Alternative futures ...

For readers awaiting the latest news of internet gurus, yesterday's promised call back never materialised and a call to the provider's helpline, after the usual very unhelpful press this, press that merry go round, located a helpful human who noted the SIM sold yesterday was for use in Apple devices ... another SIM is in the post ... leaving the prowess of the guru, who helped set up the wrong SIM, hooked into an Android tablet, rather shaky ... the young salesperson is excused, since she showed little enthusiasm or interest in her job, but the only possible explanation for the guru is a brain wired only to Apple and thus not seeing the alien Android before him ...

In a parellel problem of housing, a second visit from the engineer to sort the over active fridge freezer results in the information that the setting was too high and between off and 5, 5 was less cold, though on a previous visit the opposite was related by the same engineer, a pleasant young man, whose memory may be fresher than mine ... anyway, after several hours at 5, the ice cream is still rock hard and another call is due to suggest a more substantial investigation ... it seems the thermostat is faulty and if the third one is too maybe the whole batch is broken ... whatever the outcome, it seems unlikely either retailer or the manufacturer will be paying for the excess electricity keeping the appliance super cold, or recognising the wasted hours ...

First World problems ...

Meanwhile, in the holographic universe, feedback from friends varies from one who read it and says it changed his life, another who is intrigued enough to order a copy, and a third who finds the concept unpalatable and presumably will skip  the opportunity ... leading to another story in the book, citing research by psychologists Helen Wambach and Chet Snow, written up in Mass Dreams of the Future, suggesting that the human population will be far lower and that those left will have branched into four groups: one leading a joyless life in space stations; another living happily in harmony with Nature; a third leading bleak, mechanical lives in underground cities; the fourth trying to subsist in a ravaged and ruined earth ... suggesting that the choices we make now may lead us to one or other of those possible options ... and perhaps the missing millions managed the Buddhist goal and never returned in human form ... fascinating ...

And which tense to use when discussing future events already foreseen?