[Rod_Cloutier]

The government of Canada is conducting their usual 5 year census this year. While filling out the census, filled with banal and even absurd questions, they asked me for 'Permission to release this information to the public record 92 years in the future, as part of a family historical information for future generations'

I said yes, but the thought crossed my mind- will there actually be people actually scanning over this census data 92 years into the future? I think the answer is clearly no. Even if they are, what information would they be trying to pry from the data?

No questions were asked about things I think are of utmost importance to society, such as energy conservation, peak oil prep, climate change, sustainable agriculture, ect, ect. The census questions focused instead on birth ancestry, treaty indian status issues by the dozen (I'm not a treaty indian), work occupation and income, and cost of living household expenses.

The real things that people 92 years in the future will want to know about us will not be about how much I paid per month for electricity- but what were my opinions about climate change, peak oil, social change, ect.

In 92 years, if people are still digging through the fossil documents from this misbegotten age, people will be shaking their heads in bewilderment at the banal and absurd things statsticans were questioning people about. At the same time, there will be no direct infomation of value available about the quantity of fuel burned per week, per capita environmental impact, food consuption patterns, or anything else that will help them understand the predicament we left them with. Why we made the decisions we made that left them hungry and impoverished? Why we ignored climate change, peak oil, and overconsumption, to focus instead on 'Regligious preference'?

Absurdity at its worst.

[Sixstrings]

Well let's see.. 92 years ago was 1919. Not long after WWI, the crash and Great Depression not far in the future. Spanish flu was devastating. Things probably were lookin up in 1919, but who knows probably lots of folks thought end times were near after what they'd been through.. then in the Dirty Thirties they thought that was the end too.

Hate to sound cornie, but it's not unreasonable to think someone in 2103 might be interested in you.