Chapter 14Blissful Devolution: Our Rolling Judgment Day

David J. Nemeth

Abstract Let me sketch out here my vision of the cloistered colnucopla of AD 2100.Management of Planet Earth is entirely rationalized. Natule still nurtmes. Artificialintelhgence is history. The Machine has met its Master. The rich are enraptured The

poor are happy The ducks of demoglaphy are all in a row Never more is heard thediscouraging word. Welcome to my sanguine vision of our future totalitarian utopia.

All 1s for the best an the best of all possible worlds, (Voltaire 1758)

Where agnoxance is bliss, 'hs folly to be wise, (Thomas Gray (1742))

14.1 Part One

14.1.1 The Old Professor

The Old Professor was now at the window, staring out at the world. We students didn'tknow quite what to do. One minute ago, he had been at the chalkboard discussingfood security and the population bomb. He hadjust fimshed drawing what he labeleda "resource pyramid" followed by the word "bananas" enclosed m parenthesis, at

which point he stopped dead silent, paused tbr what seemed an eternity, then rapidlyerased his pyramid in a cloud of chalk dust. In its place, he drew a big perfect circleand then a stick man and stick lady. They were standing together on the circumferenceline of the circle, facing the void within. They both had sad eyes and fi'owns. Theywere holding hands.

The Old Professor couldn't see us because his back was turned, but we were

turning around in our seats quietly making big eyes at one another Then, he wrote"ABYSS" slowly and dehberately m the centel of the circle, dropped the chalk intothe tray, stepped away from the blackboard, and surveyed what he had wntten. Thenhe turned to that big bank of windows on the right side of om classroom and strolledover to them.

D. J Nemeth (ÿ4)Department of Geography and Planning, The Umverslty of Toledo,Toledo, Ohio, USAe-mad DAVID NEMETH@utoledo edu

J Norwme (ed,), A WoHdAftel Chmate Change and Cultule-Shtft, 327DOI 10 1007/978-94-007-7353-0_14, © Splmger Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

328 D. J Nemeth

Granted, the view across campus from where he was standing was splendid anytime of the year It happened to be mid-December. He had clear view across acresof near-naked trees, cart-wheehng leaves, and brown grass. Class was in session butwhat was he up to? Without turning to face us he spoke "Please get up, come overhere to the windows, and look out and tell me what you see"

This we did. There were 25 or so of us, but we had ample space to view out,and while contemplating the question, some of us responded out loud: "glass"..."benches" ... "dead leaves".. "students"... "trees"... "squarrels.. "

"Yes !" He suddenly interrupted us. "Pay attention to those squirrels) Watch themfor a while Then tell me what they are doing "

"Climbing trees"... "running around like crazy" ... "chasing after each other". .. "frolicking .... engaging with nature .... digging up nuts "

"Stop there! Why are these squirrels frantically digging up nuts that they carefullyburied only a few months ago? We stood there for a good !0 minutes going back andforth about wintel, squmels, nuts, and trees.

We students had pretty much concluded that the nuts were necessary as cachedfood resources for the survival of sqmrrels over the winter season. But the OldProfessor then begged to disagree, demonstrating why he was a professor and wemere students.

He asked, "What percent of those nuts that the squirrels buried do you think theyactually eat?"

We knew it was not 100 % so ventured to guess less: "90 percent?""Ha!"

"Eighty percentg""No way."

"Seventy percent?""No "

"Saxty-five percent?""Nope."

"Then 60?""Nyet!"

And so on till he showed us his palm and divulged that had scaentists observedand reported that tree squirrels failed to recover 74 % of the nuts they so carefullyburied. "Do the math" he instructed

So we did the math. Twenty-six percent was recovered food---and the rest addedup to a lot of energy and time wasted. The Old Professor then waxed poetic, "Wherethe squirrels forgot to go, the little trees did grow."

There was a long silence. Indeed, Nature seemed inefficient, but it turns out eventhat conclusion was not the lesson to be learned from the Old Professor's squirrelstory. Instead he concluded, "Now consider this: The squirrels are working for thetrees--but they don't know tt."

A Marxist in the class shouted out, "that's brilliant!" A few students, the crmcal

thinkers In the class, began to nod in confirmation at this unexpectedly profoundaspect of the Old Professor's convoluted squirrel stol y. Most of the rest, pletty much

14 Bhssful Devolution Our Rolling Judgment Day 329

a mindless majority, later on revealed in a straw poll that the Old Professor washimself nuts, but not dangerous

Especially when the Old Professor retmned to his podium, picked up lecture notes,and then paused on the way outI to pointedly ask all of us: "Who are you wolkingforg"

I iemember the day. It was a Thmsday, December 14, 2000.2 Vice President A1Gore3 on the previous day had conceded the Presidential election to Texas GovernorGeorge W Bush This was a significant tipping point for the fortunes of humankindin my estimation: without A1 Gore in the White House, the long-lumoied possibilityof catastrophic anthropogenic global warming had finally teetered over into the realmof the real.

14.1.2 The Lucky Ape

A decade after A1 Gore's concession speech, Jim Norwine asked me to considerplaying futurist by aiming my "secular postmodemist" perspective on the probableoutcome of two trending and potentially high-impact contemporary issues--globalwarming and culture shift. These key considerations would constitute the core conceitof this edited book project. He specifically challenged me to consider wliting achapter that explored the possibility of the existence of a "sanguine" ecumene forhumankind 100 years hence.4

I jumped at the opportunity, which set in motion a cascade of cognitive and creativeprocesses culminating in the production of this essay. Jim Norwine and I had collabo-rated successfully before5 on a "new millennium" themed book project. In all honesty,

1 Never to return. An eaIher version of this squnrel fable appealed in Nemeth (20t0) See alsoRaver (I '-)94)

2 How the GI uich Stole Chttstmas was numbel one at the box office A cIuel xrony I suppose--ffyou voted for Mr. Gore

3 While A1 Gore as not considered a futurist, he did frequently use counterfactual ("what-if") argu-ments m several books as a hterary device in order to alarm the public about the threat of catastrophicAGW m the futuie (see Gore I992, 200(L also Warf2002) An A1 Gore presidency in 2000 maghthave resulted in government AGW interventions m an attempt to "put the brakes" on anthropogcnlc-induced climate change See Inter govetnmental Panel on Chmate Change Foutth Assessment Repot t(Umted Nations 2007) for vahdatmn of Gore's fears, and also Loveloek (20ÿ)9) and Smith (2011 )for further validatmn. See Allegre et al (20I 2) and Wemstem (2009) for arguments denying orrejecting the scientific basis for Gore's fears. See Idso (20t 1 ) for a remarkably optImistm (althoughincredibly naive) analysis of the present and future state of the world

4 Sanguine is a strangely, wonderfully ambiguous term I first thought of"bloody" (peIhaps involvingzomblesg)--but then settled on "bhssful" as more logically hewing to Jam's intended meaning

51 contributed a chapter also written from a sanguine secular postmodernist perspective for hisco-authored book Wotldwew Flua Pelpleaed Values among Postmodern Peoples (Norwine andSmith 2000)

330 D J Nemeth

I felt qualified because I had throughout my entile academic life brainstormed aboutpossible futures foi humanity featuiing come-what-may scenarios.6

Over a lifetime, I had imagined, I am sure, only the top of the tip of the ice-berg of possible scenarios Of these, by the time my hair began turning gray, Ihad already winnowed these possibilities down into "most probables" and begun tocontemplatively sketch out my "most hkely" among these.

Jim's timely invitation forced me leap from contemplation into a more disciplinedwriting mode for my forecasting This has propelled me to relish here the opportunityto shaie and comment below on my snapshot view of a frankly endearing lucky apewho conveniently raps my shutter in 2100 CE where I can observe and describeit in broad strokes still endunng7 through precarious times while yet persevenng,undaunted. I observe, for example, that the ape inhabits an overheated contingentworld, but has adapted by adopting some fit stIategies and stratagems for successfullysurviving in this distressed but still nurturing new epoch in its epic history.

The subtitle of my essay "our rolling judgment day" acknowledges in long retro-spect this always-endangered condition of humankind throughout its recorded his-tory,8 yet aspires to celebrate the endunng survival of a species that (against-all-oddsin a godless world)9 continues to evade complete erasure.

14.1.3 The Fool Abandons His Garden

When I first put fingertip to keyboard on this project, I was fortunate that materialsrelating to the significant topics of catastrophic anthropogenlc global warming and

6 But then, what sentient and worldly cultmal geogi aphei has not smnlatly indulged in this sol t offuturistic fantasizing9

7 That the human ape survwes at all 100 years hence is a rmiacle It has occurred specificallyby editorial decree for the benefit of chapter authors hke me, who otherwise would have nothingat all to write about Dr Norwme has shared his personal optimism with us, "My own behefthat our species will survive into the 22nd century, notwithstanding a mean global temperatureincrease of ÿ 5 °C (ÿ 10°F)--which seems, as I wllte these words m the autumn of 2010, the mostrealistic projection available foi 2100 (MIT 2(t09), might fmrly be considered hopeful hunch atbest, superstitious graveyard-whlsthng at worst" (Norwme 2011)) Scripture, on the other hand, hashumankind departing its earthly abode mole abruptly "the heavens will pass away with a roar andthe elements wall be destruyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up" (2Peter 3 10). "Catastrophic anthropogemc global warming" sounds hke Peter's prediction m detailand ÿs about as ominous and upon us as a dne predictmn can get

8 Judgment Day (a.k.a Apocalypse now) is hke my neighbor's lawnmowet on Memorial Day Itoften seems on the verge of kicking m but never does Fading to do so, it gets rolled back into thegarage tdl the next try See the website "A Brief History of the Apocalypse" (Nelson 201 t ) fol along annotated list of Apocalypses that never happened and End Times that have yet to arrive. Also,see Boyer (1994) and Swyngedouw (20I 0)9 The working hypothesis that "God is dead" is a secular postmodernlst perspective for futuristicstorytelhng that neither assures pessimistic outcomes nor precludes optÿmÿstic outcomes A rewewof the hterature ÿeveals that lromc and O Henry outcomes seem to occui more often than not an thepostmodern secular canon (see, for example, "The Gift of the Magi" m O. Henry (1923))

14 Blissful Devolution Our Rolhng Judgment Day 331

culture change were already embedded throughout the lecture notes of my currentcourses,t° Still I scrambled to recall

1. what I already knew about these topics as addressed in the vast and varied sub-genres of futuristic fictions,

2 what more could be learned about these topic in these genres in the time frame Ihad available to plepare solid foundations for my own original contribution, and

3. what might constitute an original contribution, one that would not be perceivedby my readers as god-forbid purloined o1" even suspiciously derivative of whatwas already "out there" in the public consciousness due to the creative efforts of

other writers of futuristic fictions.

Also, I promised myself that above all that I would not mention "zolnbies"--andhere I see I have aheady done so--twice!

Some months ago, I completed to my own satisfaction the first two of the above

three tasks. The lessons of that enriching exploratory Ieadmg experience can besummed up in one profound piece of advice shared by the character Pangloss inVoltaire's Candide, (1758) and which serves as epigraph to this chapter: "All is forthe best in the best of all possible worlds " Candide is the suffering protagonist inVoltaire's critical satire of theories, emphasizing the heroic optimism of the intellectpromulgated by Enlightenment philosophers Spinoza and Leibnitz. Voltaire has Can-dide driven by circumstance and constantly questing miserably through an absurdlydystoplan world. Candide, everywhere a naive and vulnerable stranger, is abused andexploited by locals who deprave him of all but the most fleeting asylum, peace, andpleasure it His quest ends when he finally abandons his baseless optimism (foistedon him by Pangloss) and concludes that humans can discover happiness only whenthey cease questing to affilm their abstract contemplations and settle down to indulgein the simple life of "cultivating their gardens."

An operatic version of Candtde (1956) elaborates on Candide's profound,climactic discovery when the entire cast joins happily in song:

We're neither pure nor wise nol good,We'll do the best we know,We'll build our house, and chop our wood,And make our garden growAnd make our garden grow

During my search to gain more geosophical insight12 into the meaning of this epicwanderer, I strived to find some sort of artistic image of Candide, perhaps depicting

10 I teach Cultural Geography and Conselwatlon and Resources legulmly in a large public universityat the undergraduate level and Philosophy and Methodology m Geography at the graduate level.11 Preston James oted the essayist and author Caball (I ÿ)26) as the epigraph to his classic text ingeographm thought All Posstble Wot lds (1972), "The optimist proclmms that we hve in the best ofall possible worlds, and the pesslrmst fears that this is true" See Kotlon (2011 ) for an example ofremarkable present-day Panglossmn optimism

12 "Geosophy," a term corned by John K Wright (J 947), means "the study of geographical knowl-edge from any or all points of wew" My research m search of "geosophlcal mmght" spemficallyrevolved learning as much as possible about imaginative texts, maps, and images that lelate to past,

332 D J Nemeth

Fig. 14.1 Artwork foaBroadway musical CandMe©Doug Johnson 1974 PLAYBI

him in the existential context of his worldly misadventures. I hoped to isolate hisimage in my mind from those of others in the literary pantheon of suffering, perhapsself-deluded, wanderers in the world Ulysses, Melmoth, Ahab, and so on.

Eventually I ran across the playbill for this opera mentioned above (Fig. 14 ! )The playbill depicted Candlde moving ahead naively through a world of woes,

somehow surviving all his misadventures m spite of himselfThis playbill image has a striking resemblance to this image of "The Fool" as

portrayed in the most popular commercial deck of Talot foltune-telling cards on themarket (Fig. 14 2) 13

Perhaps these corresponding portrayals of what is obviously the human condition(1 e, what being-m-the-world means) are a coincidence. However, I think they are ameaningful coincidence m a Jungian sense of the phlase 14 If so, the representation ofthe human condition in the images are ripe for exploitation and discussion purposesas I contrive to preface here my pl edlction of the "blissful devolution" of the survivinghuman race as I envision it to be in theYear AD 2100 15

present, future, and fantasy geographies. See, for example, Manguel and Guadalupl (1)(tl)(ÿ) andMoon Raver (201 / ).13 This image as from a scanned copy of "The Fool" tarot card that belongs to the Rider-Wrote tarotdeck The card was pubhshed an 1909 and is now m the pubhc domain14 See "synchronlcaty" and Carl Jung (Wilhelm 19()7)

is Not speeulanve fiction of a familiar sort (e g., futuristic science fictmns, fantasxes and so on) butof a rare category responding specifically to the question "What will Bemg-In-The-Woald be hkem a hundred years9" and for lack of a more appropriate name "geosophlcal speculation"

14 Bhssful Devolution Our Rolling Judgment Day

Fig, 14.2 The Tarot card"The Fool" pirated 111 1909 O

333

FOOL.t

Let me play fortune-teller by briefly deconstructing through a casual discourse(rather than by lecture) the enigmatic message of the Tarot card "The Fool" as itpertains in general to the human condition by offering insight into what it means tobe-in-the-world.

Where is this apparently vainglorious NakedApe16 offto now? He is bound for theYear 2100 you say? He never seems to settle down or finish anything he starts, doeshe9 His resume is long, but void of accomphshment He never heeds sound advicein plecallous cncumstances. Meanwhile he seems hounded by contingencies Yethe appears happy--even on the verge of a precipice. Old Sol has perhaps fried hisbrain. And what's with the flower9 Better he should carry a parachute

Ale those all his survwal skills m one sack? It IS not much to show for millions of

years of evolution. Many say he is his own worst enemy and too smalt fol his owngood. Now he is in a real pickle. Jim Norwine's "double-whammy" has him on the

move again.

He seems proud to be The Enlightened One Will his rational mind save him m theend fiom his own self-destructiveness? If so, perhaps he is headed for a soft landingafter all Or, the unexpected may intervene: a helicoptel--or even compassionatealiens from anothel galaxy--might swoop down and carry him off to tentative safety.This is until he again strays off in search of... whatever.

Adding to this what we have just learned from reading Candide, we might wellbe wondering why humans let their minds wander aimlessly xnto redundant abstract

16 The "Naked Ape" reference here is a tribute to the audacious honesty of the Desmond Morns bookby the same title (ÿ 9ÿ7), a precursor to socloblology (see Wilson 19ÿ()). This book, and Morns'sfollow-up book The Human Zoo (1969), are two of the early works in the field. See also The TlntdChimpanzee The Evolution and Future of the Human Ammal by Diamond (I 9ÿ)2)

334 D J, Nemeth

realms and cul-de-sacs? Why don't they just settle down and grow turnips? Learningfrom turnips, they might themselves theleby become turnip-like and grow roots anddwell thenceforth in mindless bliss

14.1.4 Geosophical Speculations

Contemplating the human condition a hundred years into the future 1s a game anyonecan play for both fun and profit. Predicting for profit may be second oldest professionon Earth The lucrative entertainment Industry today thrives on spinning dramaticscenarios of the human condation being hved in the context of spectaculal futuristicand fantasy settings.

Seriously contemplating the future through the process o1 heuristic modeling,and undertaken as a public service, can also entertain but in the filst instance aimsto Inform and influence those decision makers who control the power and resouices.They alone as concerned individuals and groups can effectively intervene In the futureas it unfolds while attempting to change its trajectory and outcome.

Waft (2002) argues against concocting postmodern "anything goes" counterfac-tuals and speculative fictions for the purposes of serious contemplanon because asheuristic models their story lines must be pelceived by readers as credtble In order to

be perceived as useful for educational, planning, and decision-making purposes Folexample, the post-apocalyptic film Waterworld (released 1995) is too Incredible tobe taken seriously by most critical thinkers in responsable decision-making positions.

Its story line projects approximately 500 years into the future "The polar ice capshave melted, covenng the Earth with water Those who survived have adaptedto a new world" (thus the title). Most survivors are moral degenerates. Some human

survivors, the film speculates, have developed gills.Granted, some futuristic blockbusters and critically-acclaimed favorites in litera-

ture and film were created mainly to entertain rather than elucidate, yet neverthelessthey incorporate creative insights useful for seriously contemplative heuristic model-mg of the human condition in a futuristic setting 17 The vast majority of futmistlc orspeculative fiction films (many based on popular and cult hterary works) are dystoplanscience fictxons and fantasies Few have happy endings. Ambiguous outcomes at bestare common fare In dystopian film scripts

My "Bhssful Devolution" for 2100 CE pledicated on the Norwinian "doublewhammy" has been shaped in part undeI the influence of innovative ideas encoun-tered while experiencing the following books and films: Brave New World, Gattaca,

Nineteen Eighty-Four, Blade Runneÿ Fahrenhett 451, The Hunger Games, Brazil,Soylent Green, A Clockwork Orange, The Man in the High Castle, V for Vendetta,

17 The film Three Days of the Condor (1975) exploited the idea of government agents analyzingeven pulp fiction for futurÿsnc scenarios that, 1f reahzed, mÿght endanger national security,

14 Bhssful Devolution Our Rolhng Judgment Day 335

Harrtson Bergeron, Atlas Shrugged, Part 1, The Handmald's Tale, Idtocracy, and toa less-conscious extent other tltles.t8

My story aims to be Ollglnal, though it more probably is unconsciously, unavoid-ably derivative 19 Also, it alms to be credible, notwithstanding some artistic (mainly

stylistic) license. It is not, for example, apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic, and I have Ithink made no "incredibly speculative" science fiction or fantasy projections More-over, I'd like to believe my predictive scenario is not a sub-genre of speculative fictionat all, even though it is futuristic. For one, I consider my futulistic scenario to be"real" rather than fiction based on my self-serving interpretation of the controversialconceptualization of "the real" by quantum physicist Hugh Everett HI 20

FurtheImore, I would like to call this game "geosophlcal speculation" for our

discussion purposes here, for the pnnclple question I have been asked to respond tois' "What will Being-In-The-World be like in a hundred yearsg"

It occurs to me after considerable thought, personal/professional experience, andclose attention paid to the words of my colleagues in this collaboxatlve compendiumthat, assuming away an apocalyptic event, increasing happiness is lUSt around thecorner and not that fal ahead. I can easily envision this as a postmodern secularistIf I am correct, we have nothing to worry about as a species as long as we stay thepresent course, which means to abide, but also to aggressively discover and decidehow turn our lemons, climate change and culture shift, into lemonade?1 We canconspiie (plan) to survive, and implement our plan

18 I am a firm behever and thus in agieement with Joyce Caiol Oates and others who claim tobelieve that there me only two profound stories of significant interest to humans through the ages(as an examination, the popular canon of English-language literature and film--Wuthet mg Hetghts,Pdgrtm's Pt ogress of Gt apes of Wrath, The Tetvmnatol---can demonstrate) (1) a sti anger comesto town and (2) the quest, Since strangers are perforce on a quest, these two stories actually boildown to one epic story The Arcanum of "The Fool" imaged in the Tarot deck seems to be the epicstory reduced ad absurdum.

19 Ecclesiastes 1 9 reads "There is nothing new under the sun"

2o Controversial quantum physicist Hugh EveIett III is known by his admireIs as the godfather of the"many woilds interpretation" (DeWitt and Graham ÿ ÿ)73) His contribution to science (which I applyhere as a both a guide to and validation of my own futuristic storytelling) reassures me that there isan infinity of contingent yet real worlds (both past and future) that defies enumeration and inventory(DeWltt andGIaham 197.3) Moreover, thelnternet-emancipated postmodern hypertext storytelhngexperience ÿtself mwtes anyone to mix and match aspects of myriad contingency stories°prewously-told with their own contingency story never-before-told Postmodern stolytelhng described as "backto the future" genre deploys all these posslbllmes (reahtles, cf Everett), Such emerging creativeworks characteIized by their freewheeling remixes of unfiltered digitized source materials resultingin pseudo-original odd juxtapositions are recognized today as examples of deliberately recombinantor derived art forms and termed "mash-ups" For example, see Grahame-Smith, Seth, and JaneAusten (2010),21 "Abide" is an archaic word having the denotation "living in a certain place" and implies "livingwith things some might not find easy to live with" Humans in most global warming scenarioswill have to abide (and endure and cope with) increased heat and nsmg sea levels "To abide"also has moral and ethical lmphcatlons My prediction scenario has humanlond abiding into thefuture, but the high cost of abiding is socially constructing eugemcs as a humane, progressive, andmoral necessity (instead of the inhumane, despicable, and retIograde planning pohcy it was widelyperceived to be after World War II)

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14.1.5 Sally Blue

D J Nemeth

TheYear is 2067 Sally Blue is at the desk to which she is assigned She has a terribleheadache from the heat She looks up and across the shaded concrete for an answel.

"He was." "He was not." These are her choices

A hot wind blows across the exam platform, drying the tears forming at the cornersof her eyes almost as fast as they emerge. One nearly tracks down her right cheek allthe way to her chin It feels cool on her hot flesh, and the sensation makes her happyStill, she sweeps it away with the brush of the back of her stamping hand Time isup

Across the pavlhon, the proctor steps down from his elevated platform and beganto walk m her direction. Sally has seconds only left to decide, but she has a notionof which of the two is the correct answel. She recalls that a bunkmate once told herto be careful and keep her notions to helself.

She presses her thumb again to the inkpad and stares at the exam sheet one lasttime.

The ploctor is moving swiftly now m her direction He is looking at his stopwatch Sally's thumb, ripe red and ready, hovers over her choices. "He was." "Hewas not." She followed her hunch. Right or wlong, she knew she would be soon onthe move again. She had moved several times befole. She hked running with a newcrowd. She had yet to fit in anywhere.

Back at the beginning when she was Sally Red and with her Main Gang, she wassuddenly reassigned. Then again, when she was Sally Yellow, she was unexpectedlyspht from thear ranks "for further consideration." But then m no time at all, it seemed

she was "Sally Green" and apparently moving up the ladder. So again she moved.Sally Green of the "Big Green Crew" seemed the happiest days of her life. "Family

is the most Important thing" she often sang and whistledAnd now she was Sally Blue: "Who are you? I'm Sally Blue, and happy too) She

giggled. Good times! Easy hvmg! She would finish her exam and move on up theladder--or not Life was what it was.

She pressed her red thumb onto the white paper, forcefully yet carefully, insidethe box "Thumb inside the box!" was the cardinal ÿule. She had practiced manytimes just how to take the exam and was very good at not touching or crossing theboundary of any enclosure. The other box she did not touch.

"Perfect, Sally Blue!" said the proctor, nudging her hard on the shoulder. "Nowstand up and follow the Rainbow Line--and keep whistling!"

She did just that and whistled while she walked step by step along the rainbowline under the vast canopy. She was now "Sally Rainbow" and on the move again) Itvaguely occurred to her as meanmgful that she had never m her hfetime ever met asister or brother "Rainbow."

The proctor watched her exit. He turned to her exam paper He looked againbriefly at her response. Sally's red thumbprint was in the box on the right captioned"He was "He pressed his own thumb on the surface of the mk pad and then into thebox on the left, where the box was labeled "He was not "The proctor then proceeded

14 Blissful Devolution. Our Rolhng Judgment Day 337

to carefully fold the exam, contents inwaid, and the last thing he saw before the foldand crease was The Questaon--"Human."

He too exited the concrete slab but via the white line. He was glad to be donewith it for the day and headed back to his barracks for a shower. He was hot, and

thirsty, but happy. His name was Bobby Tata, part of the Quality Control and PolicyImplementation Expedition Team, just doing his job.

14.2 Part Two

14.2.1 The Cornucopia of A.D. 2100

Let me sketch out here the cornucopia of 2100 CE The cornucopia I envision for2100 CE as a horn-of-plenty-enough to enable to satisfy the needs and wants ofhumankind. Mine is a sanguine scenmlo based on tenable assumptions about presenttrends.

Jim Norwlne's "double-whammy" of chmate change and culture shift is not only

theoretically survivable but can be an unprecedented exploitable opportunity to im-prove the human condition dramatically without further reliance on economic growth

ideology, large-scale consumerism, scientific advancement, or machine-dependencyThe "rolling apocalypse" in my chapter title implies that, short of the onset of

a total life-extinguishing global apocalyptic event, the present managers of planetEarth may still have time to plan and Implement draconian measures to postpone orpreclude the final event. To the extent that combined climate change and culture shiftare acknowledged by world leaders as a significant cause for alarm, it is in the self-interest of these managers of planet Earth to act rationally, qmckly, and decisivelyto mitigate the most deleterious impacts of these recognized change drivers, thuscreating a best of all possible worlds that successfully divert humamty fiom itsplesent path toward self-destruction?2

In general, a less-than-catastrophic climate change will probably result m globalwarming that causes the rapid redismbution (but not the elimination) of food le-sources necessary and sufficient for human food security and survival As for dramaticand deleterious culture change, a rapid and decisive self-guided moral reconstiuc-tion of leadership among management can probably succeed to mmgate and perhapsremove entirely the problem of moral decay in human society that characterizes theculture shift.

The lational planning and early amplementation of a strategic survival manage-ment plan seems to me already underway Humankind will restructure its social,

22 The term "global warming" appeared first in the title of a scientific journal in 1975 (Broecker! 975) at which time it was modxfied by the adjectave "pronounced" meanmg measurably remarkableto the scaentÿfic community but not necessarily reason for pubhc concern. "Catastrophic" becomesintroduced into the pubhc consciousness as a noun modlfiel, often accompanied by "anthropogemc,"only after the publlcahon the 2007 IPCC Report (Umted Nations 2007)

338 D J Nemeth

economic, and political institutions accordingly, and will include the efficient redis-tribution within environmentally determined constIaints both the mass and varietyof humankind

14.2.2 Management of Planet Earth is Entirely Rationalized

I envision that in 2100 CE aspects of hfe-management on Earth ale reduced tostrict cost-benefit analyses for decision-making purposes by an elitist consanguineousoligarchy managing a totalitarian utopia that is a monument to their will to not onlyto survive but improve the human condition given the oppoitunlty provided by anear-catastrophic crisis. Decisions ale constantly evaluated by close coordinationbetween elite management teams in order to assure the continuous maintenance oftheir agleed-upon and entrenched "best practices "

These practices are codified, and revisions to the code are discouraged and rare.23

Rationalization of everything according to these complehenslve codes in order tooptimize survival of humankind and the promotion of its collective destiny requiresand reproduces an inflexible status quo. These codes were originally planned anddrafted by ohgalch-elites for oligarch-elites and enforced to ensule a plevallingtemporal/spatial efficiency and stability in earth management processes. The codesare secular but treated as sacrosanct. A pielude to the codes includes their historical

justification. This history as written is entirely self-serving to oligarch-elites whohave carefully re-written their own history and the history of the world to ensuretheir own collective destiny as earth managers.

Oligarch-elites, in my prediction, define themselves as exclusively human. Oncea class, they are now a race. I will call them Hol Oligoi in this essay The necessaryand sufficient means for their survival (food, shelter, and clothing) are produced by&senfranchised humans who were also once a class, but are now a race. I will callthem Hol Polloi 24

In sum, I predict that 100 years into the futuie a minoiity population of intel-ligent Hoi Ollgol will strictly follow an entirely rational comprehensive strategic

23 Comparable for example to the Amish 01dnung, which is the German woÿd for order, discipline,rule, arrangement, organization, or system, and ÿt serves to regulate Amish private, pubhc andceremomal hfe While the Otdnung as pÿactlced at present among the Amish has local variationsfrom group to group around the world, it could be adapted to standal&zatlon and codified andenforced to serve the purposes of a more centrahzed, totalitarian pohtÿcal system

24 "Hol Pollol" (meaning "the many") and "Hol Ohgol" (meaning "the few") ale Greek-languagephrases thought to ongmate m "Pericles' Funeral O1 atlon" as mentioned m Thucydides' Htstoty ofthe Peloponnestan War. In modern Enghsh-language usage, "HolPollol" denotes an un&fferentmtedmass of xgnorant common folk (a k a "the herd") m contrast to an ehte few--"Hol Ohgol"--wholord over them Huntington (2004) prowdes insight into the prevalhng moral condlhons undel whichglobal ehtes in 2010 CE might transform themselves into the Hol Ohgol I envision in 2100 CE(note lus critical use of the term "Arasu (2{)1 ÿ)") See also Rothkopf (2008) for Supetclass TheGlobal Powel Ehte and the Wotld They At e Making

14 Blissful Devolution Our Rolhng Judgment Day 339

plan that has cleated a productive socio-economic cultural landscape where majoritypopulations of productive Hol Pollol abide happily--even if in a fool's paradise

14.2.3 Nature Still Nurtures

In every less-than-catastrophic anthropogemc global warming scenario generated bycurrent chmate models, chemical energy production on Earth (e g the food cycle)seems sustainable for humankind, although not at current population levels. In gen-eral, climate change is expected to increase yields at high and mid-latitudes whileleading to decreases at lower latitudes. Africans, for example, would experience se-vere food security issues given the combination of current global warming and localpopulation growth. In sum, food supplies for humans one hundred years hence willexist if ratlonahzahon of human numbers is addlessed in a timely manner.

14.2.4 Artificial lntelligence (AI) is History

This term was corned in 1956 by John McCm thy who defined it as "the science and en-gineenng of making intelligent machines" (Schofield 2011 ). By 2005, progress alongthese lines was going so well that the scientist/futurist Ray Kurzweil predicted withconfidence In the title of his new book that The Singularity Is Near (Kurzwei12005),the singularity being the time when machines with smarter-than-human intelligencewould begin to roll off an assembly hne most likely designed and manufactmed bythemselves.

2045 CE is that the tipping point according to Kurzwell, whence from thereononwards, machine intelligence would continue outstrip human intelhgence at anexponential rate, leading to (walt for it)) human Immortality) They love us so, thosemachines we have come to depend on so much for our survival. They have workedfor us and now they walt think for us

The optimism of technophlles at present knows no bounds. My first thought isthat why teach machines the concept of efficiency in the context of increasing Fordlsteconomic growth ideology--unless your goal is to extinguish the human species inthe grips of robotic terminators? But we have all seen that movie or a variation of it(Fig. 14 3).

I predict that the combined threat of climate change and culture shift will bethe wake-up call for the present managers of planet Earth25 to act decisively to savethemselves, as an elitist "culture" from self-extinction They will reject the entire En-

lightenment philosophical and pohtical metanarratives along with the failed industrialmode of production and free market capitalism They will adopt to build a sxmpler civ-ilization that abohshes the established alienation of humankind and nature and select

25 The current leaders of the global mlhtaty, industrial, corporate complex

340 D J Nemeth

Fig. 14.3 The singularity ishere) Original drawing mpencil by Timothy Sanderson(2oto)

survival strategies and stlatagems associated with successful biologically-poweredagricultural production systems and practices modeled on what are perceived to besuccessful ancient and medieval historic models

14.2.5 The Machine Has Met Its Master

A sudden fear of failing that triggers a worldwide shutdown of the EnlightenmentProject and its delusion of progress wall set the stage for massive global, social,economac, and pohtical reconstruction and a race against time Chmate warming andculture change pose an unprecedented challenge that, in terms of conflict resolution,cannot be dissolved (escaped), absolved (ignored), or resolved (win-win outcome)They can only be solved, whach is a wan-lose outcome.

Machines powered by non-vital biologacal enelgy foa the first time in 400 yearswill not be deployed to attempt to solve the survival issue for the conflicted manage1 sof planet Earth. Machines, when identified as the ploblem instead of the solution, areno longer maintained much less improved upon--thus losers. Science in the serviceof inventing new and advancing technologies is abandoned--thus losers

And what to do about the dissolute masses propagated during in the era of culturechange9 In the context of the prospect of future food security issues, their large andgrowing numbers m this time of crisis, are similarly and rationally percmved from aneo-Malthuslan perspective as a problem to the future survival of humankind--losers

(Giroux 20ÿ9; Malthus 1789; Meadows et al. 1972; Le Gum 1974; Kotkln 2011)

14 Bhssful Devolution Our Rolling Judgment Day

14.2.6 The Rich are Enraptured

341

Conspiring to save humankind involves both lisks and rewards for the managers ofplanet Earth. Their options are to elthel go down with the Titamc (extinction) orto succeed with their planning. If success means having made hard decisions, thenleadership has good reason to be delighted with itself for accomplishing its goals

OptlrmstIc rational thinkers throughout human histoly have frequently observedthat every crisis IS an opportunity for change 26 In a world transformed by ra-nonal decision-making that features a radically-changed moral climate, cause for

redemption for making tough decisions may not even be required.When leadership rejoices ovei its accomplishments, the histories they and their

comrades write about themselves will highlight their courageous decisions and shared

sacrifices Then everyone has reason to rejoice.

14.2. 7 The Poor are Happy

Here is sage advice worth contemplating: "Never forget public ignorance is a govern-ment's best friend" (Unknown 2010) What government would not benefit from thecheerful optimism of its governed9 How might a government accomplish a plan todeliberately create a cheerful optimism throughout its governed? We have all heardthe homily "Ignorance is bliss "So the answer to the question "How to cleate bhssg"might be "Create ignorance."

Poor people27 may be unhappy because they are intelligent enough to realizethey are poor. Suppose they could be deliberately rendered less intelligent by theirgovernment to the extent they are no longer aware they are poor? This may sound tooincIedible and fanciful to deliberate on or discuss. Howevei, consider Nolth Korea,

where the poor project a public Image to the outside world that they are happy TheNorth Kolean government has recently leleased the results of a "Global HappinessIndex" that validates the image and implies that a totalitarian utopia is a feasible,noble achievement (Flanagan 2(1t ) ).

The North Korean example demonstrates that a captive populace under totalitariancontrol can be successfully educated (brainwashed?) to appear happy But can this

26 Mao Tse Tung IS said to have marveled optimistically m a hme of teiuble crisis "There isgreat chaos under heaven and the situation is excellent)" Charismatic (predominantly male) leadershave, by defimtion, throughout history demonstrated they can take large masses of people wherethey otherwise would not want to go and actively engaging in doing things they otherwise wouldnot want to do. Channeling humanlond through real (or perceived) threats of climate change andculture shift to achieve a specified set of planned objectives 2100 CE would entail using the powersof charismatic male leadership in order to succeed Patriarchy will persist into the future

27 For example, the 99 % in the news these days are shown in contrast to a "rich" 1%

342 D J Nemeth

populace be educated to be happy928 This seems a geosophical question and directlyrelated to the futuristic scenario of"blissful devolution" as developed in this chapter.

Assuming for discussion purposes that their claim is valid, how long did it takethe North Korean government to accomplish its "achieving happiness" goal? TheKorean conflict ended in a truce in 1953, approximately 70 years ago. That is whenthe divergence of South Korean and North Korean cultures accelerated. Today, SouthKotea has the 14th strongest economy in the world. South Koreans considei them-selves to be "rich" but are reported to be "desperately unhappy" because they "live

in constant fear of unemployment, forced retirement, and major illnesses, whichexpose them to a life of penury" (Chang 20! 2). Another recent South Korean surveyleports that "the happiness index for Korean teenagers was the lowest among the 23OECD member states for the third consecutive year" (Song 20 t I ).

North Korea is often described as "hermetically sealed" from the outside world.

To the extent that this is so, the population can be desc!lbed as "ignorant" of thesituation of human condition as lived beyond its borders. Meanwhile the mass ofNorth Koreans have been educated to perceive their own human condition as "happy."In sum, the homily "ignorance IS bliss" may apply heIe Combine this homily withanother (i.e., "public ignorance is a government's best friend") and it adds up tothe proposition that a deliberate "devolution" of human intelligence can be achieved

through education for political purposes (Iselbyte ! ÿ499)I predict that in 2100 CE the HoI Pollol will have been systematically dumbed

down by Hoi Oligoi domestication specialists to the level of "moderately retaided"and an easily-managed herd mentality The Hoi Pollol will be barely literate andno longer capable of abstract reasoning. Their perceptions of reality and memoriesof the past will be malleable The histoIy of the human race will be rewiltten bythe Hoi Oligol, and in time, there will be no public memory by members of the HoiOllgoi or Hoi Polloi of actual past events The woxk force will consist of worker guildsorganized Into battahons, camps, and squads. Individual Hoi Pollol will initially havesome horizontal mobihty within the work force Their labor assignments walt be basedon measures of their relative Intelligence and capabilities. However, as devolutionin intelligence among the Hoi Polloi proceeds according to plan, membership inthe guilds wilt eventually be entirely inherited. Upward moblhty In their society isImpossible. A blissful heid mentality will prevail among equals.

28 Consider culture not only as "learned behavior" but as "a proselytizing actwlty." An astute govern-ment can both educate and re-educate its populace over time systematically through ÿts apphcatlonsof the arts and sciences of propaganda (Bernays 192ÿ, 1ÿ)(39, Tye 2002) As my prediction for2100 CE reveals, I do not underestimate a totahtanan government's (as m the case of North Korea)transformatwe power of persuasion, ff cmefully planned. See Myers (20 Ifÿ) for The Cleanest Race'How Not th Koteans See Themseh,es and Why tt Matter s

14 Bhssful Devolution Our Rolhng Judgment Day

14.2.8 The Ducks of Demography Are all in a Row

343

The Hoi Ollgol must give their aggressive attention to rational population planningbecause continued human survival requires its ensunng sustainable future and col-

lective destiny of its own population. Achieving and maintaining food pIoductionsecurity under hostile conditions created by climate change is their main concern

In hindsight from the Hoi Ohgoi perspective of 2100 CE, if successfully planningand managing the re-educatedpopulatlons of r!o! Po!!o! to ensule a ploductive, stable,sustaining agricultural enterprise was ever a challenging problem, the NeugenIcs Planwas certainly essential to the rational solution.29

14.2.9 Never More is Heard a Discouraging Word

Blissful devolution once achieved means that no one among the Hoi Pollol needever complain or explain. Most will not. Those who do will be rehabilitated or "putdown" according to procedures described m the Demographic Plan for ManagingLabor Resources.

14.3 Part Three

14.3.1 Koch the Fifth

Koch the Fifth was feeling good as he stood under a canopy erected on the rampartsof his castle, perched high upon a pinnacle overlooking the plantations of Thessaly.He gazed down upon his veldant, fruited plain (Fig 14 4).

He was deep in thought. The Council of the Hol Oligol would be gathering soonfar to the mountainous north as it had neally every yeaI for generations since 1971.

For his small contingent, it would be a 21-day journey by ship to Palma, then steeplyoverland by buffalo cart.

Once there, encamped on the Lakebed of Davos, K5 and his cousins fiom allquarters of Europa would report on their achievements in the context of their sharedStrategic Plan They would, for example, go over the census tallies again and evaluatethe current condition of the HoI Polloi, then fine tune their Human Resources Planfor another year.

They would then discuss the progress of the Grand Econolmc Plan of the HoiOligoi K5, together with his kinfolk, would deliver their annual regional and localreports, all tedmus stuff, but necessary to "keep the cap on tight."

291 recommend Brune (2007) and especially Lynn (1972, t ÿ)96, 2001 ) for any readers who mighthave thought that eugemcs as part of a rational plan to 'hmprove the human condltmn" has beencondemned to the dustbin of history.

344 D J. Nemeth

Fig. 14.4 The castle of Kochthe Fifth, overlooking hÿsplantations on the ThessalyPlato, mrca 2100 CE OHgmaldÿawmg m penml by TimothySanderson (2012)

And then, finally, they would get into the revelry and fun-filled climactic event ofthe meetmg that everyone agreed made their long, hot annual tIeks into the CentralAlps worthwhile. They would visit each others' tents to eat duck stuffed with milletand barley cakes, all washed down with fine wines from Hungary. Then they wouldconvene under the huge umbrella to hsten as Replesentatives of the Inner Circleeach shared riveting stories about their collections Competition would again bestiff Coveted prizes would again be awarded. Both winners and losers would shedtears. Following the Awards and on their final night of revelry, they would all danceto drulns, blow their horns, drink soma, and then copulate.

Come dawn of the new day, the Contingents would decamp while shoutingfarewells and then slowly fade away into the distance toward the four quarters ofthe compass, not to reappear for another year. A disposal brigade from the Hoi Pollmwould remain behind to sort through and recycle the htter No longer by fiat butby custom they would sing and whistle while they worked These were small butsigmficant parts of the Big Plan for the Hoi Polloÿ Know your place. Leave no tI ace.Be dutlful and content. It all added up to Living the Good Life in spite of the heat.

K5 especially looked forward this yeaI's meeting. He had a surprise to sharewith the leaders of his widely dispersed yet closely-knit extended family. Somethingnovel that he thought just might bowl them over He, like his father and grandfather,

14 Bhssful Devolution Our Rolhng Judgment Day 345

speclahzed in collecting rare old documents salvaged from what was once the capitalof Old Cathay, now inundated and drowned.

Several months previous, a member of his own brood of budding collectors haddiscovered in the cavernous vaults deep beneath his castle a bound manuscript wxtha pÿthy tale inside that on first reading made his head swim. K5 perceived the littlestory to contain an original idea that his own nascent civilization had no name for.

He became convinced that the old Chinese story he had recovered from storageharbored a long-forgotten embedded idea at ItS core, a message with plofound butlong forgotten merit. There was not even a term extant to describe it He set about toinvent his own name for the idea and came up with "Enlightened Underdevelopment."He imagined that given the fine reputation of his closest kin and together with hmown oratorical skills, his discovery might earn him a high prize in this year's initialTurn-of-the-Century Competitions He became obsessed and threw caution to thewinds.

Daydreaming, he envisioned himself reading it aloud to the attentive crowd fromthe high podium. Hÿs unsuspecting peers would at first be stunned, then rise to theirfeet in their multicolored silken robes and wave their hand fans above their headswhile wildly shouting out their approval. The judges on the second tier of the podiumwould all be eyeballing each other and nodding in unison. Horns representing all thecontingents of the Europa Confederacy of the Hoi Oligol would then blast out theirunique squalls in unison and loudly m cacophomc praise.

Once, suddenly awaking from his daydreaming, K5 pondered if there might, justmight be a cool breeze blowing down from the mountaintops and across the stonylake bed as he made history on that eventful day. That would be a rarity he concludedand perhaps too much to hope foi

In the shade of his umbrella, he scanned again the verdant countryside of the plan-tanon, which he called his "sincele" landscape. He saw the Hoi PolloI pushing andpulhng their carts about along tiny paths ranging away from his family's inaccessiblepelch where 1,000 years previous stone-clad monasteries of cloistered monks andnuns stood high and dry above a then (and still) fertile plain

The Hol Polloi appeared to be the size of ants At the base of the mountain, they un-loaded their tributes of food and water into the sturdy wicker elevators, and for a while,he watched them winch the heavy baskets slowly upwards hundreds of feet to the sup-ply docks of his otherwise inaccessible castle. They were a virtuous, hardwoilÿng,

and uncomplaining lot, hvang cloistered, protected lives: non-contemplative, naive,and unworldly. He was their benevolent shepherd on high and the ultimate sourceof their simplicity, sustenance, and bliss They were hardly awaie anymore of howmuch they needed him, his crack management team, and Hoi Oligol everywhere, allheroes, for having saved all humankind and habitat from a self-destructive blunderIn which it had nearly combusted itself in an epic fit of consumption fueled by moralturpitude

He turned his eyes to the manuscript in his hands and practiced his oratory for theumpteenth time.

346

14.3.2 The Story of the Swape3°

D J Nemeth

Tzu-Kung had been wandering m the south In Chhu, and was returning to Chin. Ashe passed a place north of the Han (river), he saw an old man working in a garden.Having dug his channels, he kept on going down into a well, and returning with waterin a lalge jar. This caused him much expenditure of strength for very small results.Tzu-Kung said to him, "There is a contrivance (chleh) by means of which a hundredplots of ground may be irrigated in one day. Little effort will thus aecomphsh much.Would you, Sir, not like to try itg"

The farmer looked up at him and said, "How does it work?"Tzu-Kung said, "It is a lever made of wood, heavy behind and light in front. It

raises water quickly so that it comes flowmg into the ditch, gurgling in a steadyfoaming stream. Its name is the swape (kao)."

The falmer's face suddenly changed and he laughed, "I have heard from mymastei," he said, "that those who have cunning devices use cunning m their affails,and that those who use cunning in their affairs have cunning hearts. Such cunnmgmeans the loss of pure simplicity. Such a loss leads to restlessness of the spiIlt, andwith such men, the Tao will not dwell I knew all about (the swape), but I would beashamed to use it." (from the Book of Master Chuang of Chou; cited in Needham

14.3.3 K5 Makes Good Compost

Koch the Fifth did not win the top prize. He did not win any pIize He was In factarrested and carted off as a purveyor of a subversive idea almost immediately aftersharing his "discovery" with a stunned and silent audience of his own blood kan

during the height of The Competmon.For his actions alone, and on account of the due processing of his official trial and

execution, the scheduled 2100 CE Turn-of-the-Century meeting of the Councd of theHol Pollol at Davos concluding with the Collections Competitmns awards ceremonyhad to be extended an extra day

K5's last words before the first stone was thrown as an attempt to deliberately cavein his cranium were "I do still believe that this Enlightened Underdevelopment ideahas merit)" Unrepentant to the end, K5 was ultimately inehgible for exile as wouldhave been assured by his simply claiming as his defense "madness due to sunstroke"(i.e, "solacy"). It was a rare sad day for the tight-knit Hol Oligoi, whose members

were normally absolutely opposed to kilhng any kin

3°Needham (1956) Some Amish farmers in the USA today have a slrmlar notion of techno-

selectivity One Amish man expressed in terms much hke those used by farmeÿ interviewed by

Tzu-Kung It's not just what or how you use a technology, but "what kind of person you become

when you use it" (Igou 2003),

14 Blissful Devolution Our Rolling Judgment Day

Fig. 14.5 "Untitled" byCongo, a chlmpanzee amst,circa 1960

347

)

The Hol Pollot whistled and sang while they carefully gathered K5's remains intoa hand-sewn sack made of hemp and calted it away to be tossed in the nearest pig

sty.

14.3.4 Epilogue

The Grand Prize winner of the 2100 CE Competition at Davos was Slim, a secondcousin of K5, and himself a collector of twentieth century paintings by gifted lesser-known amsts S4's oration featured an untitled tempura on paper by "Congo," a

chimpanzee (1954-1964) (Fÿg. 14.5).S4's prize-winning story was thought to be the sentimental favorite of that year's

judges31 who, in addltxon, were no doubt enchanted to learn of this dehcious piece ofprovenance in S4's eloquent tale: a companion piece of Congo's rare and dehghtfulpainting, also long ago acquired to be part of the Picasso Hol Ohgoi collection wasoriginally purchased by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) himself Imagine that!

Acknowledgements Thanks to Forrest R Pltts, Jeffrey P Schaeffet, Richard Symanskl, RobertB Wood, and numerous faculty and graduate students in Geography at the Umverslty of Toledoand Kent State Umversity for reading advanced drafts, raising challenging questions, and plOVldmgcritical comments and suggestions for Improvements. Thanks also to Timothy K Sanderson for hisartistic Interpretations in pencil that appear as the third and fourth lllustratmns m this essay"

31 Four subspecies of chimpanzees were listed as endangered on a 2011 hst compiled by the Interna-tional Union for the Conservatmn of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). The entire chimpanzeespecies was one of those wiped out dunng the Decade of Great Extractions (2040 CE through 2050CE), when AGW spawned tOXlCmes and diseases wreaked havoc on both the mass and diversityof life throughout the biosphere Four-fifths of the Hol PolloI also perished. Miraculously, the HoiOhgol suffered no losses Whether they benefited from a natul al or an unnatural xmmunity has neverbeen disclosed Indeed the question is no longer relevant and therefore never raised,

348

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