This is just a general question that I thought would make for good discussion. With all the technology now and MORE in the future and a increase in easiness type lifestyles and entertainment at a all time high. With the possibility of more and more Bio. threats,Terrorist acts,etc. With more and more Corporations taking over patents,land rights,engaging in becoming huge conglomerates,etc. With more and more Government regulations and laws, fewer rights,etc.

Do you see your own son's/daughter's doing this in 2050? Are you trying to pass it on to them? Will they even have a chance to do it? And if Homesteading is still being done, what changes do you see from today?

-- TomK(mich) (tjk@cac.net), November 04, 2001

Answers

First I dont see a relationship with homesteading and technology. Technology may allow more people to homestead. I dont see homesteading as using using old skills and tools.

When the need to be at a phycical location is removed from a job, then people have a chance to break the suburban jungle that has created these needs for urban lifes.

I work daily with people that are hundreds of miles from there "office location" We have a system that is supported by a guy that lives in a log cabin on the side of some colorodo mountain. He has cows, pigs, chickens. He is reachable only by cell phone. Provides the best support around for our system. Ocassionally he have to call you back because he is busy milking but so be it.

We have a number of empolyees who never comes to work, the are 100% telecomuters. We have about 30 people in out support staff, almost 1/2 live outside the county, outside city limits, many 50+ miles away on 2-50 acres. Within the technical community I am seeing more and more move to out of the burbs. The need to equialize high tech with simpile life.

-- Gary (gws@redbird.net), November 04, 2001.

Gee Gary, do you think your company has openings for the rest of us? LOL. I'm fortunate already that my company is somewhat like- minded; I work full time from home too doing technical support, but I am the only employee who does so, and the reason I get that privelage is so that I can keep a better eye on my rebellious, diabetic teenager. Nice boss I have. CJ

-- CJ (cjtinkle@getgoin.net), November 04, 2001.

I don't know about my kids..but with any luck I plan to be homesteading in 2050. I won't be young, but look how wise I am sure to be by then.

-- Jenny (auntjenny6@aol.com), November 04, 2001.

I think we will see MORE homesteading by then because of technology. As wonderful as technology sounds now, I think it will be our downfall in the future. Because of the way the world is progressing, our only hope for survival will be our homesteading skills and we will eventially see an influx again like in the 70's.

Because of technolgy there are so many people out there today that have no idea how to grow a tomatoe let alone provide for thier family from the land. To them milk comes in plastic cartons, eggs in styrofoam containers, butter in sticks, and bull sh_it is a swear word instead of fertilizer! Technology can only progress so far before mother nature says enough!

Everyone is so tied to money..money..money that all it will take will be a big economic disaster and we will see everyone wanting to go "back to the land". Look how many newbies came out of the Y2K scare? What if something REALLY happens.

-- Karen (db0421@yahoo.com), November 04, 2001.

Yes. Possibly on another planet. Ever read Heinlein's "Farmer in the Sky"? The ISS could be the first step towards colonization of the stars.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), November 04, 2001.

Despite what we have heard about Agri-biz, and it's wonderful potential, I don't think it would be possible for humans to live and be healthy without small farms and homesteads. So many crops that we tend to overlook and forget about are labor intensive and not practical or possible on a large machanized scale. For example- coffee. Still picked by hand.
I also think that alienation from our roots and the circle of life is the cause of many of our present society's problems. Even if we could keep our bodies alive on factory farmed beef, chicken, chicken, pork and eggs, and robotically farmed potatoes, what would happen to our souls? Would our existence be worhty of continuing? Or would we in our cleverness have produced the final joke- facory farmed humans?

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), November 05, 2001.

I'll still be doing it then, but I will probably be on a bit of a reduced schedule. I will be pretty old by then, heck I am older than Ken now...

-- Ed Copp (OH) (edcopp@yahoo.com), November 05, 2001.

Thgought I was the only Heinlain addict in this group. Hmmm! :)

-- Sandra Nelson (Magin@starband.net), November 05, 2001.

Yep Ed, I plan to be doing IT also! ;) Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), November 05, 2001.

Heinlein got ahold of my mind as a young girl. ('Splains a lot, don't you think!)

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), November 05, 2001.

I knew that about you, Soni. Heinlein's "juveniles" grab the imagination - not just "Farmer in the Sky", but also "Tunnel in the Sky" (publishers weren't very imaginative, were they?), and indirectly almost all of his juvenile novels. Don't forget to watch the Leonid meteors, people - you may be watching a major part of your grandchildren's future - if we're lucky. I don't know that I'd make much of a spaceman, but I'd be out there running a truck farm in a hollow asteroid or tunnels in the moon without stopping to do more than ensure I could send messages home if I had the chance.

Question: Do any of you know when man LAST walked on the moon? Do any of you know why the NASA bureaucracy decided jobs for them on Earth was more important than Mankind in space? Do any of you, after all those decades, know why NASA still gets funding? What are the answers?

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), November 06, 2001.