Writings in Science: A History of the Future

By Tom Hendricks

Writings in Science, a History of the Future, is a sci-fi novel in stories, essays, poems, and plays. It may not be the thickest Sci-fi book written, but it may be the biggest in scope.
The premise is this: millions of years from now the Earth is dying from the massive changes in our star, the Sun. In the rush to flee the planet, one man named I, collects his favorite writings in science to preserve Earth's legacy before it is destroyed. He has assembled a history of the future from now to then.
The book is written in two parts. The first is called "I", and covers the future history of Earth before our first contact with aliens. The second part is called "We" and covers the history of the Earth after first contact.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Sep 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781483582108

Book preview

I.

PROLOGUE.

Black sky flashing with fire! Wind like a howling wall, noisy and full, pushing the line harder for those of us left to board!

We are not the first, close to the last that can leave. Each of us gathering what we can to flee, putting our arms around what we can hold; trying to remember and grasp in our hands these last moments of our home, our birth place, our world. All we own tied up with hope to help us start somewhere else.

I board and quickly scribble this down.

Imagine reader

a time in the future,

close to the end

of a dying sun,

when we are now

preparing to leave

this our home

for other worlds.

I put it in my pocket, and then look out at what there is left to see. Signed I.

Bottle One: SCRAPS.

INTRODUCTION TO THE BOTTLES. The First Label.

Here begins the entries of my saved and precious Writings in Science. Dates are hopeless this far back in time. These first three scraps, the oldest I have found, seem to be a fog and not from Earth, from a foreign planet and not our heritage. The first full bottles are no better, as if consciousness then, was a half opened box.

These fragments are as written. Judge for yourself what they mean. Signed I.

ROBOT SERVANT PROBLEM. A Dialogue.

Loki: I mapped it out on the kitchen table last night. We were trying too hard, that's why we were stymied.

Nemo: What do you mean?

Loki: We were thinking in terms of an individual being in the machine, as if it needed to do all things for all people, instead of just specific tasks for a specific master. We were mapping out a cat not a dog. That's the clue. Rethink it as an adjunct to the human, a glove to a hand.

Nemo: Explain.

Loki: Don't think of the human and robot servant as separate. Think of them as programmer and program. But in this case the programmer is not the human that owns the robot, it's the human that made the robot. It is he that preprogrammed the robot to fill in the data later and build on that data.

Nemo: Go on.

Loki: The robot doesn't need to think at all. It first needs to gather info, process info, and react to that info in a pre programmed way.

Nemo: And then?

Loki: We program the robot to monitor the human; his pulse, heart rate, breathing rate, brain waves, eye blinks, blood pressure, etc. Simple stuff. Humans are not that complicated or sophisticated. Their actions are decipherable. It's easy to tell if they are happy / not happy, angry / not angry, active / not active. We program the robot to monitor the physical changes and respond to each in a specific pre set way.

Nemo: For instance?

Loki: The human becomes active. The robot senses this and responds, Ready to do something? or Going somewhere, or What's up? Or the human becomes inactive. The robot notices this change and responds with; Let's rest, or Time for some mental activity. Or the robot will monitor the signs; hunger signs, sleepy signs, time of day, or in extreme cases, signs of excess anger or fear. In each case he responds as programmed. That's the basics. Then we take it further.

Nemo: What do you mean?

Loki: After the robot responds, it monitors the human a second time. This time it monitors the response of the human to the robots initial reaction, a feedback loop begins. If the robot response leads to positive reactions in the human, it reinforces that reaction in the robot. If the human reaction leads to a negative reaction, it reinforces in the robot not to repeat that action. Now it's just simple math. The robot response that leads to a positive response in the owner are repeated or learned. Those that are negative are not. They are deleted or unlearned.

Nemo: So the robot's job is threefold; monitor the human's physical reactions, try out preprogrammed responses to those physical reactions, and reinforce those that get positive results while ending those that get negative results, altogether a simple feedback loop.

Loki: Yes! All of this we can do now: monitor human physical behavior, preprogram certain basic responses in the robots we make, and build in a feedback loop to reform that robot response through trial and error, a sort of mechanical selection.

Nemo: We end up with a robot servant with a personality; one that is unconsciously set up by the owner to best cater to his or her specific needs. The robot becomes a glove to the hand.

Loki: A comfortable glove!

LEMY LIME.

(Two research scientists waited in the outer office of an executive of the Lemy Lime Company. Instead of white lab coats, they were wearing blue suits and brown ties. One held a manila envelope on his lap. They turned to the receptionist when she called them forward. They were nervous, fidgety.)

Receptionist: Mr. Cadwalleter will see you now. (They entered Mr Cadwalleter's office. A tall stout man with a ruddy round face and carefully combed back hair, rose up from his desk, reached across, and greeted them, with a hard handshake.)

Cadwalleter: Bill Cadwalleter.

Todd: Mr. Cadwalleter, I'm Todd Anderson and this is my associate Doug Feinstein.

Cadwalleter: Todd, Doug, glad to meet you. Sit down. (The two took chairs and waited.) So boys what have you got for me?

Todd: Mr. Cadwalleter as you know we are from the Quick Chem Testing Laboratory and we uh brought the results for the experiment that Lemy Lime authorized us to do.

Cadwalleter: OK… May I see it? (Todd gingerly handed over the report.)

Doug: Were you told about the experiment?

Cadwalleter: I was briefed, (He centered the report on his desk and flipped through the first couple of pages. The room was silent except for the clicking of the crisp stiff papers: surveys, charts, and graphs.) Now in English, what does all this mean?

Todd: Doug do you want to answer that?

Doug: Well sir, we as requested did an experiment to determine if Lemy Lime Drink, with its 12% real lime juice, could help in preventing colds.

Todd: Yes, uh, we had 3 groups of people, or subjects as we say. The first group had the Lemy Lime Drink regularly…

Doug: Twice a day.

Todd: The second group had sugar water with a green dye in it, and the third group wasn't given any thing at all.

Doug: We also made sure, and this is of the utmost importance to the accuracy of the experiment, that none of the people in any of the groups knew what they were drinking. We simply said that we were doing an experiment about colds, having colds, and so forth. Then after 3 months we collected our data and ran it through our computer. The results are as you can see.

Mr. Cadwalleter: (Switched his head back to Todd.) Well, Todd, let's cut to what's vital to Lemy Lime. How did we do?

Todd: The results were surprising. 63% of those who drank the Lemy Lime Drink had fewer or no colds…

Cadwalleter: 63%! (Mr. Cadwalleter exclaimed, annunciating each syllable.)

Todd: Yes sir!

Cadwalleter: Well that's what I like to hear. (Cadwalleter leaned back in his brass-studded chair.) I know I speak on behalf of all the company when I say I appreciate the work of Quick Chem, and you can be sure that we'll use you in the future. Now for your payment. (He reached in his desk for a signed voucher.) Take this to our accounting department. Mrs. Sugarman at the front desk will give you directions and they'll take care of the money. It was $6,500 on balance, correct? (Mr. Cadwalleter handed the slip to Todd, and stood up.)

Todd: Yes sir…

Cadwalleter: Is there something I've forgot?"

Todd: No sir, it's just that we uh…

Doug: Well what Mr. Anderson is trying to say is that there were other results that were surprising too.

Cadwalleter: Like what? (Cadwalleter said somewhat menacingly.)

Todd: Well it's true that 63% of the Lemy Lime drinkers got fewer or no colds, but it's also true that 59% of those who drank the green sugar water got fewer or no colds.

Cadwalleter: What? You mean those people just drank green water and it cured their colds?

Doug: Fevers too!

Cadwalleter: (He switched his attention back to Todd and sat back down.) Mr. Anderson, are you sure about this?

Todd: Yes sir, we checked, checked, and double, double checked.

Cadwalleter: 59%, 59%, 59%" (Muttered Mr. Cadwalleter.)

Doug: 59.3% (Whispered Doug.)

Cadwalleter: Well, (Cadwalleter mused,) 59%, that's less, right?

Doug: Yes sir but you see it's not much.

Todd: No sir it's not. And we have an error factor of 4%.

Cadwalleter: Now, now, let us worry about that. You think we're going to lie to people in our ads?

Todd and Doug: No sir. (Both said crisply.)

Cadwalleter: We'll tell the truth. And the truth is 63% had fewer or no colds, the majority had fewer colds. You said so, and that's the truth isn't it? Isn't that the truth Mr. Feinstein?

Doug: Yes sir but it's only part of the truth.

Cadwalleter: But boys, that's not very favorable for our product. And what we both want is to sell a lot of Lemy Lime.

Todd: Well as a new testing agency we feel we must be perceived as being as scientifically accurate as possible. And if you mentioned our testing company in your ads that could, of course, compromise our integrity…

Cadwalleter: This is blackmail! (Cadwalleter blurted.) This is an outrage! (Down went both fists onto the top of the desk.) You want us to pay you thousands of dollars and then you tell us we can't use the results? (Todd and Doug both cowed somewhat.)

Todd and Doug: No sir. No sir. Not at all. It's just that if the ad should say only that 63%…

Cadwalleter: Now you want to write our copy for us! Gentlemen, your part is done. We'll take it from here. Good day! (Todd and Doug looked at each other.) Good Day!!! (Cadwalleter got up and waited till Todd and Doug left the room.)

(Two days later in the conference room, Cadwalleter was breaking the news somewhat sheepishly to Mr. Martin, the CEO of Lemy Lime.)

Cadwalleter: Mr. Martin, they acted, as if they were lawyers or something.

Mr. Martin: Well that's a laugh! 59% better with green water. We're in the wrong business, Bill. We should be selling snake oil.

Cadwalleter: Sir I was thinking we could salvage the operation if we …

Mr. Martin: Salvage it? Scrap it! Throw it out! We came up to bat and we struck out. If we went ahead with this and the truth came out during the ad campaign, we'd be the laughing stock of the industry. Scrap it! So, Bill, how's that boy of yours? Growing like a wild weed, huh? (Mr. Martin slapped Bill on the back.)

Cadwalleter: Yes sir, (as he closed the cover on the report.)

MARGARET'S STORY.

When my two brothers, my father, and I sat down for our big Sunday dinner, my father was still lecturing my older brother. I lifted my younger brother Mike onto his booster chair and pushed him up to the table. Mom brought in some hot dishes and went back into the kitchen.

One plate that was already on the table was a bowl of appetizers: celery, carrots, and other raw vegetables. I took a stalk of celery for myself, and handed another to the baby. My older brother took a carrot. We started munching as Dad continued.

The Chinese have myths and ideas that are totally different from ours. For instance, instead of seeing a man in the Moon, they see a rabbit…

Where's the rab'… Where's the Moon? I forgot, interrupted little Mike.

My older brother, annoyed, said, Look out there, through the window, the white ball in the sky. See it?

They all looked towards the Moon, my brother pointing at it with his carrot and trying to make little Mike understand.

I began to giggle. They all looked at me!

Bottle Two: A NEW PAST EMERGES. Eight History Essays.

The future holds discoveries of our past.

Mortar between bricks.

GAPS IN FIRST HISTORY.

1.  Bone Detector. This is a device that has the ability to detect any bones in the ground. This leads to a vast number of archaeological findings. Later an improved version can detect whether bones are hominid or not. Further refinements give an accurate range of dates to the findings. Best fields of discovery turn out to be the Arabian Desert and the eastern plateau areas of southern Africa.

2.  Human Bottleneck. Two human bottlenecks are recognized for their importance. The first was 50,000 years ago when humans left Africa. The other is eight thousand years ago when human selection pressure began to switch from fitness of males, to wealth and resources of males. Both leading to assorted problems.

3.  Migratory Routes. Two major hominid migratory routes out of Africa, are mapped out in details, the first is east along the coast through Asia to Australia and beyond, and the second is north and north west through Europe. Both routes include more than one species with isolated extinct populations found in both Asia and in Europe.

4.  Nullarbor Caves. The Nullarbor Limestone Caves in southern Australia are found to hold some of the earliest and best preserved art by humans. The caves are discovered, mapped, protected, and turned into human's first museums. This prehistoric era of art tells much about the state of civilization at the time. Telltale signs are found in their techniques of carving, engraving, sewing, cooking, and painting. Another clue is the subject matter of the art. And like the later European cave art, these paintings are signed by the artist painting an outline of his hand with his fingers outstretched..

5.  Sea Beds. The sea beds under the ancient Bering Straits land bridge hold thousands of saltwater soaked artifacts from ancient human migrations. There are also found underneath them, a vast amount of earlier dinosaur fossils. Many of these findings came as the Bering Straits' Road and bridge was being built connecting Europe, Asia, and North America, in the first transcontinental highway.

6.  Stonehenge. Stonehenge is found to be, not an isolated wonder, but the culmination of thousands of years of stone circle monument building in the British Isles and continental Europe. Many new discoveries are being unearthed under and around these holy places. The main sites of interest so far are: Stonehenge, the Durrington Walls, and Avebury in the British Isles; and Carnac, and Goseck on the continent.

7.  Atlantis. Atlantis is found to be the Minoan civilization at Crete as predicted by K. T. Frost. Its destruction was caused by the eruption of the volcano Thera.

8.  Plato's Cave. Plato's Cave with dancing shadows is unearthed near Athens. It contains the Great North Wall that flickers with shadows as the Sun passes across the sky during certain portions of the year.

9.  Roxanne. The tomb of Roxanne, the wife of Alexander the Great is found and explored. Among her things is found her personal collection of poems by Sappho. Though few are new, many fill in the gaps of the partial poems we already had.

Although they are

only breath,

the words I command

are immortal.

10.  Library of Alexandria. In the desert sands of Egypt a hidden vault is found that once was part of the Library of Alexandria. The small room is a shrine built and dedicated to the nine Muses: Clio, Thalia, Erato, Euterpe, Polyhumnia, Calliope, Terpsichore, Urania, and Melpomene. Within are nine alcoves, each with the writings connected to that Muse. Though most works are known versions of Greek classics handed down through the centuries, there are some surprises. They include certain Greek plays that are new to the world. They lend information on the Greek golden age of drama and comedy, though most do not match the quality of those classic plays that were saved.

11.  Shih Hung Ti. The complex built by Shih Hung Ti, China's first emperor, reads like a fantastic fairy tale of unbridled excess. His buried warriors in pottery are there to guard the bigger treasure found under them.

12.  Khmer Temples. More than one hundred Hindu Temples are unearthed in the jungles that engulfed the great Khmer Empire. The mix of vast tree roots and stone buildings lead to a new type of building design called the Mix School of Architecture. It is an architectural hybrid of manmade and nature made structures.

Around the 12th century was heard

the sound of stonecutters around the world.

At Chichen Itza, or Angkor Wat,

or the cathedrals of Western Europe.

Men hallowed ground by raising temples,

working with sunlight and burning candles.

13.  Incan Walls. The Incan method of building dry stone walls without mortar, is finally unearthed, leading to a resurgence of that type of building method; first in Cuzco and Peru, then in other city states around the world.

14.  Shakespeare Play. A copy of Shakespeare's play, As You LIke It, is found written in the author's hand with his signature. Also on the back of one of the pages is an early draft of sonnet #27. Though his signature is scribbled quickly it seems to show this spelling, W. Shakspere. Lo! Thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind.

15.  Boullee Building. Boullee's Cenotaph for Newton is built as he envisioned it.

The Twenties were the weird decade

where everything turned to smoke.

Art, science, lit, and more,

seemed incomprehensible.

16.  Beginning of the World Government. The beginnings of the first world government evolved around the drive to protect the major heritage sites across the globe. The first world budget was to protect and promote cultural sites, parks, and museums.

17.  Rebuild. The Xacto Architectural Group, the largest guild of architects, call for the world to rebuild its ancient ruins, and restore them to their former glory. In their communique they say; Ask yourself this, if you were a worker and you spent your entire life working on a single building, would you want it to lay in ruins for most of eternity?

They then went on to site as their model, the Japanese tradition of maintaining important structures built out of wood.

The first ruins to be restored to their initial glory are the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: the Great Pyramid at Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum at Halicarmassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse at Alexandria. The world celebrated these rebuilts in massive parties staged at each sight. Next came Stonehenge, Atlantis, The Acropolis, The Roman Colosseum, the Great Wall of China, the Khmer Temples, Machu Picchu, and more.

GARGOYLES.

All the Gargoyles

of the Cathedral

met in the attic.

The Chimera spoke.

Some among you

are not doing your duty,

are not scary enough

to ward off evil,

and are crumbling

under the pressure.

We work as one

or we all tumble

back to the dust

that is our bones.

Waiting for humans

to rectify errors

is a fool's errand

we cannot afford.

We singly and jointly

must work together

so as to build

strength in numbers.

You Grotesques,

our savviest members,

help the young

learn their trade,

learn how to scare

without crumbling.

Take them in hand,

or claw, or wing.

Save each sculpture

before it's too late.

Save every monster.

Do we all agree?

Yes! Yes!

They sang as a choir.

Yes! Yes!

Echoed from the rafters.

Yes! Yes!

With a little help

we will keep

the dark at bay!

PENTALIUM AND BEYOND. Setting Up the First World History.

The 5,000 year old bell

still holds tones,

rusted, cracked, and

ready to ring.

I praise whatever immortal power

transposed man's life from its primal chaos

and brutish state to an ordered condition

endowed with understanding and articulate speech.

- New version of Theseus' speech from The Suppliant Women by Euripides.

Racing from barbarism

straight through to decadence

without a pause

for civilization!

- Poem version of an Oscar Wilde's epigram.

When humans became civilized, settled down, raised crops and animals, built permanent structures, and started language and writing to pass on their accomplishments, history was born.

We the descendants of that history must in turn, play our part, and preserve the past for not only us, but our descendants. Then build on that past with our future history.

But first the tricky stuff, history as record, not as fact. History is more shifting than the wind. An accurate history is a rare commodity! Look at my poem based on the thoughts of historian Louis Gottschalk.

Louis Gottschalk in his Understanding History

Makes the point that history is not

The story of what happened in actuality.

Instead it's the story of what was observed,

and out of that what was remembered,

and out of that what was recorded,

and out of that what has survived,

and out of that what has been found,

and out of that what's accredited,

and out of that what's understood,

and out of that what part the historian

chooses to use in his written work

8 steps away from the original source!

So humans became civilized. And scattered throughout those generations of civilizations are written and recorded bits; some saved, most discarded or lost.

Remember the Library of Alexandria? Imagine what treasures those walls held. Imagine in your mind a scenario where investigators have found the lost library. They have opened its hallowed doors, and discovered the lost copy of XYZ. Imagine how that single book would change history!

Fast forward from then to now. Imagine a time traveller from 3000 BC that reappears today. He would surely be amazed at the changes around him. His eyes would be full. Probably his first impression would be to dismiss most progress as magic.

But also, when he caught his breath and settled down, our traveller could tell us of what it was like in his time. And when we matched notes, his experiences with our history of his time, he would find parts of our history correct, part of it incorrect, and most of it, unknown and surprising.

Now that we know how tricky real history is, now that we know some of the pitfalls there are, and there are many; we can talk about history, or more correctly the history that is left to us now!

Calling all historians! And what better time is there than now. We are at a historical turning point, not just a new century but a new millennium. And we are at a place in time when most recorded history, is available on the internet.

Now is the perfect time to advocate the writing of a new world history, one that not only covers our entire world and all that's in it for the last five thousand years; but builds on that as history accumulates from now on.

Here are some possible guidelines for that world history.

1.  I suggest that the world research and write a world history. And that it should be about all aspects of human civilization, be jointly written by all the countries of the world, and be available to everyone in the world.

2.  I suggest the best way to accomplish this is in the wiki format based on Wikipedia, the online free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. The way Wikipedia works is simple but effective. Anyone with a few basic computer skills can add articles, or information to articles already posted. Then others are allowed to edit those articles. Our History Wiki would cover all things related to history.

3.  I suggest that it cover every aspect of human civilization and knowledge; politics, religion, art, science, day to day life, the works.

4.  I suggest that it be written in all languages, even past languages where apropos.

5.  I suggest that it be written in two separate categories that can be loosely defined as objective and subjective.

The objective part is what happened, a straight narrative of facts that we know. This section should be fairly easy for most historians to agree upon.

The subjective part is analysis of why it happened. There will be a lot of controversy here. We should make room for alternative ideas and present all sides.

With these two division readers can either read the facts as we know them, or read any of the many analyses of that era of history, or combine the two.

6.  I suggest that it be written from general to specific. That means that the history would be presented in numerous levels with each level more and more specific and extensive. The first level would be an overall general history of the world. The second level would be a more in depth survey of the history of the world. The third level would be general surveys of specific geographical areas with shared cultures. Examples China and the surrounding areas, India and the surrounding areas, the Middle East, Greek and Roman Civilization, Europe, or the Americas. Then the fourth level would be a detailed survey of each large geographical area. And perhaps more levels to cover every individual country, city, etc. Each level would be more detailed than the last, until there is a place for all history. And with all these levels, the reader can read to the level and depth that interests him. And the historian can write about the area of history he wants to.

7.  I suggest that the history include records, photos, film, and audio, whenever and wherever possible, so that it become a multi-media project.

8.  I suggest that it be updated continually with this proviso, recent history is often too fresh to analyze correctly. Be sure to make the historic claims tentative, and subject to reviews and updates. Perhaps allow a year of lag time to let events settle, or separate the Current events wiki from the History wiki.

9.  I suggest that, this being a project of the world and all in it, it should not be controlled by any single person, group, corporation, or government. I would suggest that it be an ongoing project with no ads or sponsors allowed.

I would call this history Pentalium. Why? I coined the term to mean 5,000 years of human civilization from around the beginning of writing at 3,000 BC to the turn of the millennium 2,000 AD But don't stop there.

When that era is set up, I would suggest wider margins with an earlier starting date to include pre-civilization. Later, take it all the way back to the start of time. And finally add all the years beyond 2,000. All these would widen the scope.

THREE HISTORY POEMS.

As a proper historian

I date by Gregorian,

but I think, that Pope's ink, got blot!

For his edict read so

that AD zero

was that year, when naught, was not!

Captain Rense was laying siege

to the city of Arona.

He blew up the wall but it landed in one piece

just like before it was blown up.

- Based on Montaigne's essay, Fortune Acts By Rule of Reason.

The doctors gave up on the inflamed abscess

of Jason of Pheres, what pain he endured.

So in battle he sought death, was wounded in the chest;

where the spear lanced the puss, and soon he was cured.

- Based on Montaigne's essay, Fortune Acts By Rule of Reason.

600 BC.

The Earth caught fire with the spirit in 600 BC. Religion took a big step forward. All over the world, across the seas, in isolated and separated places; upstarts led religion away from the high priests, freed it, and gave it to all the people.

Just to list a round of key figures, shows what a time of change it was: Zarathustra, Hebrew Prophets including Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekial; Buddha, Mahavira, Confucius, Lao Tzu, Pythagoras, the Seven Sages of Greece, and the Astrologers of Babylon.

Would the world ever go back? Can you un-see what you've seen?

WHAT NOTHING CAN TELL US.

Sometimes history can tell us as much by what is not said as by what is said. For example we know that Peter the Great (1672-1725) was extremely tall, and that Socrates (470?-399 BC) was short, stout, had a snub nose, and was considered ugly. Each was remembered by their contemporaries for the unusual aspects of their appearances.

In the same way we can approximate the appearance of others by the fact that nothing was said about their looks. If the person we are studying was not remembered by his contemporaries as tall or short, thin or fat, fair or ugly; then we can make an educated guess that he was probably of average height, weight, and neither extremely handsome or extremely ugly.

This by itself may not mean much, but each time we remove a fact as probably not true, then we come closer to what probably was true. It's like a sculptor working on a statue; each chip out of the stone brings the work closer and closer to a true likeness of the person.

USING DISEASE AS A LANGUAGE FROM THE PAST.

If psychological attitudes are linked to disease, with each specific disease having a specific psychological attitude, as some studies seem to suggest; then knowing a person's diseases tells us about his psychological attitudes.

This is not only true for people living today but for our ancestors as well. Therefore if we know the diseases that our forebears had, then in many cases we also have clues to their psychological attitudes. For example if a king is known to have a fever, then we may suspect that he had repressed anger. Repressed anger is the psychological attitude often connected to the ailment of fever. Or if a large percentage of a community suffered from fevers, then we may suspect that they lived in a society that taught its members to repress their anger. Either way, the diseases and ailments that our ancestors suffered from, can now be used by historians as possible clues to better understand both notable historical figures and society at large.

WIKI COLLEGE.

What about a wiki-college? That would be college for all across the country and the world. This would be virtually free college online. It would be a college wikipedia of classes, built on the free access ideas of wikipedia.

Professors would post their lectures for the course at wiki-college as a series of videos. They could also add newsgroups where students and the teacher could discuss the lessons. They could also post a backlog of discussions from the past displaying relevant conversations between former students and the teacher.

Then for the student that wants degree credits, have him take a final test for a small fee like $25-50. If he passes he gets credit. If he doesn't he doesn't get credit. The test money would be split between the professor and wiki.

This would allow online students to access some of the best professors in the world, and it would allow professors to have an ongoing royalty for the one time video course they posted.

Speaking of testing, why have gotcha tests in the first place? Just post the final test online on day one, to show the student what he needs to learn in the course. The teacher can still have plenty of leeway there. For example he could list 50 important people mentioned in the course. Tell the student that he should know all of these and that the test will pick five for him to identify.

I would think there would be some professors who would want to have the world as their class room, and make royalties on their lectures long after they were filmed. The main colleges that don't want to participate, might protest any accreditation for sure, but part of that would be to protect themselves and their monopoly. In the end it would come down to whether corporations that hired graduates, would recognize wiki college credits as part of a degree. The net is a real leveler! Education is part of that.

PANTHALASSA.

Even tempered Panthalassa

spans Earth from pole to pole,

surrounds Panagea the single land mass,

vast blue vistas and unencumbered currents.

Sail this ocean ye future time travelers!

Sail the ocean of all oceans!

Bottle Three: SPINNING WORLD.

CORRIDORS.

The shrinking human population has migrated from the isolated rural farms and small villages to either the major city-states or the more rural settlements that radiate out from the city states like spokes in a wheel. These spokes are called corridors.

Three main reasons are suggested for the shift to city-states and their corridors.

The first reason is the reducing human population. It reached a zenith at about 10 billion. Then it stagnated, and began to contract and decline. The population of most major city-states stayed level. Then they gradually shifted lower. But the populations of the rural farms and towns dropped quickly and dramatically. Most were abandoned. Ghost towns sprouted up everywhere. The rural population migrated to the busy city-states or their connecting corridors. The corridors also connected one city-state to another.

The second reason is that no one owns the land anymore, though in truth everyone owns the land. When people left their farms, there were no others left to fill them and the land was turned over to the government. There are no active farms, and no reason to be on a farm except for the rural beauty of the land. And most of the land that was farms or ranches, has turned back to land preserves and parks for everyone. The government has custody of all land when it is empty, but there is still so much vacant land left in the city and corridors that if one is attracted to an abandoned house or empty acreage, it is his as long as he wants to live there, nester's rights!

The third reason for the migrations to the city-states and corridors was the growing love for nature and the awareness of how important it was in its natural state. Not only was it important to the well being of plants and animals, but also to the well being of humans. Many began to see the value of unspoiled and virgin areas of the planet. More and more of the land and seas were left to return to their primeval state.

Soon 85-95% of the Earth was back to nature, with two-thirds of the land covered in leaves, grass, moss, or lichen. Life returned in abundance. The whole world buzzed.

Back to nature movements grew in tandem with the abundance of room, and the lower population rates. But that wasn't the only change. Other factors contributed as well.

Manufacturing was reduced to either in house factories in the city-states, or to the four main manufacturing islands. Food growing shifted from rural fields and orchards to small commercial farms and gardens in the city-states.

City life offered much to all. Rural life in the corridors had its unique pleasures too. Connect both with an efficient and speedy transit system along the corridors, and anyone could get from any city address to any rural settlement and back in an hour.

Overall the Earth returns to its natural state. Skies become blue and clear, water pure, life abounds. And dotted here and there in this pristine world garden, is an ark of human settlements and the corridors connecting them.

Three Nature Stories. FOUR FINGER TREE.

I love to walk. One route I like to go on, goes by a giant oak that I call the Four Finger Tree. The trunk rises up about 7 feet, then divides to four major branches that continue up another 30 feet or so. Once when I walked by this tree, I noticed that at eye level there is a small, cut out, square piece of bark in the trunk, about 3/4" square and a quarter of an inch deep. The gash stands out from the other gray bark with a more yellow-tan wood color, the color of a tree freshly stripped of its bark.

I don't know how it got there, but it must be man made because it is an exact square shape, the shape that someone would have carved in the tree using a knife. Being somewhat superstitious, I always touch this button on the tree for good luck when I pass it. So it went for years.

One day I was passing the tree, and the tree cut out square was gone. Wait a minute, I said to myself. Trees don't heal. I looked and looked but it was gone, all the tree bark was the same mottled gray blotches of bark sticking out on a slightly darker gray background bark, the usual oak trunk.

No really, trees don't heal, I said to myself until I was convinced. I can't let this go, I can't go on. I've got to figure this out. What is going on?

I looked and looked and it's all bark. This goes on for about a full minute or two. Remember this is eye level, and my eyes are no more than 6" from where the cut out should be.

After minutes, the only - and I mean only - thing that stands out in any way, is a black dash about this size --. Taking it as the only clue I got, I investigate further. Finally I see it!

The black -- is a leg. The leg is attached to a moth. The moth has wings that so exactly match the bark, that it took about three total minutes of looking straight at it before I could see it.

This is one extraordinary moth! It was about two to three inches long and 3/4" wide. And it had decided to land exactly in the cut out square. The indention helped the illusion, and what an illusion it was.

I've read of creatures adapting well to their environments to avoid predators, but this was beyond basic biology. This was extraordinary. This was to the nth degree. Once I saw it, I studied it. The color was the same assortment of shades of gray. The pattern was the same as the oak, and had he tucked this black foot under his wing like his other legs, I would never have seen him.

Nature you are amazing! Descriptions in books can't match or even come close to what you do out there! We have much to learn from you!

Three Nature Stories. YOU ASK FOR SO LITTLE.

Looking out by the window, I thought to myself, this is no night for man nor beast. The clouds were rigid gray and oppressive like those that accompany snow, or sleet, or snow mixed with sleet. Then too what sunlight there was, was fading, with the weathermen predicting that the night time temperatures would drop sharply into the teens, the coldest night of the last few cold nights.

Later that evening near midnight, laying on my bed and reading, I heard a startling, scratching, scurrying, sound within the thin wall between my bedroom and bathroom. Was it a ghost, a signal from the beyond? No, a raccoon, a practical, tangible, sharp-witted, raccoon. On rare nights he had been seen sprinting away from car lights and into the sewer behind our apartments; where he seemed quite content to stay hidden.

But nights as cold as this, those few of each year, he'd chosen a warmer den, and somehow had managed to get under the apartments and up and into that wall alongside my bed.

For a moment or two he made quite a racket shifting, and turning, and settling down. I rapped my knuckles on the wall beside him, but he seemed undisturbed, or rather he didn't distinguish my rapping from the noises of the humming furnace in the hall, or the water heater rumbling in the basement. Or he may have instinctively felt he was safe and had no fear. Well, so be it.

I should report you to the landlord I thought, before this business becomes a habit. It's enough that you habitually break into the trash and scatter it up and down the alley. This is no place for a wild animal! But then I thought too about the Burns poem of the mouse's nest upset by the plow. You, like that mouse, ask for so little; not to be killed, and then left alone. That's a reasonable request for a living being.

You don't ask for books, or book cases, or furniture, or houses, or wealth or renown, or even happiness or contentment.

Well, here we lie, two warm blooded creatures side by side with a thin wall between us. It's cold outside but warmer here.

Goodnight little animal. May we both sleep in peace.

Three Nature Stories. BRISTLE CONE PINE.

Life is bitter with the sweet. We live in a tornado that whisks us up, up, to a view unparalleled, then down hard.

This story is a tragedy but not a tragedy like Job the Endurer, or Oedipus the Eye-Opener. Trees don't fall like tragic heroes, like King Lear; though there are fools enough in our story. They include inquiring students, the US Forest Department, legislators, and fate.

Then too the mise en scene looks like the set of a tragedy with its oversized clouds, and the wind blowing hard and endlessly over the driest earth on Earth. The ground cover is non-existent, just dolomite, a limestone with low nutrients but high moisture content. And it's cold, really cold almost all of the year. All of this happens high up on an empty mountain range overlooking a desert where little else exists, as if these beings were hermits, or philosophers meditating in retreats. Perhaps asking like Hamlet, To be or not to be?

Surely one would protest that the stage of our story is ho-hum and dry. And its plot is as thin as the air. Or one could complain that it's just the usual mix up of identities with no reason for a subplot here, no great soliloquies, no dying last words, and no wings to exit into.

And our hero is no young stalwart. There are no maidens pining for him, no pulses quickening. Instead he is gnarled like the skin and fat of old men. He is brown, withered-looking, with a crooked back, pulled in tight with a narrow strip of bark drinking up all the water and nutrients, the xylem, a life thread. And all this topped and crowned with green blue pine needles sticking out in all directions like short gray hairs.

Like his contemporaries; the brick hard pyramids rising out of the desert dust, his wood is so dense that it repels bacteria, fungi, insects. And like the air of Egypt away from the Nile, it's so dry here it prevents rotting.

The main protagonist of our story, is a tree half as wide as tall, named Prometheus by the Great Basin National Park Association. Named after the Greek hero and child of titans that gave art and fire to mankind, and then was punished by the Gods for it, by being chained to a mountain for thousands of years. In our case the tree was chained to its mountain for four thousand years so far.

Setting: mountain on Nevada's eastern border with Utah called Wheeler Peak.

First Act: bills are introduced in both houses of Congress to protect this area as a nature preserve. Passing seems eminent. The drama shows a shot of a clock on the wall ticking, or a swirling circling calendar for suspense. Special Interests of grazing, mining, and hunting, appear at the door, walk in, sway the room, and defeat the bill, that year, and year after year.

Second Act: enter the antagonist, a young geographer from the University of North Carolina with an associate.

Time; late 1964.

Purpose; hiking through the Wheeler Peak Glacier searching for evidence of Ice Age Glaciers.

At the timberline, they come across pines, Bristlecone Pines, Pinus Longaeva. They begin to take core samples from several trees, counting the rings on one specimen. Up to 4,000 and then…

Plot thickens like clotting blood, or running sap to amber. His coring tool breaks. The second curtain falls.

Third Act: the Student and Associate ask for and are given permission by the US Forest Service to cut a tree down, a pine. They do, eight feet above its base, and begin counting rings: 1,2,3,4,… All totaled 4,950 rings, 4,950 years old.

The Student and Associate, had just killed the oldest living thing on Earth.

Epilogue: the world cries for its oldest being. Moans echo off the hills and will not stop, or be covered by dust.

FIVE NATURE POEMS.

I didn't want to

pick the flower,

so I plucked

its nearby shadow.

"I frequently tramped

eight or ten miles

through the deepest

snow to keep

an appointment with

a beech tree,

or a yellow birch,"

- Henry David Thoreau.

Today I left early to sit by the cliffs

waiting till the mists began to clear.

The cold running stream wound through the valley.

Beyond it, high peaks lifted their crowns.

Here and there a cloud crossed the sky.

The Moon peeped out, and