A letter about light, sound and smell in the colonies.

Dear Nina, ET friends and the colonists,

I continue.

This week has longest nights down here in the north and it is raining and gloomy outside so we lack the light and the physical activity. I also came across a page in my research that showed that lots of light is helping staying healthy while exercising – it was artificial light as bright as sunlight. So I wonder do you have enough light and physical activity in the colony?

I understand that this is not a major issue for the short term cyclers – the ones that go back and forth, but if we increase the number of long-term colonists, this could be an issue.

Bear in mind that we evolved being outside most of the time and doing meaningful physical activities. I grew up in Russia where everybody spent most of the time walking. We walked to the bus, from the bus, to school and work, to food shops and other shops, we had vivid social life – we walked together, hiked, explored. It was a huge factor in our lives that our homes were terribly overcrowded, so we couldn’t spend much time at home anyway, to be able to breath and to talk, we needed to step outside.

So we spent time outside most of the time. My nearest ancestors grew up also with the need to bring not only food but also water by hand to home. Carrying water and wood for fire was an activity of humans all the time before the last century and well into the last century.Cutting wood and digging is in my blood – it makes me if not happy but feel balanced. I miss this activity and enjoy it every time I do it – it feels so natural.

This is one of the reasons I despise modern artificial workout contraptions – they feel very unhealthy and meaningless. I feel trapped and like a rodent in a running wheel. I was surprised the colonies use these devices. Obviously, with alien technology you could create much healthier ways to workout – especially by brining meaning to what you do. It is very natural for humans to explore – this is very natural for me, I love going to new places and explore them. I also like the idea of foraging for food and valuables, like stones, mushrooms, plants, anything that you can pick up and carry. Our ancestors did much of that. Playing with peers is very happy. I love playing volleyball, Frisbee, ping pong and other games where people can be more friendly than competitive. It is a playful co-creative activity with a space for humor and chat on the court. Chatting and talking while playing and hiking is essential.

I wonder how much of this is created in the colony. I would also recommend adding sunlight to the extent that you would have to wear sunglasses and sun-protective hats. THis way you will get enough light to your skin, not only eyes.

Smell is another essential component of staying healthy. We walk our dogs almost every day. Once in a while, when we are sick or overly busy, we skip walking them out. The dogs still have their backyard – they go freely back and forth to the house and to the backyard via a doggie door but they miss the exploration part, especially exploration of smell.

So when I take them to the street after they have not been there for more than a day – they are extremely hungry for smelling exploration. They get extremely excited smelling things. That is a huge part of their life, health and physiology. They sniff things very actively for almost half hour until they become saturated. We are very much like the dogs. We also need smells, and our smells on Earth are very rich and live.

So I wonder how much of smells do you get. With alien technology, it would be very easy to reproduce smells from the ground – the forest, the meadow, the sea, the home, the kitchen, shish-kabob, river, pond, stable, garden, roadside, street, etc. These are almost as rich or even richer than human culture. This can become part of daily life and of workout.

Wind is another essential part of our environment. I bet you don’t get enough wind. Feeling rain and snow is also essential. Ionization of the air is important. Do you have enough ions? Chizhevsky studied ionization in detail and especially in conjunction with space travel. Our astronauts get Chizhevsky ionizers to stay healthier. It is very easy to reproduce rain and thunderstorm – do you get enough of those? Swimming in sea water is very healing – is your swimming pool filled with fresh or sea water?

These are sensations of Earth – light, sound, smell, ions, physical sensations, magnetic and gravity sensations. Do you walk enough barefoot? What is under you feet? We evolved walking barefoot on grass and dirt, this is also very healing.

Now, of course, it would be very enriching to explore other planets – in reality of via simulation. As I said, sense of exploration and of play is one of our basic instincts and needs. You are in lucky position to experience that. I suggest mix it in your daily workouts – walking on simulated Earth and on simulated other planets, swimming in our simulated rivers and seas and in other planets simulated rivers and seas.

Talk to you later,

Love,

Max