Where’s my tea? Ah. There. It is my weekly exercise in wondering and typing about the changes in my world, and for this blog, particularly in personal finance, community, and stuff. The world’s changes are accelerating, and yet, patience is required. Tomorrow is usually like yesterday, until it isn’t. Here’s a review of what I’ve been watching, and sometimes waiting on, and sometimes seeing happen too quickly.

Politics

Gad. I don’t like most political systems, but at least the best are temporary. Regimes and administrations make their influence, and then the next sweeps them away. Somehow, our civilization has progressed (and as icky as it feels, over the course of a thousand years, we’ve progressed, generally and globally). The US system has some obvious flaws (duh) but I am keeping in mind that, within the system as developed, change will happen on or before November 7, 2028. So far away, yet closer by a day every day – as long as the US laws don’t change. Patience, which can be painful, but patience.

Technology

At least one CEO has said it, we’ve entered the Digital Singularity. When I wrote my first scifi book, Firewatcher, I thought projections of 2100 missed the point. I suspected it to happen more like 2040. By the time I finished writing the book, September 2022, some of those things were happening. While the internet era saw change doubling the state of the art every 18 months, this era sees the change doubling every 4 months. That suggests that AI and such will have advanced by 100% by the end of this year. By the time of the US election, AIs and such will have doubled, doubled, doubled, doubled, doubled, and probably doubled. At the same time, politicians and governments may have barely budged. Interesting times. And one reason to hang onto cash, and one reason to realize that cash’s value may crash. (Pardon the word play, but I just wanted to do that.)

Social Injustice

I mention again, Best Sleepover Ever, something that I’m identifying as a hint and partial proof that people, not politics or organizations, can enact great change and faster than they can be aware of. The message has far fewer gatekeepers. That is good and bad. The bad has had its turn. Now it’s the good turn, or so I hope. Trying to keep it positive, and remembering my quote of, “I like people who treat people like people”, because all of the other labels have caveats, asterisks, and stereotypes. Caveats, asterisks, and stereotypes were shorthand, but it is shorthand that is easy to get distracted by what was rather than what shall be. Be real. Be a person. The rest is marketing.

Climate Change

I didn’t expect to have yet another climate change story enter my awareness, yet there are two. To me, climate change was something to rectify during the first Earth Day. Every year since has been taking us further from a solution, yet here we are, having to debate about whether to do anything about it. Just recently, the oceans hit a new record temperature. Within the last week, yet another glacier has collapsed, this time wiping out entire villages. I think when a glacier collapses in Antarctica, no one notices much. When a glacier collapses within sight of a security camera, there’s much greater outcry. And yet, too many will ignore the reality, sometimes simply to exercise their freedom of speech and to be proudly and loudly ignorant. From a systems perspective, we are decades away from cleaning up this mess, at best.

So What

It is kinda spooky to be watching trends play out that shouldn’t be surprises. Like someone said about disaster movies, ‘They usually start with some scientist making some warning, that everyone else ignores.’ Sounds about right. Frequently, it seems that those scientists are rarely visible at The End, while some celebrity claims the credit for saving the situation.

Personally, I watch enough to be worried, and I am also aware of how often I’ve been wrong – and how often I’ve been right.

Pardon me as I sip my tea.

Being in the midst of change is rarely easy. Old habits can backfire, though fundamental truths reveal themselves. Businesses can show themselves as being archaic. Frugality yet again shows its value. 

All is not lost. As usual, all is an average of a chaos that no one controls. 

All I can attempt to control is me. I don’t think politicians are listening to me. Technology listens to oligarchs and hackers. Social injustice is working through millennia of our bad guesses at how we run things. Climate change, well, I’m a minimalist, but not rich enough to be self-sufficient, yet.

My actions? Vote. Don’t run to either technical extreme, but remember that life is more important than our supposed control of electrons. Cheer on the advocates, but personally watch and help individuals because the rest can be catchphrases and not action. And apologize to the planet, to Nature as I have an impact that I hopefully minimize without withdrawing totally.

And keep cash on hand, the emergency kit stocked and ready, passports and such up-to-date, and my investments in stocks. Tomorrow will probably be like yesterday, until it isn’t.

Hopefully, there will still be tea.