There and Back Again

An Interlude. Theme song by Howard Shore

Welcome! 😄Helen here, and this is my newsletter Earthly Fortunes. If you've received this, then you either subscribed in the past (thank you❤️), or someone forwarded it to you. I'm honored that you are here! I write about the fortunes that come from the Earth: geography, medieval farming, music, the Unseen, and more!

Today’s theme song is Old Friends, from the soundtracks of The Hobbit, composed by Howard Shore.

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“We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!”

(J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit)

Friends — thank you so much for being here. It has been a while: from early June to now, I've gone dark. Substack, Twitter, Instagram...all modern versions of the old-fashioned epistles. Because, like Bilbo in his younger days, I went on an adventure — and was late for dinner, and writing letters to friends. I am very sorry!

Unlike Bilbo, I never met an elf or found a hoard of gold.

But I did meet many envoys of the zeitgeist, and wave-riders of traditions.

They are neuroscientists and AI researchers. They invited me to join their quest: making artificial brains to match what real brains can do.

They are 7th-generation piano makers. When we emerged from the depth of a grand piano’s soundboard and action parts, I couldn’t help but declared, “You are the royal family of piano-making!” To which they replied with big smiles: "We are just servants to music and art."

They are engineers. They build swarm drones, satellites, and have worked on quantum computing since the early 1990s. We coded and deduced math together, and I was mesmerized by their approaches to math and computer programming.

They are philosophers. They bring Heidegger and Husserl to cognitive science, biology, and neurology research. We debated on how science and scientists evolved throughout history, and how scientific knowledge interacts with society.

They are robotic surgeons. With the help of robots, they try to make surgery as painless and risk-less as possible. Jointly, we built a prototype to train medical students on surgical procedures.

They are filmmakers. They make videos for Dior, Chanel, and their likes; but they also create art films and documentaries on geopolitics, young adults’ growing pains, and creative personalities behind silver screens. Together, we brainstormed and laughed, over mashed potatoes and fried shrimps.

If this sounds like I was drop-kicked into a giant kaleidoscope of many different worlds, it’s because it does feel so. While on the road, every week, I wrote at least 10,000 words. That’s not counting sketches and computer programs. Ideas, observations, experiments, learning, debates, prototypes...I tried to capture everything worthy of our precious attention.

But here’s the “nasty disturbing uncomfortable” thing about adventures: you run into tough luck, like Bilbo runs into Smaug the dragon.

I went to western Ukraine, but lost my first-ever camera.
One day, on my way to dinner, I was stopped and frisked by the Austrian police, who also fined me 50 Euros — because I carried no photo ID while being out and about.
In broad daylight, a random man yelled many insults at me, then tried to physically assault me. I fought him, and drove him away.

In spite of these nasty disturbing uncomfortable things, the good news: I returned to the comfort of home. I was out there on an adventure, and I'm back again. After a short respite, I shall be ready to write from my own observations, and compile the accounts of my friends old and new. Exactly what Bilbo does, after he returns from an unexpected journey.

Bilbo's book, as seen in the film The Fellowship of the Ring. Source. Fair use (quote and commentary)

So for now, a brief Adieu. Next week, we will resume the Quid ex Machina series. First hit: some say that generative AI spells the doom of creative minds. To this I reply: not true! I have reasons to believe that the human mind has a monopoly on imagination.

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