Journal – Dream of Fruit, Zero Point Energy, Economy

I had a neat dream last night of this delicious new type of fruit. It was abundant and cheap in the stores and very tasty with many different flavors. The inside was chewy like a raisin, with a layer of spicy leafy material between it and a juicy crisp sweet outside layer.

I found out that there was a giant ice storm the season before and the farmers left the fruit on the trees thinking they were ruined. A wind came up and blew all kinds of leaves and materials onto the fruit which stuck onto the outside. The next season the trees started to grow a new layer of fruit over the top of the old dried up fruit. I was happy because there were so many inexpensive fruits like these in the stores for everyone to enjoy.

Dream Meaning

It seems to me like it meant that something new is on the horizon. I’m not sure exactly what it is but it seems like something wonderful. Sometimes it takes a long time to make a really great thing and we never know if something is garbage that needs to be ignored or something great. Just like tea leaves surreptitiously falling into boiling water, small things can lead to much pleasure for many generations.

Many of the cryptocoins I have been collecting have been growing for a couple years or more. Steem seems poised to take off again this year. Maybe subconsciously I’ve been stewing on all these things.

Sunrise looking like Steem

Zero Point Energy

I recently read a post by @wakeupnd on a potential new energy source. It really got me thinking again. This has been on of those things that could be a real game changing technology if it turns out to be true. A clean unlimited energy source could really break the economic chains that limit us.

Like many claims of new game changing technologies I get all excited about the potential of it only to be disappointed with the day in day out perpetual grind. I hope this time things will be different but after waiting years for that breakthrough in nuclear fusion that seems tantalizingly close but never happens - who knows.

Just for fun I thought I would list some things that clean abundant energy like this might help us do.

One of the biggest benefits I believe would be a more peaceful world. Many of our current conflicts are caused at least in part from dwindling resources. There would be no more need to invade a country rich in oil resources.

Zero or near zero cost energy could be used to create clean water through desalination of sea water and pumping it where it is needed. It could also be used to condense water out of the air. Abundant fresh water could help farming and many people.

Free energy really turns into free labor. There are many ways to creatively use it and many resources that could be freed up if they were not being used in our current ways of generating power. No more refineries, oil pipelines or service stations.

Health benefits. Talk about a great way of lowering the cost of health care. By lowering air and water pollution we could save many lives and make our existing health care dollars go a lot further.

Environmental benefits like no more spilled oil or mercury and heavy metal contamination from burning coil and oil. Less toxic runoff from urban areas causing ocean acidification and low oxygen levels. (Of course there are other factors but clean abundant energy could help us do things in better more environmentally friendly ways to fix the urban runoff issues)

Time will tell if these things happen.

Economy

I really like listening to Richard D. Wolff and tune in to his talks when I can. Here’s a link to a hour long talk worth listening to imho. Economic Update: Economics of Emotional Labor

He talks briefly about universal basic income and brings up the fact that people have objections to it because they feel the poor should not be paid for not working. The fact is that many rich people really don’t work either because they have access to assets that allow them to make dividends and payments from investments and the ownership of things like land, factories and stocks.

Money can be made basically through two ways: either through ownership of assets or by working. It comes down to who you want to pay as a society for not working. The poor don’t own anything so why wouldn’t it be fair to pay them something if they are one’s most in need of it?

Emotional labor is something that I had never heard about but the concept really makes a lot of sense to me. Basically it comes down to the type of labor we really need to make a difference in how well a job is done but it many times goes unrewarded.

Watching toddlers gets way underpaid as compared to teaching university students yet the emotional labor demands of that job are very high.

I think many forms of art, writing or music are geared towards filling our emotional needs. Sometimes this type of material does not even get appreciated during the lifetime of the artist that produces it. In general we don’t really put much monetary value as a society on the type of work associated with emotional labor.

I’m thinking that our modern way of life is filled with non-paid emotional labor some of which is really tough for some of us to do. For example, driving through heavy traffic each day is very taxing, yet not usually compensated by our employer.

This component of work makes a big difference in how well the people involved in any system are supported and happy. For instance, getting served by a surly teen that throws the food on the table is much different than being served by a happy smiling teen that wishes you well.

After listening to this talk I’ve been thinking that we have been very gradually moving towards more things that require less emotional labor as consumers. (At least I am) We are also starting to see places where this type of work is being rewarded more. (Steemit?) ;)

I like this trend. I would love to get paid for every smile I make.

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Thanks for reading everyone! I greatly value your support. The photo was slightly processed after being taken this morning on my Galaxy S7.