Do overs

I’ve always wanted a do-over for my life. My life right now is great. I am very happy with what I have. It’s just that if somehow I could have a do-over I would take it. I think this is why I like “For All Mankind” so much. It’s a series on Apple TV that I’ve been watching since last year and I’m endlessly fascinated with it on two levels. First, it’s a space drama set on Earth and the moon in the recent past. Except it’s not our past. It’s an alternate, much better past. It’s a past where we made better choices.

So spoilers, by the 1980’s we have electric cars, video phones, and emails. Also, we have a huge base on the moon. All the technological advancements of the space industry are accelerated by the fact that we never stopped our space program. In season 3, the current season, NASA, the Soviets (still hanging on) and a private company (think SpaceX) are in a 3-way race to Mars. There are 2 nuclear-powered space ships and a repurposed space hotel competing against each other. Of course people, in this alternate 1994 are still stupid. There are conspiracy theorists and fossil fuel workers upset about losing their jobs to the growing electrification. I never will understand why people don’t retool and retrain when they have the chance. Like way before you’ve lost your job. I’ve retrained my skills three times and I’m 53. Who didn’t know in the 1980s that computers were going to be a thing in the 21st century?

An interesting detail about For All Mankind, I don’t think they have access to the web. They have email, computers, and whatnot, but they don’t seem to have websites. There’s even a small clue that Tim Berners Lee is trying to advocate for the public to be able to access the internet. I suppose what they’re getting at is a world where Social Media is more carefully considered and perhaps regulated to prevent the kind of civilization-melting radioactivity of its current incarnation. I don’t know. But I do know that next week they’re landing humans on Mars. This is what I love about the show. It’s seeing how those do-overs could pay off. Like if we hadn’t been stupid and squandered our money on wars and tax breaks for oil companies we could reap the benefits of scientific advancements that much sooner. Just a thought.

To me, Canada is an example of what the US could have been if we weren’t stupid. Have you ever been to Canada? It’s amazing. I mean, it’s cold as fuck in the winter, but it’s like a mirror universe where things make sense. A version of the US that’s decent and civilized and most of all forward-thinking. Yes, there are idiots in Canada but not as many, and far fewer of them have made it into Canadian Politics than in the US. Yes, Doug Ford is wildly embarrassing. But he’s Churchill compared to Trump. Or if we’re comparing rotten apples to rotten apples, I’ll take six Doug Fords off your hands for one Lauren Boebert. I wish her mom had had an abortion.