It took a bit longer than anticipated, but the thesis is done, and has been sent off to the printers for binding. I've ordered an extra bound copy specifically to give to the Durham County Library, hopefully to be included in the "local room" downtown.

This leads me to a topic to which I've been giving a lot of thought lately: connectivity and information sharing in post-oil society. frankly, I'd give up fast food, cars and planes right now, forever, if it meant that we could turn all our resources to preserving and perpetuating the Internet. but you know that will not happen, so.... the Internet as we know it will more than likely not survive into the 22nd Century. if it even survives until 2050, I'll be pleasantly surprised. So, what will become of all those millions of Wikipedia entries? That may sound flippant, but there's been a significant change in how we get and share information, in how *connected* we are as human beings, all from the Internet. Need to know when to plant a seed? How to preserve food? Whether the rash you have is poison ivy or something much worse, without paying a doctor? Right now, we go to the Internet for all this. But what about when there isn't an Internet?

That's why a copy of my thesis is going to the Library, and that is why I buy books. And I buy LOTS of books. Only rarely do I ever get rid of a book. What did I buy with my "tax incentive rebate"?? Books - on food storage, greywater recycling, composting. Once upon a time, the upper crust of society all had libraries in their houses, libraries to which they could refer for questions large and small. Mark Pesce says we should think of Wikipedia as an extension of our brain, just one that we keep outside our bodies: I propose that libraries have always served that purpose, which is why the Public Library (and the advent of public education to create literacy for all) is at the core a radical institution - it is a public mind, a perpetually-recreated manifestation of communal understanding of reality.



Next up: The resurgence of the urban garden, and the Durham Farmers Market.