Map of Life

February 13 2016

How do we spend the currency of life, time? Full-time work as a structural part of life is a recent development. As humans conquered the Earth and its energy, we congregated in cities, detached from the natural resources our biology needs. We push papers to trade on the glut of energy under our control, our worth measured in nebulous economic units reflective of the political power structures of the day. The miracle of specialization was supposed to leave us all with the gift of life: more spare time, and freedom in how we spend it. But has it? I believe: - most of our time is predetermined, the rest is easily taken - time devoted to the search for meaning is rare - time devoted to fundamental science is rare From the 2011 Canadian census: - Total population: 31,000,000 - Total labour force: 16,800,000 Labour force breakdown: - Service - 24% 4,000,000 - Business - 18% 3,000,000 - Trades - 15% 2,500,000 - Manufacturing - 6% 1,000,000 - Natural Resources - 4% 650,000 - Social - 8% 1,400,000 - Sciences - 7% 1,100,000 - Health - 6% 950,000 - Management - 10% 1,600,000 - Arts - 3% 500,000 If an hour or two is found here or there, it is likely spent on rest and recovery rather than synthesis and analysis: - full-time work is 9-5 - transit is 8-9 and 5-6 - dinner is 6-8 - children is 8-10 Time devoted to fundamental sciences are rare: - Professors (Social, Teachers) - 0% 56,895 - Physicists (Sciences, Professionals) - 0% 2,530