morning routine

you wake up.

you wonder what you want to do today. you check the latest open house tasks:

• plant potatoes (easy)
• clean kitchen (medium)
• repair broken generator (hard)

you feel good today, you've been feeling much more awake ever since air pollution has reached low enough levels to breathe outside without a mask.

you get out of bed and head to your house's kitchen. here you grab some fresh fruit, granola, and yogurt in a bowl, which you bring with you to your house's garden. on the way you pick up the paper.

you sit down next to the apple trees and ponder, what's in a seed...?

a housemate walks by: "hey, did you hear about what happened last night?"

"no, what's up?"

housemate: "there was a 8.5 earthquake in Wellington"

"wow!"

housemate: "yet everyone was fine, hardly even any structural damage."

"so the latest open building models really are earthquake safe, huh?"

housemate: "yeah i guess so, i wonder if this will convince more people here to upgrade"

you decide to flip through the paper. another boring day in Berkeley.

you check the nearby garden data: our house is producing 5% more produce than last year.

you wonder why that might be, more clear skys, more automation, the latest genome?

you decide on your next task: plant potatoes. easy.

even though you've done this before, you skim through the documentation to make sure you remember everything.

you check in the shed, find the bag of potato seeds and pull out a planter. you set the planter upright and hold out the seeds.

you see the planter take the bag, analyze the seeds, and venture onward, finding open spaces suitable for growing potatoes.

the sun starts to climb over the trees and you feel the warmth against the cool breeze.

you ponder how much you want to work today.

you remember a conversation last night, about the impact the floods were having on nearby houses.

your house has been mostly unharmed, mostly due to its position within the geography.

as other houses become more impacted, you've appreciated the opportunity share your house's surplus, in particular the micro-factory equipment that you diligently maintain.

you wade through the latest real-time climate analysis coming through Northern California. attached to each report are discussions on potential actions requiring regional coordination, many of these linking to documentation about new techniques made possible by the latest open research in Hawaii.

overwhelming but important, you let this sink into your subconscious. in the meantime, you decide you want to do some simple physical labor today, so you check the nearby house boards for open tasks recommended for your skills:

• clean blocked drain pipes (easy)
• build a barn (medium)
• repair water pump (medium)
• elevate house 2 meters (hard)

ah, a good barn raise! you remember contributing to the initial designs for this neighboring site, so it makes sense to join the physical party.

you grab a bike, check your hud for directions, and pedal onward towards the sun.

I get sad a lot. Sadness comes consistently, but unexpectedly, though I've grown to handle it better with time. Depression feels like an unpleasant childhood friend who comes to visit every now and then, who has some important thing to tell me, but phrases things so terribly.

Hi @zach I'm sorry that you experience this. I know it too. You express that beautifully.

One method that's helped with my depression is magical thinking. Like the thought that Time exists in more ways than the one we comprehend. And in some fashion, the future me already exists, and has already moved past this sad spell. If I believe that, then maybe the past me also still exists, and is hoping for some better future. And so, in the moments when I feel the most aware, and alive, and happypowerful, I try to send back encouragement to my past self, urging him closer to where I am right now. That way, In the moments when I feel fully under a black cloud, I can seek support from my future self and ask for encouragement — an intuitive direction towards that happier future.

This is a great technique. I will try this as well. Thank you.

If I were to describe the mood of the web today (or at least the people I know within it), it would be depression. Everything gives off a feeling of melancholy, anxiety, and a persistent guilt over not getting enough done. Today, the best metaphor for being online is the feeling of being depressed in bed, trying to find the desire to face the day.

Oh god yes. That is exactly how I feel on the days when I log into twitter. Helpless despair. More often than not I stare in horror for 20 minutes or more then log out, mute, unable to engage.

I don't get this from purposeful web searches with a browser fortified with ad blockers, comment blockers, gif blockers, tracker blockers and a few other custom rules. I don't get it when I read posts on forums dedicated to niche interests. I don't get it when I use email - again, with heavy server side filtering - to communicate with friends.

All of which points at the directions I want SSB to continue.

And so, I'd ask: What is the future you are building for that provides encouragement to your today? How do you see the traces of that future in our community and technology, and how would you describe it to the broader online world, to give it the encouragement to at least stand up and take a shower?

I don't have a beautiful vision and definitely nothing that can compete with @elavoie and @nanomonkey but I want to help build a world where no young person has to grow up feeling isolated or ashamed because they are different, where no one feels second-class or less worthy because they are not a member of the dominant gender, ethnic group or sexual orientation, where ignorance evaporates under the glare of freely shared information, where we aim to help each other up rather than pull each other down, where we listen as much as we talk, where we share freely in the knowledge that by giving we enrich ourselves and each other, where people do not seek to profit from weakness, where advertising is seen by default as a form of pollution, where externalities must be priced into everything we do rather than made somebody else's problem, where no one has to struggle to meet their basic needs of shelter, food, clothing, medical care and so everyone is free to work together or alone pursuing what excites them.

I want a world where we recognise how fragile life is and respect the planet on which we arose and all other life forms on this planet. I want us to see one another as family and to seek to reach out to the stars in peace and without sacrificing our brief lives here or the lives of others in order to do so.

Okay maybe I do have a vision after all. Thank you for the invitation to discover it in expressing it.

For now, I'd happily settle for a platform that offers the welcome of a safe space and the serendipity of a good second-hand bookshop, the intimacy of friendship, the companionship of common purpose - and one where relationships are not commodified and communication not turned into a game for tokens or points but enjoyed for its own intrinsic purpose.

I'm so glad you are doing this Zach. Thank you. To use one of your favourite expressions back at you - you're great.