TL;DR: Mr. Kaczynski come back
Well, reading all that does bring up several ideas and stressors. Those are interesting ideas, and confirm some of my suspicions about life. I’ve been reading about people like Graeme Obree, Mike Burrows, etc. Big game changers in the world of racing bicycle aero. Both people faced with issues in life, who managed to stay healthy and lively. Obree is still out there while Mike fell to Cancer. They channeled their emotions and ideas into a medium which reinforced a healthy lifestyle. Seems like a great route to me.
https://theradavist.com/britains-fas...-mike-burrows/
Ringo Starr is still alive. He doesn’t even look his age either. I still think he’s gonna be the last one of them standing. Either adrenochrome or peace and love!
As for knowledge and tools, I’m not so sure what I think. I feel like the mechanization of society should be put under a critical lens more often. I used to think I was impressive riding 45km a day on my bicycles, and so did most of the people I know locally. Meanwhile, a lot of Dutch people talk about riding 300+km in a day! Looking online, they seem to have infrastructure that better integrates cycling into the road mix. Meanwhile in the west, we take anything that is human-powered and jam electric motors into it. Then we try and scramble to make it work in a car-based country. For the most part, it’s barely practical. How would we get anywhere without something to do the work for us? When I see automated driving, I lose a lot of hope.
But that’s me generalizing based on my experiences. I rode the bus most of my time in school, and I started riding bicycles in pursuit of having “my way”. I found it perfect for me and rewarding, but the infrastructure is pretty abominable. I have about 23km of post-nuclear single lane highway, with loose gravel on either end. The speed limit is 100 km/h (But God forbid if you’re not going 115!). No matter what I attempted, it just wasn’t practical. I still try every now and then.
And that’s not even taking into account the social aspect of it. You ever try and drive a vehicle that isn’t just a lifted truck or dodge caravan? Small town people have a lot of issues with that! Thoughtcrime!
Oh well. I enjoy this forum for that reason.
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On the subject of rusty cars and the loss of possessions…yeah. I have 5 Civics, a scooter, a CBR125R, a dune buggy, and a bicycle problem. It’s cool to have, but I’m 22. Having all of that is like chaining a cast iron ball of maintenance and responsibility to my leg. I don’t need this many vehicles, it’s pretty stupid actually. Still less than $10,000 spent, so there’s that.