The Citizens of AZ, set adrift in a sea of molten lava, no, set adrift in a fractured landscape of values based on weird cults and mendacious political movements, which played fast and loose with a strangely malleable electorate, decided to call a council of those who actually cared what happened next.
In the great hall, where a fire had also been laid, they gathered. They came in coats and hats, without armour or sword play. They came by camel with their friends and advisors. They came by coach, with communal singing and snacks, they came across the water, harassed by giant squid and piratical harbour masters, they came in horse drawn and electric, steam driven and chauffeur.
Then gathered, the Blue Knight addressed:
Welcome all, do help yourselves to the biscuits, there should be plenty to go round, some drinks will be circulated. If you have any allergies or pet hates, then eat and drink wisely, a first aid team is on hand, but the ambulance system is over-stretched so don’t expect an early exit.
So, to the agenda, item one, Global Tension Reduction. Are there, could there possibly be, can anyone imagine, a simple solution that we can push down the slope to bump up the volume and get the party started. Anyone.
A hand was raised, Please, said the Blue, we are all ears and elbows.
The Captain rose and spoke freely. I have travelled and seen it and looked back from a distance. Seeing is believing, so I recognise that the allocation of resources is a major contributory factor in the afore mentioned tensions. Cross border, cross culture, cross the road.
Thus, I understand that an improvement in the availability of, and or the prices of, cannot, per say, improve the lot of the under privileged or reduce the inequality found throughout, but it may boost economies and provide growth which should in turn fund public services, provide capital for necessary infrastructure and raise living standards, cooling the necessity to grab someone else’s stuff, land, sea and air.
I propose to ask the great AI chatbot for snappy solutions, in the form of ways and means.
Ok, said the Blue Knight, Sounds like a sound plan to me. Let us confront this AI and see what it is made of. Test its waters and take it for a spin.
The question was formulated. How can we get hold of resources in abundance at a snip? Example: Two for the price of one.
They confronted the ChatPQT in its lair, a sooty cave halfway up the side of Mount Parnassus, where sulphurous and intoxicating vapours issued from a deep crack in the sub-basement.
Written in universal script on a twist of paper, they threw the relevant question into the scented flames and crossed her palm with treats.
Wearing a flimsy blue series of veils which made whisper like a flame, she inhaled the vapour and went into a dance. The servers below whined into overdrive, whirling like a dervish and being fanned by numerous hummingbirds, which hovered above to prevent overheating and melt down.
The questionnaire brought out some sandwiches and a flask of tea to fill the gaps in the story and someone said I hope the answer is more useful than 42 and they all laughed.
Soon enough the Chatty robot signalled completion and a printout chattered out from the appointed slot.
When the Blue knight had found his reading glasses, he held the words on high and read:
Go to the store cupboard to the left of and behind the teacher’s desk, where she can keep an eye on it, and open the doors quietly so as not to awaken the janitor who sleeps lightly with his tattooed hands permanently gripping a broom. Push aside the multicoloured bottles of poster paint and bristling brush pots, climb into the space beyond and you will find multiple packets of resources left over from the last crisis.
Abundant rare earths, a never ending well of water, the recipe for the most beneficial and fast growing food stuff, multiple streams of cheap electricity, produced by 100 percent efficient sea turbines, metal ores in handy grab bags, clean air in balloons, forests of trees pressed in flat libraries and soil in Tupperware containers, snuggled in the dark places of the cupboard, can be found there in.
Well, said the Blue Knight that seems to cover the issue, let us gather our sauces in trollies like supermarket sweep. We shall form a gang and load the trolleys in a relay.
They formed a line, and someone said Go.
The Guardians of the Cave 