Theslowlane

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Taking time for thinking
I must have been born with a low tolerance for stress.  I've never wanted to drive a car since it can be very stressful.  Bicycling is more my speed.  Around 10 mph and usually along bike trails or roads with good shoulders. 

New kinds of progress
Much of my life has been about finding the saner and often slower ways to go.   That doesn't mean I think civilization should go back to the past.  Society can keep progressing  with new technology and ways of living.   We just have to be smart about it.

The jump into space
If world population keeps growing, we might even build colonies in space to supplement this limited planet.  In the distant future, we could be mining asteroids and building a flotilla of colonies near the Earth. 

Earth having suburbs.  Imagine, trips to these colonies might even qualify one for frequent flyer miles.

I'm a big fan of exploring the universe with telescopes and satellites, but it will be a while before our technology advances enough for actual space colonization.  Meanwhile, we must make do with the limited space here on Earth.

Less procreation
Finding ways to slow down population growth and rampant consumerism can make life less stressful and it buys us time on this planet. 

I sometimes say, "if more people were gay we wouldn't have overpopulation." 

Actually, population growth is slowing as more choices in lifestyles become accepted.  A lot more people are just remaining single these days; a nice and quiet way to live.

Technology can be our friend
Ironically, technology can help us reduce the size of our footprints on this planet.  For instance, using the Internet for tele-commuting, versus driving 40 miles to an office. 

Much of our technology keeps getting smaller and more energy efficient.  If this is true, why can't  average American houses get smaller as well?  One can now fit a whole room full of book on computer chips, for instance.

Not loving the land to death
The planning of our living environments should learn lessons from computer technology.  Bigger isn't necessarily better. 

As went the vacuum tube, so might go urban sprawl, or really I would rather call this "rural sprawl."  Development that keeps moving out into rural areas around our cities and towns. 

Some of this sprawl is caused by high costs of living in the city.  The "drive till you qualify" problem.  We should strive to avoid this with better planning.

Need for more parking is another contributor to sprawl.  Malls going to the outskirts of town in search of more parking space, for instance. 

One can say, "sprawl happens, one parking lot at a time."

People wanting a rural way of life causes sprawl as well.  Nostalgia for a lost rural America. 

Living in the country usually just means longer commutes and eventually the country filling up with city anyway. 

We should strive to reduce dependency on the automobile.  Also work to protect farmland and open space.  Leave most of the task of farming to the true farmers.

Some environmentalists think we should go back to growing our own food which might imply living on large rural lots.  My guess is, it takes less energy to ship food to the supermarket than it does to ship people all over the sprawling county to their jobs and errands.

We need to learn how to zone urban areas for more affordable housing.  This often means density, but striving to do it tastefully with public transit, walk-able neighborhoods and so forth.

Less automobile dependency
Being less dependent on automobiles would be a great step forward for civilization.   Cars of the future may run on alternative energy, but it will be a while before this technology becomes mainstream. 

Even without the energy issue, car dependency leads to accidents, obesity and a whole host of other problems.

This has been my vision of the future in a nutshell.

Hope you enjoy the parts of my site that interest you, whether you are planning trips, looking at pictures, thinking about your health, the economy, alternative lifestyles, or whatever.  Let me know  what you're thinking.

Written, May 2010.

Robert Ashworth
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