The Tools of Technomadics

So. A week has passed now, and even as the stalwart defenders of democracy pursue countless election irregularities, we are adjusting to the new reality: an intensification of the old reality. I don't know what this means, but I have an uneasy feeling about it.

I like the advice of Geov Parrish in the Seattle Weekly: get involved at the grassroots level, now that it has become clear that the two-party system has failed us. This echoes the theme of my previous post in which I commented on the power of slow evolution, compared to the staged battles of a duopoly in which the players define each other and the debates are framed by a politically savvy incumbency.

All this brings us back around to technomadics, which is, after all, the theme of this blog, the Microship website, and my life. It started like this: in 1983, I responded to the intellectual desert of central Ohio and my own personal entropy by inventing a new lifestyle... one characterized by alacrity, technologically enabled mobile communications, and a freedom/security amalgam that seems almost nostalgically dreamlike given today's more ominous implication of those conjoined words. In an unintended symbolic act, I pedaled away from suburban Columbus without even bothering to close the door of my still-cluttered house, and never looked back.

It was the control-alt-delete of a human life.

Over the years, I wandered freely, refining my tools and building a new concept of home rooted not in real estate but wheel estate, not in the classic "enclave of stability" defined by Toffler but in the emerging global community of the Net. The media loved it, sponsors supported the development of new bike versions, and I found that my little escape pod had become a career replete with beta tests, rollouts of new versions, and the corporate trade-show circuit.

And then I landed on Camano Island. It was to be another machine-building layover; with the bike retired to The Computer History Museum, the Microships began to coalesce in the clutter of a 3000 square foot lab constructed for that purpose alone. But then I started caring about things I couldn't control (like developer-rape of our island), and I suffered the time- and motivation-sink of a personal disaster that somehow caused two years to pass with virtually no progress. And then Bush got re-selected.

If ever there was a wake-up call, that was it.

Suddenly, my sane and stable friends all over are asking Big Questions: Should I flee to another country? Hunker down in survival mode? Kowtow and stop posting my true feelings for fear of hate mail or unwelcome visits in the night? Live under the radar like the "zeroes" of Max Headroom? I've never seen so many comfortable, well-educated, technically savvy people with stable careers be so uncertain about their futures.

So it has occurred to me that the lessons of my own peculiar career... technomadics... suddenly apply in new ways. No longer is this about renouncing the suburban lifestyle to have a gonzo adventure aboard a gizmologically intensive and fancifully named contraption; it's about survival in the face of economic and political uncertainty.

This is a time to learn skills, build off-grid backup power systems, create non-economic informal barter networks for tools and resources, plant low-maintenance gardens, get to know your neighbors better, implement alternative communication modalities, strengthen your off-site data backup procedures, lay in a deep inventory of foods that store well, learn to cook, buy a water filter and basic camping gear that is kept ready to go, eliminate debt, eschew consumerism, and convert your excess tonnage to cash (and thus into useful tools). Shed the things that would tie you down if for some reason you really wanted to relocate in a hurry. Make sure you and your family are on the same page about all this. Rekindle your network of distant friends (what I've always called the "hospitality database"). Deploy nickel generators to decrease your dependence on a single client or employer, and refresh your knowledge in areas that might serve you well during times of unrest or feed you as you pass through unfamiliar places.

Years ago, I wrote a short piece called First Steps to Aquatic Technomadness that posits an initial to-do list prerequisite to full-time travel... it contains some useful thoughts along these lines, although more slanted to traveling in a flotilla than passing unscathed through Dark Times.

If we turn out not to need any of this, I'll breathe a huge sigh of relief and chuckle at my own paranoia. But the exercise will make us stronger and more efficient, which is a Good Thing regardless: we as a culture have become soft, addled, and dependent upon the continuation of stability and services that have been in place since we were children. I think that's why it's hard for most of America to contemplate the enormity of the changes that might befall us, even as we surf the net and shake our heads about torture, terrorism, imperial adventures abroad, and economic Red Alerts. Most of us have never really been all that stressed, at least not in comparison to folks who fight for their lives on a regular basis, and it's extremely hard to visualize having to think in terms of survival and food instead of comfort and wealth.

In other news...

My old friend Bill Vodall, WA7NWP, suggested today that my "essays" like the above belong in a different context than the daily news bits. I agree, though I don't want to dilute this into two blogs when one is already a project. So I'm going to try using this nifty blockquote tag to set aside little quickie updates like these:

Thanks to Dave Robb, I got off my sedentary butt yesterday and made major progress on the leaky shed roof. We ripped off the old roll roofing, pulled all the rusty nails, added strips of plywood to span a low area, removed the dormant chimney and patched the hole, stapled down roofing felt, and started installing the new metal roof. It should be finished today.

That work, along with a few other recent projects, has made me a real fan of the new Hitachi 18-volt power tool set I bought on eBay.

We're planning a short kayak trip tomorrow to test a new paddle bag design that will be cheaper and simpler to produce... and restore sanity. Especially the latter. It's been too long.