12 thoughts on “Reader Friday: Destination

  1. ❖ If you had to choose to live in 3075 or 1875, which would you pick?
    ❦ 3075.
    ❖ Why?
    ❦ They probably have antibiotics.
    ❖ What do you think you’d find there?
    ❦ Newly developed hydrogen fusion, after the break up of the military-tokamak complex in 3070. Neighborhood power plants. No more universities; all course work will be online. A Rosicrucian Pope. US Capitol in Dallas, TX. Inexpensive two-seater airplanes as standard interstate transport. Single-seater city cars. Two-seater, in-line cars. “Homeless” renamed “winos,” leading to dropping indigent population for the first time in 1000 years. Improved treatment for addiction. Ubiquitous polyurethane “donut” safety headgear. Different alignments of US regions. Democrat and Republican parties replaced by “Futurist” and “Action” parties. Statehood for Canadian provinces, not including Quebec. Marijuana and most drugs illegal for persons under 70. Robot fights. Robot race horses. Fast growth for Canadian areas. Record crops due to higher CO2 levels. Robotic restaurants. Chautauqua revival. Robotic auto repair.

  2. 1875. It’s a shorter trip, and I’ll be able to get a decent steak and maybe even find a nice lady.

    I take a dystopian view of the future. I doubt that fire will have been (re)invented by 3075.

    Thanks for this great question, Jim, which will be an all-day brainworm for me. Have a great weekend.

  3. The way things are going, I’m not optimistic that there will be a place to live here in 3075. Or that it won’t be more primitive than 1875. I’d probably opt to go back, although you didn’t say whether we would be traveling with our current knowledge in a “Back to the Future” way, or if we’d simply have been born into that era.

  4. 1875 hands down. Traveling by horse (woohoo!). When America wasn’t densely packed with 3 million people per square inch of space. You had room to move and flap your wings. Our beautiful landscapes had not been covered with concrete and ashphalt. People understood the need for true interpersonal communication. In 1875, Zane Grey was just 3 years old and not too many years distant he’d be traveling and writing some awesome stuff.

    I have always wished I lived in the 1800’s. But eh well. I was placed on earth for this particular time and I’ll make the best of it.

  5. 1875, when a lot more animals roamed free. By 3075, if we keep going in the same direction, it’ll be a barren landscape, the woods, ocean, and lakes devoid of life, a place where humans no longer interact face-to-face without a screen in between them. No, thank you.

  6. You will find me in 3075. I want to think it will be a better place either by lessons learned or a massive reset. In 3075 Captian Kirk will have been dead for more than 400 years. I would like to live in that world.

  7. Although, a visit to the tobacco shop of Sigmund Shlesinger in Cleveland, Ohio in the summer of 1875. Shlesinger had been a scout for the US Army in the War for the Western Continent in 1868. He left the Scouts in 1869 and opened his tobacco shop. He had some keepsakes from his days as an Indian fighter. Most people visiting his shop thought the little Jewish man had bought the arrowheads and other items and made up his stories of being an Indian Fighter.

    Somewhere around 1870-75 Buffalo Bill and His Wild West Show was in Cleveland. Shlesinger sent word to his old friend Bill Hickock and then took some of his best customers to the show. The Little Jew really had been an Indian Fighter in what is now Colorado.

    Maybe I would hang out for a few years and celebrate the birth in 1879 of Albert Shlesinger, Sigmund’s son. My great grandfather for who I am named.

  8. I would pick 1875, because of all the changes that are coming for our country. But, given that I’ve needed surgery – gallbladder, appendix, hand, cataracts – maybe I should pick the future. How about an option for a time tunnel between 1875 and 3075? This is a fiction site, right?

  9. 1875 seems like a more rational choice since it’s a known time period vs. an unknown future. I fear 3075 will be a world dominated by AI powered holograms of Mark Zuckerberg forcing us to mine for rare elements to power screens.

  10. 1875 – on a farm in the midwest. When I’m not milking cows, baling hay, or harvesting vegetables, I’ll hook my old mule Sally to the wagon and become the area’s traveling librarian, taking books to children on nearby farms.

  11. Great question, Jim, and an easy-peasy one for me.

    1875.

    For several reasons. I think life was less complicated then. Maybe, if you don’t count stuff like T.P., clean water, etc. etc.

    But, also, I probably wouldn’t have to wear several layers of clothing in order to disguise what I normally wear on my hip whenever I leave the house.

    Just sayin’.

    Happy, happy Friday!

  12. At my age and health, I’d be dead within a year in 1875. The past wan’t glamorous. Anyone who wasn’t a white male lived a very different life than today. Health care was brutal, sanitation stunk, and some of the most difficult years in history were ahead. In the US, the Civil War is ending, and the people of the South are starving and being brutalized by the Carpet Baggers. Meanwhile, in the North, the Robber Barons have a firm miserable grip on immigrants and the poor as they amass their fortunes. So I’m leaving 1875 for the far future. I may be landing in some dystopia or Armageddon instead of a STAR TREK future, but I figure my death will be quicker.

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