abtw777

I was buying my first house. My brother remarks that I must surely own a piece of land that goes all the way down to the centre of the Earth – tapering as it goes. I point out that the centre of the Earth is molten rock, like lava. And I for one did not want lava bubbling up through the floorboards and leaving burn marks on the carpet. As far as ownership goes, a depth of soil sufficient to grow a carrot would probably be enough. Bruv continues with my patch of the Earth continuing on upwards into the sky as an ever-widening slice of interstellar space. Depending on the large-scale structure of the universe, my piece of space might actually be infinite, or it might curve back on itself in some weird way. I point out that my new property is just a ground-floor flat. The neighbours might have something to say if I were to claim ownership of the sky or of interstellar space. And besides, what about aliens? So really I just had a little rectangle of real estate (or more precisely, a c...

The thing about people is that we do seem to contradict ourselves. Here’s a few examples. Progressive policies can be very popular, but when it comes to actually voting people vote for the opposite of what they claim to believe. People say we must do something about climate change, but when it comes to changing their own lifestyles they don’t want to do it. People say that kindness, intelligence and a good sense of humour are more important in a relationship than physical attraction, but then they marry for looks. Well, what do we make of all this? It doesn’t mean that people are bad, or deliberately dishonest. No. Just fickle! Because to know our own minds is a lot more difficult than it may seem. Try digging down into what you REALLY want out of life. Perhaps you find that straight-forward? But, wait up. You might not like what I’m about to say here, dear reader, but how do you know that you’re not deceiving yourself? How do you know that what you think you want is what you...

It was back in the 21st century that things started to get really bad – or, depending on how you look at it – started to get good! To be honest though, and like most changes, things had been brewing for quite a while before that. What makes a revolution? It starts with some very mundane and boring stuff! Perhaps a way of looking at it is through ‘infrastructure’. Infrastructure, for most of us, might be described as all the things we don’t see, or don’t think about, or take for granted (as long as they don't go wrong). The infrastructure issue gets difficult when it comes to technology. The thing about technology is that it seems so remote from the infrastructure that lies behind it. Hence, once we have a new gadget or whatever, then us ordinary folk see the gadget and not all of the infrastructure that must be there to make it work. Very often – and perhaps this was the crucial thing for the revolution I’ll be talking about – very often that infrastructure starts off as a ...

In Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino says: ‘Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful and everything conceals something else.’ … A young woman I knew slightly had invited me to a barbecue. Potentially, I’d know some of the other people who’d be there. It was late summer and the weather was mild, although it would be getting dark fairly early. Well before time I arrive at the venue – a local park. This place is of interest to me as there is a suspicion that it is officially ‘common good land’, which means that, under Scots law, it should hold a special status within the city. What strikes me first are the cherry trees that line the walkways criss-crossing the park. They’re loaded with fruit, and clearly no-one seems to be interested in eating it. I cautiously try a cherry, thinking it might be bitter or otherwise unpleasant. But no – soft and sweet! I collect cherrie...

How did it happen, these changes that now seem so obvious in retrospect? Looking back from the 24th century – three centuries into the Symbiocene – it’s difficult to say. But I will try to explain. So, to begin, everyone suddenly decided that their nation should not arm for war any longer. Soldiers, sailors and the air force – they all resigned, and no-one would sign up for the armed forces – not for any amount of money – not even with the threats of imprisonment from increasingly isolated governments. This was the first sign of the end of the hierarchies of power, the end of filthy empire, with all its abuse and hypocrisy and machismo nonsense. All this had come on the back of other changes. There was just a dissolving away of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia. People had become much more honest about their identity – honest both with themselves and with others. Meanwhile, almost the entire working population had become self-employed. Maybe it was this that provided a ...

There’s a story – perhaps it’s a myth – of something that happens to children of a certain age in the Highlands of Scotland. Perhaps the story is told to explain the rather gloomy disposition of the average highlander – a disposition that might, more reasonably, be put down to the terrible weather! But I will tell the story anyway, and I hope, earnestly, that it really isn’t true! Well, a child, reaching perhaps three, four or five years of age, is placed on a table. All the adults of the family gather around and encourage the child to jump from the table – assuring the child that whichever direction they jump an adult will be there to catch them. Eventually the child is persuaded to make a jump and at this point all the grown-ups step back. The child crashes to the floor. The physical pain from the fall is more than surpassed by the emotional horror of the deception. The lesson is surely learnt that no-one can be trusted – even those who you have counted on as friends and fami...

Some people just don’t like a tree, anywhere near their houses, or their neighbours’ houses. The REAL reason is, they want to keep an eye out on who is coming and going. They don’t want to miss any of this ‘action’, whatever the cost to the surrounding foliage. But they come up with various excuses. Leaves falling onto the road or into other gardens. Too much shade. Trees will attract squirrels, which will then try to ‘steal’ food set out for the birds, or break into bins. It’s amazing the middle-class hatred for the grey squirrel here in the UK – on the basis of it being an invasive species. The equally mischievous, but native, red squirrel is now the innocent victim of atrocities carried out by the greys. Then again, I’m not sure that the serious squirrel-haters really make too much of a distinction. As for me, I embrace all squirrels. I visited one of our old stone tenement buildings here in Edinburgh not so long ago. They’re substantial buildings, but most of them aren’t...