America2wo: The Blizzard of 2009
by Rudy Behrens
Global warming began to change the environment a lot sooner than anyone had expected. The scenarios of sunken coastal cities and deserts spreading across once-fertile farms seemed like bad scifi or, at least, way in the future. In fact they were, but big things often have small beginnings. It took the world a bit too long to realize the increase in hurricanes and tornadoes, the increase in the violence of even the most average storm, was all the distant whistle of the oncoming train. And we clearly had our foot caught in the rails. Fortunately, all species have a 'survival strategy' and mankind's is a pretty good one. We survive by observing our environment, learning from it, making tools to adapt it to our needs and passing that knowledge to others across space and time. Of course, the 3 Horsemen of the New Apocalypse, politics, religion and tradition, have worked tirelessly for centuries to beat it out of us. Nonetheless, when the crisis was upon us, mankind made tools to adapt to this new reality.
In one of the great ironies of history, the change in weather patterns improved the economics of wind power to the point it was competitive with other forms of energy. With that came the secondary effects as other renewable technologies were given new credibility and advances were made in every area of this emerging technology. In the United States we did as we had always done with revolutionary technology. We let others do it while lawyers argued the true ownership of increasingly worthless patents, or who 'owns' the sun or wind, because industries about to become obsolete used their accrued wealth to distort the marketplace. This time, however, the average guy was no longer content to go along with that waste of the public's time or loss of yet another opportunity. This time their own jobs, homes, food, water, and futures, were at stake, and Mankind survived as it had for millennia, making tools, adapting, yada, yada. The average person had come to understand, even as their leaders did not, that Buckminster Fuller was a prophet as well as a genius, though most had never heard of him. As he had said in 1983, we ALREADY had all we needed to be successful beyond our wildest dreams, and as Kim Stanley Robinson suggested, we stopped living like monkeys, accepted the promise, and responsibility, of our god-powers and picked them up out of the weeds.
I joined what would later be called 'the America2wo movement' the way most people had. I bought a set of plans for a personal robot and built it in my garage. I made one that converted biomass to fuel and sold the fuel through a local co-op. Then I made more bots. I didn't know I had joined anything, let alone a movement, until a few years later when I saw it on a cover of NEWSWEEK. This was a real people's movement. All over America people scavenged parts from discarded VCRs, computers, copiers, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, microwave ovens, remote controls and so on. Using plans purchased over the Internet, or by joining clubs, they assembled simple robots that made something everyone needed everyday, like food, water, fuel, or building materials, and did it all day and night without supervision. These products were used at home, or sold or bartered in local markets, something like farmer's markets. Suddenly, without anyone noticing right away, the world was getting nicer and the average person was becoming more prosperous. Bot assembly became a standard course in community colleges, and later in high schools. People became as adept at working on bots as they were with cars. Every town or neighborhood had some local people who were great at assembling bots, or making bots or designing bots. Most families had a growing herd of bots making things for the local markets. After 250 years, the promise of industrialization was finally being realized.
It was late spring, April 2009. Another late blizzard was predicted. Another consequence of global warming, and another bad year for crops that germinated in Spring. We would be OK. We had a small self-sufficient greenhouse behind the garage where we grew vegetables, herbs and some Tilapia all year. We had stuff in the freezer, too, and a windmill. These late blizzards usually came with freezing rain that brought down trees and power lines, but we were prepared. I decided to check on the bots before the storm got too bad so I loaded some tools into my truck and went to Bailey's farm, where I rented fields. My bots used the same fields where he grew crops or grazed his cows. The extra income helped him out when weather like this shortened his growing season.
My truck was an 8 year old compact pickup but the engine was in good shape because I had converted it to run on gas, gasohol, or pure ethanol so all the seals and bearings were new. I pulled to the side of the road by my field. I could see 6 of my 7 bots. In high winds and cold temperatures they didn't move, instead using all their energy to run grolites and keep the processor warm. You see, mine grew algae and converted it to fuel. I wondered where the last one was. Squinting into the wind, I saw it on the far side of the field. It was still moving and did not have the greenish glow like the others did as the lights shown through the algae. Probably a stuck relay. I opened the gate and drove across the already white field to fix it. I easily caught up to the bot since it moved more slowly than I could walk. I lifted the cover to the circuit box and put a meter on the suspected relay. Yes, it was burned out. Of course I had gotten it for $5 at a junkyard so what did I expect. I had others in the truck. 20 minutes of cold hands and fingers later I closed the lid and the processor glowed green like it should. Time to head home before I'm stuck. The truck wasn't a 4x4. The drive back to the road was surprisingly easy because the ground was already frozen! Now if I could just get home without spinning out on some ice.
***** To Be Continued *****
