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Again.
Because it's a fun puzzle. It's like deciding what's most important in life, and how to carry the most of it with the least fuss.
Desert island discs don't make sense any more, you can fit a terabyte in your pocket easy, probably several, and carry a solar charger for your devices, so you've pretty much got all the media forever.
But deciding which books to take is still a compelling puzzle.
I have made no progress figuring out what's the better version of the GURPS Infinite Worlds suggestions for time travellers: "Don’t neglect guides to low-TL medicine and chemistry. The Way Things Work, A Barefoot Doctor’s Manual, and Henley’s Formulas can start you off."
( Read more... )
I know survivalists have a lot of pages of suggestions on stuff for surviving the end of the world. I know this because I was much more paranoid in the 90s. It's probably helpful and relevant if you can scrape the... survivalism off it, because there's a lot of weird ideology to go with the practical solutions. But there's also an epic underestimation of how much society does for you. ( Read more... )
Plans for what to carry to the new universe come in different sizes. Like, if you surprise step through the fog, you might be carrying just your handbag, or just the stuff you'd take to a convention or on holiday, or you might be driving. If you're moving across country you get the excuse to load the most stuff, but that's almost the least fun. And the difference between this version and the deliberate colony planning is that this is just stuff you could plausibly have on you, if the universe blipped.
( Read more... )
It's most fun for the character if they've packed well and wisely for the long term, but it's most drama if they just went for a quick walk in the sunshine and somehow ended up through the wardrobe.
There are some technologies very nearly here that'll make a big difference. Solar's a bit of a trick right now, and batteries will wear out with repeat charges, but they're both getting better rapidly. There's cars getting in the news with solar panels on them, though they're hybrid rather than all electric. Nudge the tech just a little and you can go exploring new worlds like a mars rover, put your solar panel wings out and keep rolling.
And water purification is improving in leaps and bounds.
But it's still very tricky to be a one person civilisation.
I keep looping back to the Pratchett & Baxter Long Earth books, because they poked this exact problem extensively, after putting in the twist about specific metals you can't bring.
Reading the Infinite Worlds books I kept wanting to make them go read that series, though chronologically they couldn't have.
I like a long string of empty earth because it's a way of testing survivalist fantasies without going all post apocalyptic on homeline.
Going to the kind of alternate that is an alternate history can get you all sorts. You might pack real careful for a low tech soc and then get very high tech civ that thinks you're a dancing monkey.
But usually the suggested alts are based so much on European history it's really ridiculously implausible. ( Read more... )
I need to read an entirely different set of history books. England was not that interesting for a really long time and I have a very small window on a whole lot of history.
Because it's a fun puzzle. It's like deciding what's most important in life, and how to carry the most of it with the least fuss.
Desert island discs don't make sense any more, you can fit a terabyte in your pocket easy, probably several, and carry a solar charger for your devices, so you've pretty much got all the media forever.
But deciding which books to take is still a compelling puzzle.
I have made no progress figuring out what's the better version of the GURPS Infinite Worlds suggestions for time travellers: "Don’t neglect guides to low-TL medicine and chemistry. The Way Things Work, A Barefoot Doctor’s Manual, and Henley’s Formulas can start you off."
( Read more... )
I know survivalists have a lot of pages of suggestions on stuff for surviving the end of the world. I know this because I was much more paranoid in the 90s. It's probably helpful and relevant if you can scrape the... survivalism off it, because there's a lot of weird ideology to go with the practical solutions. But there's also an epic underestimation of how much society does for you. ( Read more... )
Plans for what to carry to the new universe come in different sizes. Like, if you surprise step through the fog, you might be carrying just your handbag, or just the stuff you'd take to a convention or on holiday, or you might be driving. If you're moving across country you get the excuse to load the most stuff, but that's almost the least fun. And the difference between this version and the deliberate colony planning is that this is just stuff you could plausibly have on you, if the universe blipped.
( Read more... )
It's most fun for the character if they've packed well and wisely for the long term, but it's most drama if they just went for a quick walk in the sunshine and somehow ended up through the wardrobe.
There are some technologies very nearly here that'll make a big difference. Solar's a bit of a trick right now, and batteries will wear out with repeat charges, but they're both getting better rapidly. There's cars getting in the news with solar panels on them, though they're hybrid rather than all electric. Nudge the tech just a little and you can go exploring new worlds like a mars rover, put your solar panel wings out and keep rolling.
And water purification is improving in leaps and bounds.
But it's still very tricky to be a one person civilisation.
I keep looping back to the Pratchett & Baxter Long Earth books, because they poked this exact problem extensively, after putting in the twist about specific metals you can't bring.
Reading the Infinite Worlds books I kept wanting to make them go read that series, though chronologically they couldn't have.
I like a long string of empty earth because it's a way of testing survivalist fantasies without going all post apocalyptic on homeline.
Going to the kind of alternate that is an alternate history can get you all sorts. You might pack real careful for a low tech soc and then get very high tech civ that thinks you're a dancing monkey.
But usually the suggested alts are based so much on European history it's really ridiculously implausible. ( Read more... )
I need to read an entirely different set of history books. England was not that interesting for a really long time and I have a very small window on a whole lot of history.