I’ve been thinking a lot about Octavia Butler lately, the science fiction writer, and her tortured telepaths. Sometimes her books feature entire households of sensitive souls, with insufficient defenses against empathy. At least they know they’re not alone, which helps a little.
The Open Source Conference opening keynote today (before the fire alarm sent geeks thronging out of the convention center) was about a thrown-together computer application, since matured, aimed at finding empaths who might help destitute Americans pay their water bills, or have their water shut off by the city.
Tiffani Ashley Bell, the author of this Ruby on Rails masterpiece, urged the assembled engineers to work on developing a social conscience. Use technology for good, not for concentration camps. She actually used those words, which I thought was brave. She won our enthusiastic applause (though not a standing ovation), before we evacuated the building.
I had just learned about Willem Van Spronsen the night before, a nonfictional seventy-something who sacrificed his life trying to set fire to some buses used by a for-profit detention center near Tacoma. He knew they’d take him out, and left behind his manifesto, wherein he nurtures hope. My house guest told me about this sad episode. She only knew about it because she lives in Washington, and some of her friends knew the guy…
