Chapter 1
People succumb to fear for a multitude of reasons.
Robots are a modern reality. Scientists and philosophers have long wondered how they will be accepted into society. Research has shown that as humanoid robots are built to look more and more like us our affinity for them increases.
However, when robots reach the point of realism that they are almost life-like we recoil in fear, and our affinity for them plummets. Expressed on a graph affinity rises and rises to a point where it dips dramatically. The bottom of that dip is called the “Uncanny Valley”.
Long before the first pink rays of sunlight sweep the delicate eastern sky, little birdies break the hypnotic silence of night and call out to each other: “Are you there? I'm here. Are you there?” The light approaches gently and a new day dawns. Yesterday, a fading memory, while tomorrow is loaded with hope, but now, here and now is solid, dependable, and ever present.
Memory is transient on a good day. It teases the brain with sharp images of recognition and blurry notions that just might be or perhaps not. Time locks memory deep in the ancient glass vaults of the brain. Some memories are stacked on top of others and some are inextricably linked. Some vivid and bold, some fade into obscurity. Memory is an engine of the brain. Everything we learn, suffer, love, and experience shapes us, informs us, makes us who we are today in the here and now.
Memory holds the powerful key to unlocking our potential, to do better next time if we feel we have it in us. To learn from our experiences both positive and negative. To become the person we would admire and respect. To release life's troubles and let them sink to the murky bottom of the ancient glass vaults.
A small transistor radio plays bagpipe music that echoes along the painted salmon pink hospital walls as young Betty Simpson groans from the gripping pangs of her first childbirth. Today is St. Andrews Day, November 30, 1956. She is pleased. A child is born. Never before and never again will there be another. Like snowflakes we populate earth, the magnificent web of humanity.
My eyes pop open. A new day dawns. Another chance, another opportunity. Possibility.
Distraction abounds when individuals have the opportunity to meet their own potential in a manner that is meaningful to them and on their own terms. At the core, is the empirical idea: Kindness is the highest form of wisdom. Love for self, each other, and this place is the foundation of a good life.
Sunlight glistened on the rounded chrome bumper of the moss green 1950's car next to Colin as he squatted on the sidewalk curb and smashed the big rock onto the little one. It split in three pieces revealing a sparkling purple core. He marveled at the beauty within. The dull tan gravel from the road in front of his family home was fascinating to a young prairie boy. At five years of age, he found immense pleasure in the joy of discovery. Earth was a bounty to behold.
Colin's best early memories are of wandering the fields outside his hometown Hanna, checking out the ditches filled with water, and turning over rocks to see what might scurry out. Ecosystems evolve with the seasons and there is always something new to be discovered. Colin had an inquisitive mind. Tracking the progress of the seasons was fascinating. He reveled in a youth spent exploring the mysteries of nature.
Like hundreds of small communities across rural Alberta, Hanna's greatest export is its young people. Each year, an eager flock of high school graduates spread their wings for the cities in brave pursuit of a new life. Hanna loves her children. They are hope for the future.
