
I hope this blog will be a useful record of how we and others tried to prepare for the new world.
San Francisco, AD 2106. From http://gliving.com/san-francisco-future-ecotopia
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