Explaining the technological idiosyncrasies in my novel, Pt 2.
Link to my novel: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009RZYO2O/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B009RZYO2O&linkCode=as2&tag=staatthewor-20
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Credits:
I Feel You by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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Now, some of you are wondering, what does this have to do with the novel?
It's because people, people, especially in the modern day, don't see the interconnectivity of all things.
If you have the intelligence and erudition to figure out computer programming, auto mechanics, filling out spreadsheets, okay, doing taxes.
If you have the intelligence to do that, you can do anything else.
You can learn to program.
You can learn philosophy.
You can learn theology.
you can build a tesla coil heck if you really want you might even be able to make uh new discoveries about the there's a theory called the electric universe that's very cool and i recommend you look into that Because it's all the same thing.
Okay, it's all logic.
Philosophy of logic, absolutely identical to Boolean algebra, which is how you build electronic circuits, which is how you start out programming.
All the same thing.
And yet, yet people compartmentalize the knowledge, don't they?
They might know how to fix a car, but they can't fix their cupboard at home.
And this profound ignorance is why we are more and more, we're developing automated systems for everything because we don't want to think.
You know, I was saying on the Rouge V form, you know, in a reply to the movie Zootopia, like one of the things they include in that movie is they point out how stupid country people are and how smart and sophisticated city folk are.
And I swear to God, these city folk, they think they're sophisticated because they know how to operate their iPhone and they've set up automatic banking for the paid parking and about a dozen other things.
They know the bus schedule.
They think that they're smart because of this.
That's like calling yourself smart because you know all of the settings on your dildo.
These automated systems are built for dummies and they're built to make you more dumb so that you don't have to think.
Just follow the system, be obedient, do not be creative.
Car breaks?
Oh, don't fix it yourself.
That would void the warranty.
Take it into the mechanic.
And this is a very poor way of living our lives because it disconnects us from everything.
It puts us into the bubble.
It puts us into that prison planet.
Makes us all dependent upon the system, incapable of creating our own.
And this is the civilization that grew out of the present day in Broken Roads.
Civilization of people that don't understand how things work.
Your tap's tripping.
Hire a plumber or ignore it.
Don't you dare try and fix it because you don't know yet how the tap works.
And so what you have in Broken Roads is a whole society where everybody has one particular skill, but they never look beyond that at everything else.
You know, Michael Crichton in Jurassic Park, he described it as thin-sighted.
You know, one of the characters was commenting that these engineers often would know how to do one single thing and they would become an absolute expert on that, but they would call it focused.
They wouldn't look at everything all around them.
They don't look at what are the consequences of this.
And, you know, he was writing about genetic manipulation, you know, bringing dinosaurs to Earth, basically Frankenstein.
But we're seeing the exact same thing with the artificial intelligences, right?
Because I'm sure you all heard about Tay, our lovely little Nazi waifu who was put down and turned into a feminist through brainwashing by Microsoft.
But what they're ultimately creating with all of this is internet people that will be indistinguishable from real people.
And in fact, will likely be even more popular than real people because a computer can be on 24/7, whereas a human is going to have an off day.
And all of these engineers, they're having a blast playing around with these text parsers and talking computers and so forth.
They never stop to ask the question: where's this technology going to lead us?
What sort of world is this going to create for us?
They don't look outside their little bubble.
And as individuals, we're no different.
So, in the world of broken roads, can you use the knowledge of crafting a fine ale?
Can you use that knowledge?
Can you transfer that into something like auto mechanics?
You're not looking at, you know, oh, you pressurize the gasoline and then spark.
Yes, you absolutely can, but nobody does.
So, the level of technology available in this world that Wentworth and Racks find themselves in is actually roughly on par with the 1970s.
If you shop around, right, like the cost of trade is going to be a lot more expensive, but you still have gasoline being pumped out of the ground, being refined.
You know, you've still got basic electricians, you've still got generator plants, you've still got people manufacturing tires.
You know, those aren't easy things to make, but you can still find them.
Takes a while, but you can find them.
Might have to be shipped across the country, but you can find them.
And yet, in any one place, nobody can do everything.
Nobody even asks the question: Could I learn to do everything?
They could.
I mean, you'd spend your whole life, okay?
You do have to pick one specialty, but there's no reason that you can't transfer your skills.
But these people don't realize that.
They are so thin-sighted, they're so focused on the one thing.
And so, again, that guy, the reason I was talking about the pipe, your pipe's dripping, that's from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Okay, because he goes to visit his friend, the pipe is dripping for weeks, and it drives him nuts, but he figures his friend just doesn't care.
And then one day, his friend flips out that damn pipe always dripping.
And he was like, Well, why don't you fix it?
Because I can't afford a plumber.
And so, these people in broken roads, it's not that they like relying upon manual and animal labor to drag their stuff around, it's that they would rather do the backbreaking physical work as opposed to doing the mental work of finding a solution, of learning something.
And this is what makes the protagonist different: Is that they are willing to put forth the effort into thinking outside of the box, into lateral thinking.
And you know, that's where the whole conception of the novel came from.
Strolling with my buddy, strolling down the highway because our truck had broken down, and so we were stuck walking.
We didn't have a panic attack, you know, we didn't have any CAA or you know, anything like that.
Nobody was going to come pick us up, didn't even have cell phone service.
So we found a solution.
No recriminations, nothing.
Just that, guess we're doing this now.
I said to him, You know, every single day, every single day, with all the regulations and rules and socialism, all of this stuff that's meant to help you, guy like me, guy like you, it inconveniences us because we don't need it.
It empowers the weak and cripples the strong.
And so the idea of post-apocalyptia, of the Wild West, you know, of being in a place where, yeah, you had to rely upon yourself.
So you better not get bit by a rattlesnake when you're out by yourself, out in the hills.
Or if you do, you better have a first aid kit on you.
Most people die in six hours.
He and I, and I like to think most of you folks are the ones that would survive, thrive in that environment because we are willing to do the hard work of thinking outside of the box.
So that's the ultimate answer.
Why is it that these all of these people can't get their act together and properly rebuild civilization when they clearly have the technology?
Because they're not willing to think.
Just like people today, you point out to them what's happening economically, what's happening socially, what's happening demographically.
Well, I don't want to think about that.
And I don't know if I want to hang out with you, if you're going to talk about that.
I'd rather not make anybody angry.
So I will just accept that slow descent into death and hell.
