Dreaming Different Futures

I read too much science fiction as a child - well - to be honest, Sci-Fi is still my staple.

And for the most part, the "type" of science fiction that I gravitate towards is the imaginative dystopian hard science stuff where authors are dreaming of a future state of being and how that affects us.

So, for example, Robert Heinlein was one of my mentors in the field and he talked about everything from religion to race, sex and politics in his groundbreaking work like Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers.

Or think about Orson Scott Card and Ender's Game.

These works were meant to criticise the way we do things, the way we are, and to subtly point to other possibilities.

Like what if the marriage idea was wrong and we should be polyamorous? What if men were, in fact, inferior to women? What if militarism was left unchecked?

But I digress from what I was going to write about - which was just a quick sketch of a dream I just came up with for moving forward with society after the pandemic.

(by the way - this is by far the perfect science fiction story - and in fact, has been written a few times check our Steven King's the Stand or Margaret Atwood's MadAdam series)

So - here is my science fiction suggestion for moving forward.

First and foremost - every household, everywhere, every class and country - needs free high-speed internet, probably from Elon Musk's Starlink Satellites. We also all need free state of the art computer systems and "smart" enabled devices.

These should no longer be for-profit creations - well, in a perfect world nothing should - but I am willing to start there.

This is step one - and you are not going to immediately agree with me on step two - but suspend your disbelief for a second.

Step two is that we sell off every school, every police station, every doctor's office, every church, every psychiatric clinic, every public health clinic, etc. Especially those that are government-funded or require tax breaks.

Step three is that we build campus organizations where all of these professionals work, together, along with high tech infrastructure and broadcasting studios.

NOW

Here is the thing, we start having multidisciplinary teams producing educational and creative resources that educate children, teach holistic health, manage conflict, embrace spirituality, and provide - through the internet - all the resources necessary to create "health" in the population.

Yes, we would still need hospitals, and teams that could be dispatched to deal with crime or emergent situations.

But in reality, we would be approaching the human situation from a whole different perspective while at the same time cutting an incredible amount of cost. Each of these campuses would create content that is regional, that honours every culture and race and sexuality and background - but at the same time does not have to reinvent the wheel as they would all be networked as well.

We would instantly level up humanity worldwide.

The reason we do not do this is that we are stuck in archaic patterns of professional services that are stuck in outdated thought patterns and traditions.

And I would argue that this is because of racism and elitism, classism and sexism - all of those isms.

Otherwise, we would have been working together on all this stuff long ago.

Why do we have two dental clinics in the same small town, one of which offers better care for higher prices and one of which offers to take anyone?

Why do we have food banks, churches, and social workers all doing the work while not communicating with each other?

Because we believe some people deserve better care. It is as plain, as simple, and as horrible as that.

Oh, and it also has to do with turning a profit. That is why I am fed up with capitalism and our current economic lie of trickle-down wealth.

So my solution might not be the best, and it might not be feasible, I am not a city planner or a sociologist.

But here is the thing. Even I in my little corner of the world can come up with a better solution than how we currently do it. I am willing to bet there are hundreds, if not millions of solutions that would make the world a better, and safer place - that would allow us to accomplish more with less, and that would keep us safe.

We do not implement them because they do not make anyone rich.

So here is my idea. Close the schools and make teaching an online resource. But while we are at it. Close the rest and force us to work together. I am 99% certain that it would only make the world worse for the 1%.