Jackson Allen's Blog, page 12

Writing Implosions: NaNoWriMo and Archive.Org

When it comes to this weeks’ news about NaNoWriMo and Archive.Org, I couldn’t help thinking ‘this is the writing version of building implosions.’ What am I talking about? How would a building implosion compare to NaNoWriMo and Archive.Org? First, let’s deep-dive on how NaNoWriMo and Archive.Org have impacted the business of writing in the past few years. Then we’ll talk about how building implosions work.

First, NaNoWriMo – the annual ‘write a novel in 30 days’ competition that encourages writers to ‘write more’ has been around for 25 years. Wool by Hugh Howey, Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, and Cinder by Marissa Meyer are NaNoWriMo novels along with almost 400 other titles. Some authors find the competition-style effort to be valuable and perhaps you’re one of them.

What’s the Problem?

I’m not a fan of NaNoWriMo for personal reasons – I should be writing all the time, I don’t need a competition to motivate me. If it helps you, great. I’ll even give you some suggestions. The problem is now NaNoWriMo is chasing the AI pony onto thin ice, saying GenAI to write is an issue of abelism, “benefitting those who might otherwise need to hire human writing assistants or have differing cognitive abilities.” 

Successful authors like Chuck Wendig trashed that opinion so hard that you could wrap his blog post in a Hefty bag. “”Generative AI empowers not the artist, not the writer, but the tech industry. It steals content to remake content, graverobbing existing material to staple together its Frankensteinian idea of art and story,” wrote Chuck Wendig, the author of Star Wars: Aftermath, in a post about NaNoWriMo on his personal blog.”

Then we have the Internet Archive – Archive.Org – a self-styled OpenSource library of the Internet since 1996. They’ve been locked in a much-discussed legal fight over their decision to become Open Library. I talked about this last year. Two days ago, a federal appeals court sided with publishers in the copyright fight over whether the Internet Archive can lend out digitized books. 

What does this all mean for the writing and storytelling industry? Simply this – we’re seeing some ‘writing implosions’ when it comes to NaNoWriMo and Archive.Org. These are storytelling structures that are collapsing into their own footprint, much like a 20-story building collapses through controlled demolition. Here’s how a ‘building implosion’ works:

How to Implode a Building (Or Institution)

First, the blasters map the building architecture and determine the structure’s weak points. Then they position explosives on those points, timing the detonation and employing different equipment to guarantee the building falls into itself. All of that is done so a building can ‘implode’ safely with a minimum of risk to surrounding people or structures. Building implosions work because you consciously rip out the support columns and damage the load-bearing walls through precise applications of force.

That’s what NaNoWriMo and Archive.Org have done to themselves. By choosing dumb hills to die on, by consciously poisioning the well of support they carefully built over a couple of decades, NaNoWriMo and Archive.Org are all but guaranteed to collapse into their own footprints. The ‘structural failure’ may happen fast, or slow, but they’ve damaged what makes their buildings stand and collapse is all but inevitable.

I’m sad about all this – it’s definitely a loss for those who spend countless hours and endless calories championing the cause of the writing industry. Nonetheless, when the sirens wail and you can hear them counting down from ten … it’s time to pick up your toys and get out from under the blast radius. I love watching building implosions, so here are some ‘greatest hits’ to take your mind off of the sad stuff:

I try to teach as well as inform – so even if you don’t care about NaNoWriMo and Archive.Org, at least you learned something cool about the business of writing and implosions. Its in your business to remain aware of what’s going write right in your industry as well as what’s going wrong. At the very least, it gives you a chance to run for it when the structure is coming down.

 

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Notes from Eugene – 09/05/2024 – Hot, Dry, and Stupid

Ninety-seven degrees today in Eugene – making us the Hot, Dry, and Stupid Capital of the World – for Thursday, at least. That means swimming down in Pioneer Park. The slithy toves of Eugene will only steal cars with functional air conditioning, and hammer-wielding desperadoes require sunscreen across their bald, larcenous heads as the scope garages for things to steal. I guess that’s a victory for those of us with no air conditioning, cars, or garages.

I myself have been lying low finishing the re-write of this novel. My celebratory dance in the upstairs apartment was cut short by the pounding from RoseMarie on the first floor. RoseMarie is a landlord and a neighbor moved out last week. She was in no mood for literary joy – she’s got to inspect for damages, return a deposit – all those standard landlord activities. When it comes to the arts, she’s a reluctant patron.

Speaking of which – when it comes to Eugene, it’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity. Last week, a lethal car accident on I-5 became that much worse when a rando drone operator prevented the medevac from landing safely. There’s a certain lyrical rhythm to Oregon’s terminal case of dopey narcissism and I’m not sure what the next notes will be. Certainly not something you want to speculate on when we’re smack in the middle of fire season.

I’m finishing the production on a new audio short story. More news to follow, look for smoke on the horizon and keep Moxie and Mason appeased. No rest for the wicked as you write the Next Great American Novel.

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Mike.Sierra.Echo – Space Elevator Contest

Taking a quick break from re-writing Mike.Sierra.Echo to tell you about the super-awesome ISEC academic contest to build a space elevator!  I’m not the only person who thinks a space elevator is the future of exploration, so does the ISEC!

Building a space elevator assumes we’ve solved a number of engineering challenges – even the cable itself would have to be made of some material we haven’t invented yet. But don’t lose hope – we can focus on some of the more achieveable areas of a space elevator and that’s the focus of this competition. Space Elevator Academic Challenges – 2025 is co-sponsored by International Space Elevator Consortium and National Space Society. Just think – you can bring Mike.Sierra.Echo to life as a school project!

I Like This – What Do I Do?

Here’s what’s involved. First off, it’s geared toward high school and University Students:

HIGH SCHOOL:
Development of a Settlement on the Space Elevator’s Earth Apex Anchor

The first challenge, for High School students, is to develop and design an “intermediate space settlement” on the Space Elevator’s Apex Anchor to house over 10,000 individuals. This will act as a “waystation” for missions to the Cosmos. You will need to consider what the design, missions, structure, organization, architecture, life support, etc., at such a waystation would be like. How big would it need to be? What would be the optimal size? How will it take advantage of the massive lift capabilities of the Space Elevator providing a Green Road to Space?

UNIVERSITY:
Development of a Space Settlement at the Earth-Moon L5 Point—Utilizing Earth’s Space Elevator

The second challenge, for University Students, focuses on a development and plan for the Space Elevator to support the construction and logistical requirements for a 10,000-to-140,000-person space settlement at the Earth-Moon L5 point utilizing Earth’s Apex Anchor. Could we build a community at the Earth-Moon L5 point? You will need to consider the size and scope of the project. What would the architecture, structure, life support, activities look like? How could construction and logistical support be facilitated using a space elevator(s)? What would be your logistics and transportation plan from Earth’s Apex Anchor? You will need to develop an operational concept to build and sustain an Earth-Moon L5 community. What would be the role of a space elevator(s) in building and supporting this effort? How will you take advantage of the massive lift capabilities of the Space Elevator providing a Green Road to Space.

That’s cool – What Else?

Here’s a video from last year’s winner – Henrique Etrusco Ribeiro Moreira:

This contest builds on the Space Elevator challenge of 2023-4 – could we actually solve all the engineering challenges of a space elevator, just like Mike’s dad in Mike.Sierra.Echo? You might be the one to crack the code. Check the web page for submission guidelines – I’m overwhelmed with excitement to see if we can actually make a space elevator real in my lifetime.

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Mike.Sierra.Echo – Scifi Novel at 45%

As you can see in the current draft progress window, we’re half-way done on the re-write of Mike.Sierra.Echo – my scifi novel. I know it’s hard not having new articles to read – I miss you, too. Please don’t think I’m overlooking you. Still keeping the fires burning on Mastodon and Fedia. Here are some interesting things happening on Mastodon this week:

Andy Warhol’s lost Amiga art found – Images he created when demonstrating an Amiga in 1985 surfaced in 2024I made a bunch of #VideoGameCharacterComplaints for #HashtagGamesSome notes from Richard Feynman on ‘Cargo Cult Science.’ Some great tips in here about life and living

In other news – Mason and Moxie are doing great. They really do treat each other like brother and sister. We get snuggles and cuddles pretty much every night. Meantime, Moxie’s taken to pouncing on a strip of old bath towel. I heartily recommend cheap/free cat toys wherever possible. Everything else is a waste of money – they’d rather play with the box the toy came in, to be honest.

Back to work – more updates soon.

<3
J

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Life Imitates Mesh: R5N and Mesh Routing on Hostile Networks

Quick sidebar while I re-write Mike.Sierra.Echo – life imitates Mesh once again with the introduction of R5N and Mesh Routing. to achieve a secure, decentralized network of data sharing that can use any protocol, and shares data without the need for an Internet. I knew somebody would be working on it, and Mesh is a story about kids who take ideas like R5N and go ‘next step’ on the entire Internet with world-changing results.

Anyway, before we get to that, here’s a brief explanation for what the whitepaper is talking about:

This article is about a technical system called R5N, which is a type of distributed hash table (DHT). Think of a DHT as a way to store and find data across a large, decentralized network of computers, kind of like how a library has a system to find books.

R5N is designed for secure and efficient data storage and retrieval in decentralized applications. It works by allowing computers (or “peers”) to connect with each other directly without needing a central server. This makes it great for things like peer-to-peer file sharing or other applications where you want to avoid relying on a single point of control.

Key features of R5N include:

Open Participation: Anyone can join and participate in the network without needing permission.Routing and Data Paths: R5N uses smart algorithms to find the best paths for data through the network, even in environments where direct connections are restricted.Security: It includes measures to ensure data integrity and security, preventing malicious actors from disrupting the network.

The document also covers the messages exchanged between peers, cryptographic methods used for security, and system and security models.

It’s important to note that this specification was developed outside of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a major organization for internet standards. While not officially endorsed by IETF, it provides guidelines for developers to implement R5N to ensure compatibility with other networks.

R5N is a set of rules and technologies designed to make decentralized data sharing safe, efficient, and accessible to everyone.

What’s It Means

In summary, R5N is a sophisticated, resilient and efficient way to store and retrieve data across a network of computers. No central servers, no central closets of network hardware where somebody can poke and pry. That can come in handy. Sooner or later, people will tire of a bloated and toxic and weird Internet. Mesh is the story of some kids who found a way to do that.

Super-cool tech ideas like these are things that I enjoy reading and learning about and sharing. I hope you find something cool to do with R5N and share it with me.

Write on!

 

 

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Mike.Sierra.Echo – Major Updates

Some of you have been asking for an update from me and here’s the answer: I’ve got major changes to make to Mike.Sierra.Echo. That means a total re-write on the novel – something I wasn’t planning on doing. Part of me is like ‘yay – I can see what’s wrong with my work and how to fix it.’ Another part of me is like ‘oh man, so many hours and days and months and years … wasted.’ You go through a full grief lifecycle when the project you thought was ‘done’ isn’t done and I’m no exception.

How did we get here? I got some incredibly useful beta reader feedback on Mike.Sierra.Echo. Some things are good, but others need to be improved. I needed to re-examine the entire structure of the novel and ask myself if it fits any kind of standard story structure. In all honesty, the answer is no and that’s a really hard thing to admit.

I don’t go into my novel projects intending to not succeed. My original inception with Mike.Sierra.Echo was a beautiful 3 o’clock-in-the-morning dream where I saw the space elevator rising from the Earth over Pink Floyd’s ‘On the Turning Away.’ From there was that wonderful divine spark of ‘this is an amazing story I can tell.’ You’ve been a fellow traveler on this crazy, superlative journey.

If I’m being honest – I feel like I’ve let you the reader down. Chasing this so hard, assuming I Had The Answers, It’ll Work – Just Trust Me was a viable response. Well, Jackson – you bet big on this one and now you’ve lost. Gambling ain’t fun – winning is fun – losing a bet is always painful. I’ve let myself down. I’ve disappointed everyone who believes in me. That’s really hard to say.

This experience forces me to acknowledge: dang. I missed key growth experiences that I’m still paying the price for as a middle-aged adult. What would life have been like if I wasn’t this broken? I could have been so much farther down the path of Mike.Sierra.Echo if I did these basic, fundamental changes at the beginning. My career could have been so much farther by now. Will I get *somewhere* before it’s too late? I really am my own worst enemy, sometimes.  Sucks. I’ve needed to sit with it for a minute.

Creating art means creating yourself. ‘Creativity is an illeism that allows you to put your emotions, your experience in the third person so you can step back and gain perspective you’d never get otherwise. Create your art, let your art create you.’ I still believe that, but Oh Lord – sometimes that process is more painful and uncomfortable than you can imagine. The only reason it works – the only reason I’m determined to keep going is because there is literally nowhere else to go.

Just as David Foster Wallace expresses a ‘terror beyond falling,’ there’s a terror beyond failure that I’ve always been running away from. Art, creativity, in all its painful forms – so much better than the alternative of toxic acceptance. You can’t do it, don’t bother, it’s okay, we understand. You understand I’m doing it tough, but do you know what happens if I stop trying? Do you understand the monstrous nightmares lurking in the darkness for the frustrated and despondent population of this boring dystopia?

For me – and others – creativity is the only answer. Finding and harnessing the divine spark instead of letting it die, or convincing others to let theirs die – that simply cannot be. I can’t accept it, I won’t accept it. That’s why I have to begin again.

Thank you for being a fellow traveler, thank you for your kind words of support, thank you for believing in me and helping me believe in myself. I have a lot of writing to do, but it’s important to say all of these things. My gratitude is immeasurable.

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Amazon’s Losing Billions on Alexa and It’s All Their Fault

If you have a WSJ account, you can read about how Amazon is losing billions on Alexa – then you can listen to me talk about how it’s all their fault. No one argues that an AI home assistant can add value to your life. But Alexa ain’t an assistant – it’s a glorified money hole – or at least that’s all Amazon sees it as, and that’s the problem. If you’re bored, you can watch commenters on YCombinator line up to dunk on the beleagured bellweather of AI commerce:

“The core issue is that Amazon envisioned Alexa as a product that would help it increase sales. Smart home features were always an afterthought. How convenient would it be if people could shout ‘Alexa order me Tide Pods’ from wherever they were in their home and the order got magically processed? That demo definitely got applause from a boardroom full of execs.
“If they want to salvage Alexa, they need to forget shopping and start doubling down on the smart home and assistant experience. The tech is still pretty much where it was in 2014. Alexa can set timers and tell me the weather, and…that’s basically it. Make it a value add in my life and I wouldn’t mind paying a subscription fee for it.”

I mean, yeah – but take a step back from there. Why is this technology *only* for commerce? Technology has a purpose beyond economic exploitation. So do human beings.

Why is this happening? That’s a deeper issue and not one you can get a ChatGPT-generated answer to. Culturally, we’re hostage to psychopath companies and the investors that love them. Nobody in a hedge fund somewhere is going “hey folks, we should add a ‘this makes people’s lives better’ quadrant to our analyst sheets?”

Being Better is Easier Than You Think

Maybe they are and we need time to see the pivot in market forces. I just want to take this moment to go on record that only seeing technology as a profit-making machine defeats the purposes of human progress. Let this be a lesson to the rest of you trying to be the next Amazon – it’s not working for them. They’re losing billions on Alexa and it’s all their fault. You aren’t bigger, faster, meaner, or better than Amazon. The only thing you can do – the only thing you must do – is focus on your customers as human beings, not just as cash registers.

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Our New Scifi Community – Fedia.Io

Hi folks – giving you an update on our new scifi community: Fedia.Io. This comes on the heels of three months of frustration as we waited to find out what was going on with Kbin.social. Join me for some notes/backstory:

Thirteen months ago – almost to the day – we received word that the Reddit Blackout would signal major discord in the overall community. They survived – to a point – but the seeds of destruction in Reddit continue to fester. Whether they ever heal, that’s anybody’s guess. I’m about scifi – the Reddit platform drama falls under ‘not my circus, not my monkeys.’

I’ve been building the Kbin.social/m/scifi community ever since, posting new content, engaging with people and championing it wherever possible. Imagine my frustration when Kbin pooped the bed, went offline, and seems unlikely to ever return:

What do? We find a new home. The scifi community needs a place to talk in common. Reddit is still circling the drain, so we can’t go back. Thankfully, the Fediverse is both deep and wide. Fedia.io seems like the next best option based on active users and I’m pleased to say – via the Fediverse – that most of the same content we posted on Kbin is over there. Huzzah!

So while Kbin’s failure is disappointing, we don’t have to despair. Science fiction as a community, as a genre? That’s what matters – not platforms.  We can find good things to do. All of us must embrace strength, not rigidity. Don’t fight to preserve ideologies, institutions, or platforms if they aren’t strong enough to help the people they serve. If an institution is strong enough to be defended, it’s strong enough to defend itself. Home is where your people are.

The Kbin is Dead – Long Live the Fedia!

Join us over at https://fedia.io/m/scifi@kbin.social

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Scifi Thought Leader: Bridging the World of Weird Nerds

Happy Monday – let’s talk about scifi and bridging the world of Weird Nerds. Science fiction can’t exist without ‘weird nerds,’ but weird nerds can’t exist without understanding how to co-exist with the world. How do we bridge between them? Who or what, you ask, is a ‘weird nerd?’ All good questions.

This recent article singing the praises of ‘weird nerds’ is a wonderful start, and I’d like to expand on this idea. I’m a weird nerd, too – I need to fit into the world and scifi is my Comment je m’intègre.

First and foremost – THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH WEIRD NERDS. Please don’t read this and think the term ‘weird nerd’ is pejorative. It’s not – it’s affectionate. I’m a weird nerd, and many of the best people in the world – people I love and respect – are weird nerds, too. The world needs weird nerds. The rest of this article is about how we can be scifi thought leaders by embracing weird nerds.

Why I’m Writing This

As a weird nerd, scifi is how I fit in, but never mind that. What’s important to me is ‘fitting into the world.’ I’m not an island, but many of my ‘bridges’ to everyone else have burned. Some infernos were self-inflicted, others the direct result of social arson. It wasn’t until this article that I clearly understood:

My challenge is more common than I think.I needed help to overcome it.I can’t overcome without becoming

Figuring out what I needed to become has been part of my journey. Yes, I need scifi but does scifi need me? Am I doing something in service to the world, or to myself? Wrestling with those answers has driven this blog and the stories I write. All my characters are trying to figure themselves out, too. Watching them struggle, learn, grow – that helps me and it helps my readers engaged in the common toil.

How do I navigate this correctly? How do I help others do the same? It comes down to a simple answer and I include it as the TL;DR – Don’t burn bridges.

Weird Nerds Need Love

If you think about human connection – it’s about building bridges between each other. That’s not just my view. Genuine connections are built on shared experiences, empathy, and understanding, elements that algorithms, for all their prowess, cannot fully replicate. The issue for ‘weird nerds’ is – our bridge-building technique is different from most people. Where some people like steel arch bridges, but our bridges resemble those living root bridges in India or other places. Our connections “show a very wide variety of structural typologies, with various aspects of particular bridges resembling characteristics of suspension bridges, cable-stayed bridges, arches, trusses, and simply-supported beams.”

I say all that to remind the reader – weird nerds value connection and meaningful relationships just as much as everyone else! We just have a different way of connecting. Imagine approaching a person in India who builds living root bridges with hostility – ‘that’s not a bridge!’ Congratulations, you just sunk the world. Go back home, Sunshine – you clearly don’t understand the world you’re living in. Conversely, imagine building the Golden Gate Bridge with rubber fig tree vines – think it’ll carry cars and people? Have fun with that.

When interacting with weird nerds, please remember that at the end of the day – we all want the same thing. Weird nerds just go about it in a different way, and their different way enables them to do far more than you could imagine accomplishing on your own. As noted in the main article, Katalin Karikó is a ‘weird nerd,’ and look at what being a weird nerd enabled her to do:

Karikó’s work laid the foundation for BioNTech and Moderna to create therapeutic mRNAs that do not induce an immune response. In 2020, Karikó and Weissman’s technology was used in vaccines for COVID-19 produced by BioNTech and its partner Pfizer and by Moderna.

Millions of human lives have been saved by Karikó’s work. We are indebted to her, and other weird nerds like Jonas Salk, who could have become a *trillionaire* for his discoveries surrounding the polio vaccine. Instead, he gave his word away for free – the world is a better place for it.

With me so far? Weird nerds need love. NOW – let’s talk about what weird nerds need to do:

Weird Nerds Need to Love

Using my bridge metaphor – weird nerds need to remember to ‘build bridges’ with others, too. When our counterparts engage with us, they’re solving a problem and they see our value in helping to solve it. Imagine being at the foot of Manhattan looking toward Brooklyn and kicking away the first strands of iron cable because ‘we really think the Brooklyn Bridge should be built with copper, instead.’

Instead, we can ‘hack’ the conversation by using love. ‘I get that you’re trying to build a bridge and you see that your standard bridge types won’t get you there. Let me show you a new way to build bridges. I know the idea of a living root bridge sounds weird, but let me show you how it works.’

Does this make sense? We can use this strategy to connect with each other in *so many ways.* On the subject of Star Wars being scifi or fantasy – we can build a connection by saying ‘whether it’s scifi or fantasy, we can all agree that Jar Jar sucks!’

Do what you want with this information – it’s not going to cover every use case. But please remember that at the end of the day – weird nerds rise in the world by showing love.

Major Points to RememberThe Juice Must be Worth the Squeeze – Weird nerds like Karikó succeed because the juice is worth the squeeze. Yes, she’s a weird nerd, but she’s saving millions of lives. Does your ‘weird nerd’-ness provide similar levels of value. Is it worth putting up with you because you have something meaningful to share? Don’t forget – House was tolerated because he could do a Sherlock Holmes on medical conditions and arrive at correct conclusions faster than anyone else. If you’re going to treat everyone like House, you better have something to offer – the juice must be worth the squeeze.Conversations Over Conflagrations – When you’re approaching a ‘bridge building’ moment, remember that steel beam bridges contain lots of hard surfaces and sharp corners. Similarly, some conversations will be painful and uncomfortable – but it’s still important to have them. Don’t burn the bridge, don’t end the relationship over a conversation. ‘I get that you’re trying to solve a problem and I want to help you solve it. There are some points here that I can’t say yes to, but let me think about it and see if we can find a better approach.’

I hope you can take this ‘bridging’ and ‘weird nerd’ discussion and find some value in it. Always remember: the world needs weird nerds and weird nerds need to feel connected, too. Remember that we’re all trying to build bridges, not burn them, and at the end of the day – weird nerds rise in the world by showing love.

Hope this is helpful – thanks for listening – I’m going to continue building bridges and learning how to build them better. I hope you can do the same.

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No Time Travel – People Are Jerks

There are innovations like time travel that we’ll never enjoy for one simple reason: People are jerks. This is the thought that occurred to me during a hot sleepless night in Eugene. Just as we can’t get our act together for cool things like free mass transit or health care. Innovation is based on a variety of factors, and right now the only factor that seems to count is sociopathic capitalism. That’s sad.

So rather than take arms against the current sea of troubles, let’s practice ‘radical acceptance.‘ No more arguing or fighting – Okay fine, we won’t get the cool future we were hoping for. Let’s see what happens.

As a practicing author with a major in scifi and a minor in futurology, let me share some insights and predictions. We won’t get to one common form of innovation people have dreamed of for centuries: Time Travel. There will be no time travel because people are jerks. Let’s take a deep dive into this topic:

The Cool Idea

I’ve loved the idea of time travel since I watched Back to the Future. Go back, change your history, change your life? Sign me up! Latter time travel movies explored more modern concepts of multiverse navigation (Loki, Interstellar, Tenet, Primer, Timeline) and I was all over it. But then, something hit me that destroyed any confidence in time travel if we ever cracked the code:

Why We Won’t Get It

Every human discovery eventually turns into a weapon. Multiverse transit – in any form – will always be weaponized. I knew that long before I saw it on screen in Tenet and it’s been discussed in short stories like Aristotle and the Gun. Even the best-intentioned human scientist would eventually be overpowered by the most craven sociopathic trillionaire (looking at you, Musk).

The only nation-state capable of protecting the technology would likely be one of its worst users. No amount of high-minded governance could sufficiently predict or prevent the paradoxical problems of physics inherent in multiverse transit. People are jerks – we can’t have time travel because there’s no possibility of us not misusing it.

In fact – here’s a really funny video illustrating what happens when you mix jerks and time travel. Take a look:



Here’s How We Could Fix It

I could talk about how to fix the problem of time travel governance but it’s fairer to say that – we may not have this technology because we exist in a universe where time travel technical innovation *can’t* be achieved.

Think about it, if multiverse transit technology can be achieved, if it will always be weaponized, if the weaponization leads to negative consequences – where does that leave us? Doesn’t that force the multiverse to undo its own damage, constantly pruning out the timelines where humans did discover time travel and then subsequently destroying themselves and the knowledge in the process?

Maybe multiverse transit technology is a self-solving problem. We may not be able to get there because every time we do, we end up right back where we started. Huh.

It’s Up to Us

Perhaps there’s a timeline where human emotional progress advances sufficiently for us to use this technology. Maybe we’re all waiting for that moment, far in the future, where we cold be trusted with the keys to the universe. Until then, I guess we’ll have to wait patiently for the moment when time travel can be truly jerk-free.

 

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