The Reading Penguin

Written in September 2017. First published in News and Views newsletter.

Imagine sometime in the future where space travel is as regular as air travel is today. Because of the distances involve they are space ferries in operation between the planets. As everyone knows, it takes forever to travel to Mars, so these ferries have facilities to make them as self-sufficient as possible and the trip comfortable. Things like automated farms, restaurants, a school, theatres, a library, a hospital and … a vet.

Yes, some passengers have bought their pets with them. On one of these vessels at any given time they are probably a dozen animals at these vet/kennel at any given time. A dozen animals, of all walks of life, including fish.

Now imagine that something happened to one of these vessels. Space can be dangerous, after all. What if an asteroid hit one of those vessels and killed everyone on-board …. Except the animals? (One got smuggled on board and was under quarantine, leading to the place been sealed off, saving their lives.)

So, here’s the question. With an endless supply of food, water and air, and no humans to guide them, how would they cope?

In an environment originally-built for humans, would these animals continue been “animals?” Could curiosity eventually allow them to work out how their life support systems work, and allow them to fix them if a fault occurs? Could that later go further, maybe allowing them to read our books? And if so, would they understand what they read? Would they learn from them? Would they use the knowledge we had recorded to build a new civilization? A society with laws and a culture like ours or something completely different? Something unique. Maybe they’ll create their own stories and literature. Maybe in some distant future, a descendent of a bird might be reading Penguin Island with hands that were once wings. Just a thought. 

A Meaty Question About The Future

It's the end of March and I have neglected my blogging obligations of posting something once a month. It's not my fault that two relatives died in the past month and my health is not 100%.

Fortunately for me an interesting topic was twirling in my mind recently that I thought interesting enough to write something about. But I have to warn you....

THE FOLLOWING POST WILL TALK ABOUT A SUBJECT THAT SOME WILL FIND SHOCKING AND DISGUSTING .... 

THE REASONS FOR YOUR DISGUST IS THE VERY TOPIC I AM TALKING ABOUT HERE.... ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAPPEN TO BE BRITISH

I HAVE WARNED YOU ALREADY. 

IF YOU STILL WANT TO BROWSE THE WEB WITHOUT READING ANYTHING CONTROVERSIAL AND CHALLENGING 

READ SOMETHING ELSE NOW!

If you are someone who has no trouble reading such blog posts, continue reading....

(You are the audience I am after here.)

But for those (who some call "snow flakes") who are still continuing reading this wondering what is the subject of this post.... let me start it with an imaginary scenario....

Imagine that you are a Pokémon trainer who owns an Eevee.... who has gotten lost in the mountains during wintery conditions. You find a cave as shelter and managed to make a fire. 

You are hungry.

It's been days since you last had any food.

Because of conditions there is no forms of editable plant available.

You got a knife and fire.

You must have worked it out by now (from the title and the long extended "trigger warning" alone).

If not, let me put it in words I will not like to say to someone at all....

In a life-or-death situation ...

are you willing to kill something if not doing so meant certain death for you?

In other words, are you willing to eat Eevee?

Yelp, this post is about the activity of consuming the flesh from dead animals in the form of (what we call linguistically to separate it from its bloody origins so that we are not thinking about it when eating said flesh) "meat."

The subject entered my mind recently because of a recently released documentary called Carnage: Swallowing The Past. It is a documentary made in a peaceful future, where veganism has become universal, that looks back to the meat-eating habits of 20th and 21st century, and how this future came to be. It is a great film to watch, if you don't mind the occasional slaughter scene that PETA has an endless supply of.

And it got me thinking about the subject of meat. Familiar readers will know that I have a thing for human ingenuity. How we have turned raw materials from the Earth into useful tools. And food is one of those "useful tools." So I do have the knowledge to know how all the components that make a up a McDonald's Happy Meal (including the toy and the cardboard box it comes in) are made and put together in the form of a corporate-sponsored childhood memory (and what memories those giveaways were to me, including a few of those gold-plated Pokémon cards from Burger King (Take that Mc! I am not a sheep who goes tot he same place for substance again ad again. It depends on where I am when its lunch time, suckers.)).

In short, I know where burgers come from. I don't need to taught by a preacher to megaphone it down my ears how gruesome the process is. And let, I still eat a burger anyway (I was in KFC yesterday, if you were going to ask.). So why do I still eat meat, despite knowing of the suffering the animals that made it go through (in their final moments, if you consider the "free range" variety)? 

I can narrow it down to three things.....

1. The distance from slaughterhouse to burger joint.
2. The cultural habits of the western lifestyle.
3. Autistic people tend to be "fussy eaters" due to there overacting senses.

That last one only applies to a small number of people. (And I bet many "meat is murder" preachers aren't aware of this small number of "fussy eaters." They may be aware of autism, but not the "fussy eating" bit.) 

But the rest can apply to most meat eaters worldwide. Now, the distance from sight of slaughter isn't the biggest problem when it comes to converting carnivores. They are places in the world where people do regularly go out and hunt for food or raise animals for personal slaughter later. Yes, they are people in isolated places that still regularly do the same thing our cavemen ancestors once did a long time ago before farming was invented, allowing us to distant ourselves from the providers of food, blinding us form the process. These people have no qualms about it because they are use to it, after doing it a million times. So, I'm afraid to say that (in a world where we are accustomed to seeing people been shot in the head in movies (and on the news)) showing footage of a cow been shot in the head won't convert many TV viewers. 

The real reason that vegetarianism (let alone veganism) has been a fringe lifestyle is because the practise of eating meat has been so the norm in the west that most people don't second-think about it. It seems to have always been that way, to them. And it doesn't help that meat happens to be very rich form of nutrients (especially when cooked).

Also we have culturally segregated the animal kingdom. Because we see ourselves as "intelligent" over the rest of the "dumb" animals we see ourselves as separate from nature, so therefore free to do whatever we like it it and her fellow inhabitants. We can determine the fate of species just by calling it a "pet" or "meat" (a game which should make a thought-provoking arcade machine) And, as I said in this previous post,  I think it's an "idea that has truly done more damage to Earth than any other manmade invention."

And burgers are more damaging to Earth than just that. According to this article a single cheese burger has the carbon footprint of somewhere between 3.6-6.1 kg (gases have mass remember). Doesn't sound much, until you remember how many burgers are eaten around the world.That same article suggests that if every American stopped eating burgers for one year, the US can remove the equivalent of (at least) 6.5 million Hummer H3s off their collective carbon footprint. So, if cheese burgers alone can do that amount of damage, imagine what all those hot dogs, buffalo wings, KFC buckets, steaks and Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys are doing too. 

Some may be wondering why burgers create such large amounts of CO2 (apart from the methane coming off the cows)? The basic reason for the high environmental cost is simple ... raising an animal requires a lot of resources. According to this article, producing one pound of beef requires 1,799 gallons of water. The same weight in wheat (in comparison) only requires 132 gallons. In other words, the amount of water used in the growing and making the bun (and some salad) in the burger is chicken feed compared to the amount used to raise the cow to make the lump of grilled mince in the middle... And that figure doubles if you consider dairy cows, so the situation gets worse if you decide to have it served with a slice of solidified gone-off milk. (Yelp, that's what cheese is.)

With so much resources needed to make it, its no wonder meat has become a big factor to consider in the fate of the future of the Earth. 

In hindsight, 2013 was a significant year in our relationship with meat. A relationship that is changing for the better. Three things happened that year that'll have huge significance historically in the future.

1. Traces of horse flesh were found in meat products marketed as "beef."

This food scare caused a stir in Europe, especially to the British, who love horses so much that the idea of eating one was so appalling that one woman I heard phone in on the radio at the time saying that she would rather move to another country than live in a Britain that did allow it. I'm amazed that Carnage didn't reference this incident. But it did reference BSE, so I can forgive Simon Amstell for that. 

2. The first burger made of meat grown in a lab was cooked.

This is very promising idea. I do hope it takes off in the future, otherwise the transition to a post-meat world is going to be much harder. 

3. That year's Oktoberfest offered vegan dishes for the first time.

The fact that a festival famous for displaying and consuming large amounts of meat has done that is a sign of big trend that is happening right now.... the rise of veganism. 

This increase in interest in veganism is a coming together of multiple cultural forces mostly relating to the environment. For one thing the price of meat is increasing. Would this make many reduce their meat-eating habit? Probably, if this trend continues. But a much bigger factor would be this - in 2015 the World Heath Organisation declared processed meats as a carcinogen. If history is to go by, 50 years from now the sight of someone eating a hot-dog in a cinema will be looked at in the same way we now look at that same cinema patron smoking a cigar. 50 years earlier that same guy would have been a normal unquestionable sight in cinemas. No one then thought inhaling the smoke from burnt leaves was an alien thing for humans to do. And then the reports came in linking it to lung cancer and (slowly) the sight of tobacco smoke disappeared in public spaces. Could the sight of eating meat follow the same fate? To be honest, I don't know. Unlike cigarettes, the eating of animal flesh is normal in nature. Maybe the eating of meat may become an occasional treat in the future. Or maybe we will dodge it altogether with lab-grown meat (unless that proves to cause cancer too). 

Whatever happens, the future depicted in Carnage definitely looks like a future worth living for. Maybe veganism may be a key to making the world depicted in Pokémon possible (except for the possible genetic engineer).

But the question remains - In a life-or-death situation would you eat an Eevee?

In fact, would you eat a Magikarp? 

Or a Politoed (Silver League Network's "favourite" Pokémon)?

Or any listed in this video?

In fact, any Pokémon that is made of flesh. 

(come on, who would be able to eat a Geodude? Chuck Norris?)

In fact, what if this happened in the real world.

What if the future turned out bad. Mad-Maxy. 

All the supermarkets have been ransacked. And so has all the food depots and the farms. 

You are alone in the wild lands with a knife (a survivor's best friend).

You are hungry. You not eaten for days. 

You see a horse wondering about on a clearing. 

It may be wild or it ran away from his former owner. Who knows. 

But one thing is certain, you are hungry. 

Would you eat a horse?

Sneak Preview - The Pokémon 20th anniversary special BIG act of Cultural Vandalism

Last night I heard of interesting news. Nintendo is releasing Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow in the 3DS Virtual Console on the franchise's 20th anniversary. On hearing this news I thought this is a good time to finally do this - to give you readers a sneak preview of a project I have been doing since February - My 20th anniversary BIG act of Cultural Vandalism on the subject of.... Pokémon.

Currently it is in a state of near completion, but their is still stuff left to do on it. So until then here's an extract I have just completed.

Is the Pokémon World Our World?

So that's the Pokémon themselves explained and out the way, but what about the non-Pokémon stuff in the Pokémon World. In fact, what about the Pokémon World in general? How could I describe it to someone who hasn't see it before? Well, judging by the anime, the Pokémon World is kind of like the world as seen in the British TV comedy series The Goodies. Its generally nice, friendly, full of crazy stuff (such as pokeballs, potions and various forms of crazy eyewear) and situations that can result in an half-hour episode in a family-friendly sitcom. In fact, you could do a direct comparison by watching side-by-side the Pokémon episode "Caterpie's Big Dilemma" and The Goodies episode "Kitten Kong." 

(You can do this legally. The Pokémon episode can be downloaded from iTunes, while The Goodies episode is on DVD.)

But if you take time to listen and observe, you'll find a lot of things in this world that references our world, from place names to historical figures. Bulbapedia has a page listing these references, but of all of them, my personal favourite is this...

Parody to the MGM logo from episode "An Epic Defense Force!" (2012)

featuring a Zorua as Leo the Lion

Admit it - its awesome, isn't it.

But with so many references to our world, a question occurs...
Is the Pokémon world actually our world? 

Junichi Masuda, co-founder of Game Freak (the creators of Pokémon) and big creative contributor to the games and anime (with his biggest contribution been the Hoenn region), has this to say about this question.

"We actually don't think of the world of Pokémon as Earth. If we were to do that, we would kind of be limited by what we could do. By thinking about how physical objects work on Earth and how various elements work on Earth, we would kind of be limited to that if we thought of it as Earth. We think of it as a place that is really similar to Earth, but is a different planet of its own with people in it who may be similar to people on Earth, but they have different values so they care about different things. It's the type of place, the Pokémon world, where problems we face on Earth just wouldn't happen. There wouldn't be global warming, water shortages, or anything like that. It's a world where the people in it really want to work together with each other. Their value system is such where they would prefer to work together and eliminate these problems rather than feud." - Junichi Masuda

Short official answer, no.

But don't despair, because I have a thought...

By thinking about what Masuda has said and looking at how Pokémon came to be (which I'll explain in detail in the next part), I have concluded that, on the subject of the Pokémon world's similarities with our own, that the world that we see depicted in the franchise that is Pokémon is not our present world.... 

It is our (possible) future......

A future where the relationship between humans and nature is much better. A future were we have finally got rid of the ridiculous notion that we humans are "separate from nature." The idea that is the heart of the notion that we humans are "superior" over the rest of nature, leading to a lot of arrogance against nature. The idea (I think) that has truly done more damage to Earth than any other manmade invention.
A world where we are much more careful about the environment and the organisms that call it home due to more awareness of their interconnectedness to it (an their dependence of it for life and substance).In such a world it is possible that (eventually) wild animals will no longer fear humans (like Pokémon do in their world, which ties in with my "semi-domestication" theory).

Unlike many futures depicted in kids media, this is a future that can be achieved without the need of the development of fancy technology. You don't need to develop hoverboards or quantum squeezing technology to make the Pokémon World a reality. The heart of it is a way of thinking... and some genetic tweaking (if you really want your own Pikachu). Its a way of thinking that can be traced back to the 19th century England when the industrial revolution was in the mist of transforming the country (not always for the better). It came in the form of Romanticism and (later) took form as the Arts and Crafts movement. But it didn't find its modern voice until the 1960s with the creation of the environmental movement... and when astronaut William Anders took this photo from Apollo 8....

Earthrise (1968)

You may have seen this image many times before, so it is very easy to forget the massive cultural impact the first photograph of Earth from the viewpoint of another celestial body (in this case the Moon) had on the world. For the first time humanity truly saw their true place in the universe - a species living on a small rock in a massive universe. Any major conflict on its surface for land, resources and influence becomes insignificant and irrelevant from this viewpoint.The only thing you could make out on the surface is that it is full of water and a lot of the land is covered with patches of green (the only indicator of the existence of life). With life (as far as we know) only existing on this rock, humankind really began to realise that they couldn't afford to destroy nature for the sake of material gain (and because they can, because their top of the food chain). Like on a spacecraft with limited resources, Earth has limits and (until humans begin to develop pan-planetary travel that'll allow them to spread on and exploit other planets) humankind has to be careful with its resources if we are to survive.

Its worth referencing Earthrise at the end of this introduction to Pokémon, because most of you may not have realized that Pokémon is a product of the environmental movement. In fact Pokémon references Earthrise in the end of the movie Pokémon Heroes: Latios & Latias.

For those who haven't seen this film, this is a SPOILER ALERT! In one of the most tearful moments in the anime's history, Latios sacrifices himself to save Alto Mare form disaster and becomes the Soul Dew (watch the film. I'm not going to tell you everything.). But just before that happened he shares what he sees with his sibling Latias, who then shares it with Ash and friends. What they see is the "Earth" slowly zooming out until fading into black.

"The Earth is so pretty. So blue." - Misty (from the English dub of the scene)

 "Oh my God! Look at that picture over there! There's the Earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty." - William Anders at the moment he took Earthrise

Although officially the Pokémon world isn't our world, at the end of the day the parallels are hard to ignore. The planet Ash and Pikachu inhabit is blue, full of water, and exists in the "goldilocks zone" of the sun it orbits. It is Earth. An ideal world created to show what can be achieved if we really learned to recognise how finite our planet is.

Today is the Future. Time to Look Back.... to the Future.

Back To The Future In ACTUAL 2015

(CollegeHumor, 2015)

Today we officially enter the future.... according to film goers in 1989. 

In Back to the Future II doc Brown and Marty (and Jennifer (who remembers that detail)) visit Hill Valley on 21st October 2015 - which is TODAY!

Not surprisingly, since last year, people have been comparing the present day to "2015" as depicted in Back to the Future II. Of course they are some things that we are disappointed have not arrived, such as the flying car (something everyone has been bitching about since 1989...)

Hobbes: "A new decade is coming up."

Calvin: "Yeah, big deal! Hmph. Where are the flying cars? Where are the moon colonies? Where are the personal robots and the zero-gravity boots, huh? You call this a new decade?! You call this the future?? HA! Where are the rocket packs? Where are the disintegration rays? Where are the floating cities?"

 Bill Watterson: Calvin and Hobbes December 30, 1989 

Although it has to be pointed out that the flying car is an idea that dates back to the 1920s, when aeroplanes were just becoming popular after World War I. With that in mind you'll realize that the flying car has become a cliché in sci-fi set in the future, like domestic humanoid robots and shiny clothes. Also, if you ever had the experience of flying a plane, a flying car won't be very piratical in the real world, if you consider the paperwork needed. Although, if self-driving cars become more practical, the flying car may finally have a chance to become a practical reality.

And on the subject of flying cars, what about the other thing everyone wants for "2015" - the hoverboard. Like flying cars, the hoverboard isn't unique to Back to the Future II. But the film did something special to it - it made it a kids toy, made by Mattel. Also, for added publicity, director Robert Zemeckis fuelled a rumour that the hoverboards use din the film were real and that the reason they were not on sale was due to parent groups complaining that they were not safe. 

However, unlike the flying car, people have built actual working prototypes (which many you may have seen). But they are not fully-functional hoverboards like the one we all imagined. A number of them relay on magnetic/conductive surfaces to hover (like a maglev). And (like the jet pack, the other form of personal transportation we all complain we don't have let) they have limited range, depending on their power source. 

Despite these two big disappointments, they are a number of things "2015" got somewhat right. We got flat-screen TVs, 3D movies (despite the lack of Jaws squeals (thank goodness)), self-grown fruit and veg and a nostalgic lens for the 1980s.

For more check out this Newsweek article I found last year.

I'll end this piece with this video from Doc Brown himself....

The Future Is Now! - 10/21/15 - A Special Message From Doc Brown

(Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, 2015

So, in the future if you see a fantastic future been depicted in any media, take it with a sceptical eye. 

It may not turn out as depicted....