I wrote these four poems while at Hearst Castle in California. It hadn’t been part of my plan, but since I have some knowledge of Hearst & his legacy, I couldn’t resist the roadsigns pointing me there. It was an experience both worth having and -when I can make the time and find the money- worth repeating; I’d like to return to Hearst Castle with more time and money (and my wife) someday.
In a future where processing speeds allow computers to predict the future and advancements in genetic engineering allow people to design custom children, what happens when these technologies -and a couple who haven’t kept pace with post-singularity advances in technology- are combined to try to create a family? When one can not only select for simple things like gender, eye color, and hair color, but also for likely future outcomes like when and where your child will have their first kiss, or what career they’ll be drawn to, how far would you be willing to go to create the child of your dreams? In this short story, Harold and Anne are faced with questions like these in the wake of the devastating loss of their first child – created and born naturally, rather than technologically.
I wrote these two poems at Pier 39, in San Francisco, California. They are about food, and about money. This far into my trip, I was increasingly worried about money, so what may seem like small things to you were big things to me. My budget for the trip was next to nothing, and I’d exceeded it with days left before home.
This essay is a personal exploration of my own unusual relationship with time. It touches both on my mind and body’s disconnection from a “normal” circadian rhythm and on my imagination and creative mind being six months (to many years) ahead of the pace of technology.
Two poems at one beach then, after a drive I couldn’t find a good place to stop amidst quite a bit of beauty, another written from my recollections of same. All on the Pacific Coast Highway in California.
Imagine you could change the direction you travel through time and actually go backward in time. In this story, Brent finds himself able to do just that and, along with his brother Charlie, explores some of the possibilities that ability creates. Together they look at problems of ethics, causality, and the possibility of doing heroic deeds and making themselves vast amounts of wealth very quickly.
Two poems written at two different “Vistic Points” along the Pacific Coast Highway, half a day apart. This far into my road trip, you can begin to sense I’m growing weary, losing my sense of vision. Luckily my choice of locations to drive to & through was beautiful enough to wake me back up again.