Movement

 

All nations today officially signed the Open Borders and Mutual Assistance Treaty (OBMAT), developed and negotiated since Blue Planet Day as part of the Threat of Imminent Extinction Global Strategy. As WICO Secretary General Decatur said in a joint statement with the signatories, “This critical step in the strategy’s deployment ensures that people and material can freely move wherever is needed in order to maximize the chances of the most people surviving for as long as possible… People experiencing problems implementing the strategy and dealing with unexpected events are guaranteed help by anyone who can provide it, regardless of affiliation or identity. We are one world now, where boundaries to our joint survival are not our own.” 

Pushback from religious and cultural purity groups was swift and clear. “This is the new world order we always feared,” the Commanding Triumvirate of the International Alliance of Descendants announced at a rally in London. “Intermixing of the clean with the unclean is now assured, sacrificing the lives of the chosen so that a mongrel breed can take its place. We must follow the rules, but we will resist wherever possible.” A similar message was broadcast by the Clan of Light over all social media platforms, including a promising to “take celibacy to a whole new level so we can live and die with dignity.”

 Leadership of Possibilities from Responsibilities worried that groups like the Descendants and the Clan would attempt to coopt and corrupt its creative message in an effort to subvert WICO’s coordination mandate, which some had accused them of secretly wanting. As one of the organization’s spokespeople, I can honestly that I have seen no evidence of such intent within PFR, and don’t believe the concern is warranted. Our values are clearly consistent with the global strategy, and any other group likewise making their values clear would stand out as obviously different.

Reality Check

I expect a treaty like OBMAT to be necessary under highly variable environmental conditions like those expected for self-sustained impacts and interactive failures of ecosystems made vulnerable due to the mechanics and magnitude of species die-offs. Just as members of other species must move to survive, so will members of ours.

Sharing

 

Today Ronald Wingate vehemently denied that Evolution over Devolution (E.D.) or any of its affiliates had anything to do with yesterday’s emergency, including the pollution-eating microbes and drone dispersal technology.

Shortly afterward, the Denver office of the Extinction Response Unit announced that the escaped drone was a prototype undergoing verification testing by the military due to its access to the necessary test equipment. The problem has since been found and fixed, and an investigation revealed that there actually was no significant risk to the public. 

Sally, meanwhile, told Maura that the question of jurisdiction is now officially settled, and refused to elaborate further on the answer she gave me yesterday.

“That brings up the question of how people will know what’s natural and what’s not,” I said to Al and Maura during a long lunch together at a restaurant in downtown Boulder. It was the first time in two weeks that the three of us had been together. “I know WICO wants maximum feedback for their coordination role, but people need to have realistic expectations to just live their lives, and they’re not always going to have phones.”

“It’s a cluster that everyone’s responsible for,” Al said. “Your PFR folks are creatin’ stuff just like the war machine. WICO’s hopin’ that they can know it all, figger how it all fits together, and share the picture in a way that makes sense. Which of course they can’t.” He turned to Maura. “How did the campers take to the observin’ protocols?”

“They did okay,” she said. “The testers running Possibilities from Responsibilities have the protocols integrated into the curiosity part of the game…”

“The crazy questions Will wrote about?” he interrupted her.

She nodded. “Describing objects, conditions, and events, before and after actions where possible. Though they see the creation of understanding as the fun part, and prefer to internalize the rest.”

“You can’t let ‘em. There’s too many dependencies. Everyone sharin’ is what we need; it’s a great take you had on that empathy ruleset.”

“Tied in with responsibility,” I reminded him.

“It’s all tied in with responsibility,” he agreed. “Discovery’s great, but it’s no more than self-gratifyin’ consumption if you don’t communicate it to everyone whose lives might depend on it.”

Reality Check

Following up on yesterday’s post, this is more exposition of the core “rulesets” of responsibility, empathy, and curiosity. Interpretations are my own.

Friendly Support

TIME TO STRATEGY EXECUTION: 116 DAYS

I received a visit today from an old friend, who so far has been the only person willing to talk to me about what happened yesterday. Alan “Al” Menzies was a teenager on the first Blue Planet Day fifty years ago, and spent much of his adult life doing original environmental research along with working to build support for the kind of strategy that WICO outlined in its Global Emergency declaration. I credit Al with helping me get up to speed on all the issues and providing direct access to the Strategy Integration group, which now appears to be cut off.

“It’s need-to-know time, pal,” he said when I asked his opinion about what was really going on. “The less you know, the less you’ll get hurt when the fit hits the shan.”

“Someone’s protecting me? From what?” I could guess, but it would sound like a conspiracy theory coming from me.

He smiled knowingly and decided to play along. “The perps are still out there, and your buddies at WICO are gettin’ ready to bring the hammer down on them. You gave the friggin’ world cops the evidence to make it stick. The only reason you’re not rotting in a deep hole getting’ your finger nails yanked is that you don’t know any more than everyone knows, so for now you’re useless to the guys who’re getting’ ready to run or fight.”

“Thanks,” I said, choosing to take him literally.

“You made some friends in London. Believe me, I can read the tea leaves.” He slammed his fist on the couch. “What really pulls my pin is the time wasted dealin’ with ‘em. We’re in a CRISIS for sheep sake! Everyone needs to be in marathon mode, figgerin’ out how to take out and tear apart the decades of crud we’ve dumped on the innocents as well as ourselves.” His face flushed with anger. “Now these mofos are tryin’ to run out the clock, and we got another reality show to watch on our poisonous screens while tryin’ to decompress from workin’ overtime for the privilege.”

We sat for a minute while he cooled off, and I got an idea. “Why wait?”

“Unfortunately, it takes coordination,” he said calmly. “We’re part of a system, with cause-and-effect all over the globe. People doin’ their own thing is what made this mess.”

“Something Sally told me might be helpful,” I said, comfortable with referring to Sanda’s alter-ego around Al. I found a reference to it in my blog post on January 28. “We were talking about how the strategy might work in real-life, and she mentioned communication among groups of hunter-gatherers with common skills and knowledge, focused on a common set of activities that should include doing what you’ve always said we should do: making our artifacts and pollution safe and consumable like food in the wild.”

“I remember readin’ that. It was a little too simplistic for my taste. Reminded me of navigatin’ by memory and spoken stories, versus usin’ maps and compasses and such. It’ll do in a pinch, but we got a whole planet to fix and not much time to do it.”

“She was serious.” I was sure, even considering the impact of her/its default speaking style, which was early in the process of becoming close to my own. “I had the impression that it was at least what the end of the process would look like.”

Al looked at me skeptically. “Maybe, but there’s a lot of heavy lifting up front. Like breakin’ down materials and pollutants in a coupla decades that only tech can do, tech that needs complex control to keep from makin’ things a whole lot worse.”

“I don’t recall her ruling out technology, though she did make a strong case for using the Precautionary Principle when using it.”

“That’s a given across the board, from the cradle to the grave,” Al said.

“See? You’ve got it all figured out,” I said.

“Again, not something people don’t already know; and, again, we still need the coordination piece, assuming enough folks can stay motivated.”

“And we need to stop people from sabotaging both,” I added.

Reality Check

This is a purely fictional continuation of the story, though “Al” did provide a means to vent about my own irritations and concerns.