Sanctuary part 2

So, the plan is to develop a space that might serve as a refuse, a respite, a safe haven for the long now, say a thousand years.

My motivations include many of the motivations of the folks at thelongnow.org
But there is more; other dimensions.
They are mostly concerned with advocacy and education - in what for me is an entertaining fashion.
Me, I fancy I go beyond that. I would have a place that operates as a sanctuary in times of trouble. Or times when the infrastructure that we now take for granted is no longer available. Infrastructure like the electrical grid that supplies virtually unlimited power (for an individual or family) at insignificant cost, almost anywhere, 24x7xanytime. Or the road/car infrastructure including the gas that powers the whole shebang.

I thought if those things go for the big crapola, and are no longer available, how is one to stay alive. How will you stay warm? What will you eat and drink?
These are the difficult questions, that the Rosseau Project is intended to address. And by the plan, to realize a solution for. A place where you can stay warm, and you can eat and drink, independent of the complex machinery of today's society in full operation.

It matters not much what catalyst might bring about the troubles where the infrastructure things we rely on at all times go bust. It only matters that one recognizes the meaningful probability, as best as it may be estimated, of some form of collapse. Once you are there, then it is only natural I say, that you would want to provide some form of insurance policy, some sort  of safety outlet, where you and yours - through a few generations, might continue.

I occasionally recognize this last angle as a variation on a fairly familiar theme espoused by some crackpots called "survivalists". They tend to have a rather short view of the long term. So that's one distinction anyway. (As Hein says: A cow is not a horse. A horse is not a cow. That's one similarity anyhow.)

Project sanctuary

Don't read too much into the title; consider it provisional.

I wish to write about a project I have started and hope to build on significantly in this last decade or so of my productive life; fates and God willin'.

The centerpiece of the project is to be a structure for living purposes. Chief amongst its design objectives is to serve a small but changing group, directly, for a 1,000 years. And indirectly a much larger number of folk.

A 12 hectacre +/- plot, on which I hold the fee (ancient English /French? legal term meaning as full ownership as a body can get in a plot of land) is where I have started. It's about 12 km east of Rosseau, in the Township of Muskoka Lakes. How's that for a petty township name.

I am inspired in this effort by a project headed originally by Danny Hillis, renowned computer scientist and all round genius. He is building a 10,000 year clock, with more seriousness than I'll bet you imagine.
Check it out at thelongnow.org

Who cares if he succeeds. The project may be seen as an exercise with many dimensions, most of them eminently meritorious, and most of them providing value even at these early stages.

The big message I suppose is that it is right and good to keep the long term in mind, and that it should contribute to how one lives one's life.

That's a start for tonight. Got further than I thought I would. Back at'er soon I trust.


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