Margaret Atwood
David Mitchell
Elif Shafak
Han Kang
Karl Ove Knausgaard
Ocean Vuong
Each of these authors has taken a walk through Nordmarka Forest in Norway to place a their manuscript in a special room in the Deichman Library. Ninety four more will follow. The authors are specially chosen for their imagination and the stories are to based on the themes of imagination and time. No one other than the authors will see their words until 2114. In that year someone who doesn't exist now will take each of the 100 manuscripts from their containers and prepare them for printing on paper made from 1,000 one hundred year old Norwegian spruces that were planted just before the Margret Atwood took the first walk through the forest.
The Future Library project was created to stir the imagination and give hope. A century is a good time period - just outside an average human lifespan, but not so long as to be unimaginable. What will be around? Will people care?
Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors - Jonas Salk
We live with a number of legacies - a written language, medicine, science, religion, weapons, slavery, pollution. ... some good and some bad. Mostly we live in the present and don't think much about the leverage we have in creating future legacies. Some legacies happen by default. Humans are one of the few species with a sense of the future. Projects like the Future Library spark wonder and perhaps give us hope that maybe we can make a difference. Perhaps a trick is to think about time scales and what we might accomplish.
You can do something for yourself on a smaller scale. Here's one of mine: My thesis advisor gave me his favorite slide rule when I received my Ph.D. It had been given to him by his advisor when he received his. It became my favorite. I used it regularly and wondered about the legacy of calculations that were used to build conjectures and hypothesis through their careers. Every now and again I wondered what I'd do with it. About twenty years ago a very unusual Summer student came along. Art and computer science, she ended up at an animation company. In slide rule had been used for a certain type of story telling.. small corners of the fundamentals of Nature. I gave it to her some time ago so I could enjoy the link between the past and the future. One type of story telling changing into another. She says it's very special to her and gets use for calculations used in making films that tell stories. Wondering who she gives it to and what path and stories it might inspire gives me pleasure and hope.
In my work I have to think of a variety of time scales. Some events at the subatomic level take place in a under a billionth of a billionth of a second. At the scale of the Universe some things have been around for billions of years and will be around much much longer. These times so foreign as to be abstract. A few weeks ago one of you sent a note from the Grand Canyon that was filled with wonder inspired by that slow geological process that created it. Wonderful experiences to stir the imagination. We should seek out these experiences, but I find staying in human time scales and thinking about and building legacies lets me live in a slightly better future and gives me hope. Set your mind some distance in the future and think of something good you'd like to see there or something bad you'd like to change. With a target maybe you can imagine a path and help work towards it. It gives us a way to not discount future people and their world.
Scribbler Moon? That's the title of Margaret Atwood's book you won't read, but maybe your great great grandkid will..
aerosol transmission
postscript
Several readers asked for CO2 meter recommendations. I can make a few recommendations, but have only used a few. Stay away from sub $100 units is the only rule of thumb I can offer. Schools should have them in each room as well as stores, offices and so on. You probably don't need one in your home unless you’re curious or want to see how well your windows and HVAC system are working (that can be a big issue).
The seminar talks about airplanes. Air exchanges per hour are very high when the ventilation system is on so airborne infection risk is low inside the cabin. The rest of the trip is questionable - very high levels were found in jetways for example. New York subway trains have good air exchange rates, but I haven’t seen any work on the platforms. Buses vary and I’d be suspicious when the heaters are on in the Winter. I’ve measured a variety of cars. With windows up and two occupants CO2 levels were over 3500 ppm in twenty minutes. That’s extremely dangerous if one of the occupants is contagious. Opening windows helps, but cars vary. The effect isn’t big on very streamlined cars like Teslas. On aerodynamically dirtier cars opening rear windows canincrease air exchange more than front windows as the outside air pressure on a moving car increases towards the rear of the vehicle. You should also turn on air circulation. With just circulation I got readings around 900 ppm and the best readings with windows were in the 700s. I’d stay away from any car if someone outside of your bubble is in it.
An interesting note is some measurements have been done on cognitive ability and alertness. Over 1500 ppm and people become less alert. That can have an impact on the quality of work as well as high attention activities like driving. The few studies that have looked at cognitive ability show declines with increasing CO2 levels. One study saw the decline start around 800 ppm and another around 1500 ppm. Neither study was gold standard robust, but I suspect the effect is real - certainly alertness is real. Many school rooms, offices and homes are normally over those levels so your may want to make changes even after the pandemic.
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