From 1984 to 2024

In my lifetime, there has been extraordinary change affecting human life on the planet. 

The speed of technological advances means that the average person has no understanding of how systems operate - from AI to satellite systems, global weapons to data analysis, even how we make ultra-processed foods and pandemic medicines. We simply use the technology and rely on someone else's knowledge of how it was created. We eat food that may not be good for us, use mobile phones incessantly and compulsively, and yet we have access to vast stores of human knowledge and scientific advancement - which we mostly ignore. 

We are the Proles....

At home with a high temperature and possible COVID symptoms, I reread 1984. This is ridiculously relevant now in 2024. (Okay 2025, but it wasn't when I was writing this...)

The feeling of the world constantly at war, so that we all just get used to living with it. The Newspeak - a language of propaganda and misinformation. Trump's doublethink - where he tells us that Ukraine caused the war that they are fighting against hostile invaders. Where protestors are arrested and imprisoned, and those who speak out against dictators or the wealthy elite are quickly silenced.

How easily did we slip into this state of affairs, with all of us complicit because we have no knowledge of how to rise up and stop this rule by oligarchy, this demonisation of immigrants, the poor, the disabled, this stressful existence where we are encouraged to look the other way for fear of losing our own jobs, our own fragile stake in the world.

What has the power to subvert this descent into societal breakdown? 

Who or what can stop climate change?

I feel oddly well-positioned to answer these questions. Like many authors of dystopian fiction, I have read sci-fi, been schooled in global war scenarios, played games that destroy planets, and grown up on literature that forewarns how we get to Gilead.

The antidote is CONNECTION.

The current Labour party is not socialist, even though it used its socialist roots to appear like an alternative to Tory corruption. Young people distrust politicians - for good reason - see what they have allowed to happen on their watch. So it doesn't feel realistic to suggest we can vote ourselves out of trouble.

Instead, we have to build grassroots resilience, communities that are inclusive and well-prepared, and be ready to download manuals and knowledge, and preserve practical skills for the day when our ruling bodies cease to function. I am not talking about becoming preppers - it's bigger than that. It's about how we bring the rest of the world with us - all those who want to live via community, empathy, honesty and decency.

Remember those balloon debates in school? They taught us that capitalism was going to swallow us up unless we preserved our individualism, and had a better reason for being saved than the next person. 

I disagree.

We want to bring everyone along with us - all the divergent, messy, broken people whom society has placed a low value on. These are the people who actually know how to survive in an intolerant world. We need the crazy scientists and fantasy writers, people who pray and those who don't, carers, workers, farmers, healers and musicians. And we don't need big impressive leaders who got where they are by treading on all of us.

We may be the Proles, but we are also the industrious ants and bees, the fruitpickers, the dambuilders, the vast swarming hordes who can build and grow and care and survive.

Turns out WE have the power. And the more we work together the better our future becomes.

Age of Austerity vs Age of Reason

Yes, Mr Cameron, we will all have to tighten our belts as we enter this new age. But I prefer to see it as the Age of Reason since I am of a happily optimistic mindset.

Where once we were all owned by banks and building societies, or by our schools, or by our commitment to local government policies, and we were dependant on their services, advice and constraints, now we are cast adrift into a certain sense of freedom.

I have no credit card debt to speak of. I own a property outright, some land, and a car. I work online, with clients on all the major continents, and I've been published in England, Canada, Spain and Australia. As a freelancer, I chose who to work with and on what, and I reject clients that appear racist, sexist, bullying or untrustworthy. I pay taxes locally, and I am a frequent attender at school parents meetings to have a say in how my kids school is run, but I shop online and pay as often in dollars as euros or pounds.

The collapse of our old institutions is making us all re-assess what we value and what we need. And here at Singular Cake, I think that's a good thing. Long may the Age of Reason empower us.

The future of Gaming

I predict that SONY will enter our workplaces in the near future with software that turns our work chores into fun. It stands to reason, right? These days we can work from home with an adsl connection and our PC and PS3 are connected and form a media hub. So work and gaming has got closer.

Here's where it gets closer still. Why use software to send a letter, an email, a pdf document or an Excel file and waste all that good gaming time? So SONY execs are bound to devise a game portal that enables you to do all that 'Work' nonsense, whilst your fingers are also strafing enemies with gunfire, playing Scrabble and holding virtual meetings with work colleagues in a SIM office?

Tell me that is NOT gonna happen and I'd be more surprised.

You can call me Penny 'Arthur C. Clarke' Clark, if you will, but I am telling you today (June 18th 2010)that this is the future of gaming.

All our worlds are colliding. The ones that capture our imagination and vitality the best will survive. Sure we have to earn a living, but we can do that with part of our brains while the other part is drinking coffee, staying up late to watch movies, and fighting virtual wars with fingertip controls. It may not be the most productive way to do business but it is increasingly more common to see people interacting with the PC keyboard, eating, drinking, conversing AND doing work chores. So someone is gonna make a helluvalot of money when they work out how best to fuse all that.

Geek power is not going away. Our homes will only become more interconnected to cyberspace as fridges tell us what we're out of stock of, and baths run themselves to suitable temperatures. That mundane daily stuff is going further away. We will inevitably fill out time with multiple activities that suit the whole family - and learning, communicating and stimulating through entertainment i.e. GAMING is where we're headed.

You know it. Let's get ready.

Next Posting: You know you've lived with a gamer too long when you....