It's that time of the year. Throughout the Northern Hemisphere, it's growing cold and bleak. Though you may be beginning to think of snowy holiday cheer, delicious food roasting amid family and attractive gifts, I have a better option. Reflect on the demise of society as we know it with the New Survivalism project by Parsons & Charlesworth! This semi-sinister art project takes planning for post-apocalyptic living out of the bunker and into a more convivial, personal type of conjecture. What types of preparedness would we need, beyond mere survival?

The project's alternative bug-out bags offer six personal preparedness kits for modern survivalists whose water+rations are already taken care of. What upper-level essentials are there? In case of emergency, as in normal life, our priorities differ along very personal lines. While apocalyptic movies have their standard canon of character types, these packs and their owners' "mini manifestos" push outside of the tropes.

The first bag belongs to the Object Guardian, and it's more of an archival box. In a time after civilization's peak, who will keep the stories of our ancient objects and ways of life? Well, the guardian may be able to help. As a collector of all manner of old objects, the Guardian's bag protects an amalgamated ball of... stuff, seemingly cribbed from a history museum. From the mini manifesto:

Trying to memorize just some of them seemed ridiculous but what if I am the only one left to remember? Sure, they've got their Integrated Emergency Management plan all tied up but who is the real guardian? Who is taking the memories of these artifacts to the people, when the people can no longer come to them?

What happens to curators when the museums are abandoned? What happens to the millennia of learning?

The Decision Maker's collection is perhaps less goal-oriented but more focused. In a world where life is marked by uncertainty, making decisions may be hard. The Decision Maker seems to struggle with choice and has amassed a collection of tools to ease the process. Their jacket is a defense kit against the unknown, containing books, cards, dice and more to make their way forward clearer. "Never make your most important decisions when you are at your most vulnerable they say. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass they say. But what if the storm never passes? What if I find myself in the storm indefinitely?"

The Futurist Storyteller, on the other hand, seems to embrace the unknown. Realizing that we use stories to make sense of the world around us, the Storyteller's collection provides material for making up the stories that can shape the present and future.

One day, heaven forbid, you might find yourself reluctantly alive in a derelict place. You may no longer know who your leaders are or what the future holds...[this is] a thinking tool to hypothesize genuine futures and fantastical stories in a time when clear thinking may prove difficult and the morale of a good yarn may be hard to come by. Consider it an insurance policy for your dreams.

The Re-wilder sounds uncomfortably close to my own crunchy-anarcho Northwest upbringing. The Re-wilder is fueled by a distrust of most systems, starting with agriculture itself, so they're pitching themselves in socio-biological opposition to fundamental dietary and cultural practices. Using modern gene therapy and ancient hunter-gatherer skills, they're bulking up physically and mentally for a true break from the grid.

I'm turning technology against itself. Using it to wean myself off. Going feral. Healing my 10,000 year old wounds. When there's no one left to trust but yourself you have to work on the basis of immediate-returns. Not shacked up in a bunker with a year's supply of beans. Not like those part-timers. The paleo-dieters, weekend-survivalists, armchair-primitivists. This is no hobby.

Take me with you!

On the technological forefront of the decline of civilization we have the Biophotovoltaics Hacktivist. Inspired by MIT scientist Andreas Mershin's hope for homemade solar cells, our Hacktivist has prepared to be indispensable in the uncertain future by building a DIY system for photovoltaics made from grass clippings. When the going gets tough, the tough stockpile chemicals and power and wait. "The way things were going I didn't know how long I could stay, so getting out fast with all this gear was a must. I've got enough chemicals here to power a village. And when the grid shuts off, I have a feeling I'll be in demand."

Last, and maybe most optimistic of all is the kit of the SETI League Reserves Member. Hypothetically standard issue from SETI itself, this kit provides an at-home enthusiast with the basic tools for scanning the sky for life. But not just for scanning alone. In turbulent times, such institutional efforts as SETI has enjoyed may be cut off, and so the League represents a technological diaspora. By distributing small arrays and know-how distributed among dedicated members and acting together, they may still be able to continue their search for life:

We have enjoyed long and fruitful collaborations with the institutions operating the world's largest telescopes including Green Bank and the Allen Telescope Array. However, events beyond our control are likely to restrict our access to this equipment in the future. The SETI League Reserves Emergency Parabolic Instrument Collaborative (EPIC) Array Project provides Reserves members access to portable radio telescopic equipment to be deployed en-mass at a pre-defined location in the Mojave Desert in the event of a major cataclysm...

And then?! Guess that's one more newsletter I have to sign up for.

As the chill gets deeper and our likelihood of survival without systems we take for granted plummets, maybe these creative preparations for a possible future will keep you warm.

Bonus - Here's Tim and Jessica presenting at our Object Culture Conference this past summer: