Writing science fiction makes it easier to appreciate our planet. Tell a story about another planet and challenge assumptions. While visiting with a friend at a coffeeshop we were surrounded by things that humans built. We ate and drank things that were grown then flown to is. The entire business operated by rules invented by humans to manage human events. Take those same people, write them as characters, and try to imagine what their life would be somewhere else. 

Wood

We take wood for granted. We can appreciate its usefulness and appearance, but try to imagine a world where there are no trees. At its most basic, there goes the main source of sticks and firewood. Eventually we learned how to make lumber and paper. We can build a house with it, then have rolls of paper towels and toilet paper. We’ve filled libraries with books. Both books and interior timbers have a good chance of outlasting their original tree if left to its growth and then decay. Wood is light, easy to work, and even floats. We have even made it fly. After a while we realized that the varieties of wood made it easier to find the right one.

Water

We are water with some organized impurities. Watch the movie Dune and see a world without water. Go to one of our driest deserts. It can have an austere (from one perspective) beauty. The planet doesn’t need water, but we do. Water is the key to life as we know it; but it is too easy to overlook the fact that it is a solvent that is marvelously non-toxic. It makes washing dishes much easier. It also extracts flavors from things like tea leaves. Water changes shape and state. Liquid water is obvious in the glass beside me; but it is water turning to steam that produces much of the power we use. We’re lucky that water floats when it freezes. An ice-covered lake is insulated from freezing further by ice. If the ice sank it would be easier to freeze the entire lake, which would not be good for the fish. Other planets have other fluids that act differently.

Rocks

Rocks are rocks, until you study geology and learn the differences between them. Different trees mean different uses, but that wasn’t as obvious with rocks. Early we learned that obsidian is sharp; but how long was it before someone realized that we could melt rocks? Many of our metals are merely melted rocks. That discovery was so important that we named eras after rocks. Sure, there’s the steam age; but there was also the stone age, the bronze, the iron age, and arguably, the silicon age. We may talk about driving around in metal beasts, or acknowledge that computers contain silicon, but we’re driving around in solidified melted rocks, and typing as ways to utilize crystals that we learned how to grow and process.

Fire

Fire is fundamental. It has always been around us. We describe the discovery of fire as a key point in our civilization; but it had always been there. What we discovered was how to use it. Tools, very handy. Cooking, very efficient. Warmth, we could broaden where we could live. Fire melts rocks, turns water to steam, and we create it with wood. There are water worlds where fire as we know it couldn’t exist.

Frugality is appreciating the resources available to us. The people in line at the coffeeshop were staring at phones, some were walking on artificially high heels or wearing muck boots. They arrived in cars that required metal and electronics. They were ordering hot drinks and hot food. We sat at tables of wood. Some had metal chairs and metal utensils. How far removed were they from the marvel that is our imperfect modern life?

I’m writing the sequel to Firewatcher, a sci-fi novel about people who flee the Earth because they fear an artificial intelligence. The planet they colonize is like Earth, and not. It has plants based on silicon, not cellulose. It has obsidian, but melting rocks for metals is years away. Gardening comes first. Water exists and is plentiful by this writer’s decree. No water. No life. No humans. No story. No book. Fire exists, but the ecology has evolved to emphasize it for reproduction. This place wants to burn, so they have to be much more careful about campfires. Details about their worries are in the book. 

My colonists have to turn dirt into soil, the humanure way. They have to invent new construction techniques and architecture. They have to rebuild the modern infrastructure we take for granted on this planet. They are also getting the opportunity to invent a new society, economy, and government. (I’ll save that for another book, or another author.)

We are fortunate. Some of the things that are vital to our life and society have existed longer than our species. We distance ourselves from the basics by necessity. Our civilization grew because we didn’t have to individually dig ore, tend fires, haul water, build buildings, etc. We lose the link with the basics.

Wood, water, rocks, and fire sounds like a knock-off of Guns, Germs, and Steel (a non-fiction study I recommend). But as complicated as our modern world seems, I find it useful to view it from the basics. Wood, water, rocks, and fire don’t have ad budgets like builders, beverages, cars, and energy companies; but just because a thing doesn’t have an ad doesn’t mean it has no value. It may be the foundation we’ve built upon.

Now, back to figuring out how my characters are going to survive when something as basic as the weather is alien. And then, there are the aliens, too.