[NFBV-Historic-Fredericksburg] Historic Fredericksburg Crier

rtbyrne at aol.com rtbyrne at aol.com
Tue Jul 7 23:18:26 UTC 2020


HISTORIC FREDERICKSBURG CRIER – July 7th

 

     Bon jour andwelcome to another edition of our Crier. Thanks for the prayers and well wishesthat many of you sent me after my recent heart valve surgery. They tell me thatall went well and I am basically good to go. I feel fine so I guess everythingis working as advertised.

      Sue and I missedthe last meeting in June due to pre-operation testing. It is important to notethat at that meeting the July meeting was cancelled since it might conflictwith the National Convention in some ways and the library has yet to open. Ournext scheduled meeting is August 15th. At the moment it is to be viaZoom but maybe other options will open up by then.

     I believe thatthere are many varying opinions about the semi-virtual world we find ourselvesliving in. Many of us miss the human contact while we understand the risksinvolved. While I am capable of living in isolation and using the tools I haveavailable to interact, I prefer being with people at least a little bit. Thecurrent virtual world reminds me of a world imagined by the writer below.

     Isaac Asimov was a brilliant man whoearned a PhD in BioChemistry and also predicted technologies and worlds andcivilizations yet to come. He was born in Russia in 1920 of Jewish parents. Ifyou know history, that was not a good thing. Luckily they got out of  Russia and came to the United States. Hepublished his first science fiction in 1939 and wrote and worked until hisdeath in 1992.

     You might have seen I, Robot at the moviesa few years ago. It was based on Asimov’s writingd. He wrote things like Cavesof Steel and related books that gave us the three laws of robotics. He alsowrote the Foundation series which predicts human expansion into the galaxy andbeyond. Some great reads but why am I talking about him in this Crier:

     Today’s world reminds me a little of theworlds that grew out of Caves of Steel. On the Earth of that time, people livedin multistoried buildings located underground. They never ventured outsideunless in a covered vehicle. A robot detective has to solve a case that seemedunsolvable since people never went outside and no one could have walked towhere the murder happened. The robot figured it out and is sent to anotherhuman planet where everyone lives alone on scattered farms run by robots. Theyall have TV’s the size of walls and communicate with each other by 3dimensional Zoom technology. The robot has to figure out how a murder canhappen where no one can stand being in the same room with another. Asimov evenpredicts how people who don’t like to touch each other have children. Sorry forthe sci-fi but it sounds a bit too much like the way we have been going. I lookforward to real interaction with real people.

 

BLIND ABILITIES is mygo to Podcast for various things dealing with the BVI. If you go to theirwebsite or their podcasts on your smart speaker, there have been a series ofpodcasts by people in several cities around the world and their personal waysof dealing with the virus and the local restrictions.

     A recent podcast featured a very goodvoice talent named Satauna Howery. She is blind and has been all her life.Herstory is a good listen. She is in her 40’s. She is married and has a daughterwho sounds 

 

like she may also gointo the business. It is a very interesting and fun podcast. I hope you checkit out.

 

 

 
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