Introduction
“Welcome to Earth! Here is your guidebook on all things Earth related.”
This is how I imagine this book to be handed over in 100 years’ time, when it is passed over the cashiers desk at Earths Tourist Information Centre, to the visiting Alien species just passing by this corner of our vast universe. Just as we would consult a Lonely Planet guide or a pocket-sized travel book before visiting the South of France, so too, one would imagine, would an Extra-Terrestrial, upon dropping by for a quick holiday on planet Earth.
If said Martian did drop in, what would they want to know? Would they want to know what a rich traveller who decided it was time they did something with their inheritance money, thought of their travels to Malaysia? Or an ex-sports star/musician/reality tv star, who did a charity bike ride across Kenya, and how it touched their soul? If I was visiting Mars, I would not want to read the account of the Russian astronaut who landed there in 2089 and spent three months mining for precious metals (pure speculation there). No, no, no. I would want to hear from one of Mars’ own residents. Someone on the ground, like you and me. Someone who lives a day on Mars without looking to camera to detail their thoughts on life “this side of the solar system”. Someone who frets over the price of the book they are about to buy. Or someone who knows the inner workings of the local neighbourhood, and all the eccentric characters therein. If I am going somewhere, I want the pure, unfiltered, true form of that place, and where better to start than those who live there.
So yes, that is what I hope the visiting Aliens are handed when they drop by. A guide to Our World: By Those Who Live in It! We will avoid politics where possible, and sidestep the cliché views of certain countries, as well as westernised accounts of their creations and principles. Google maps can show you the size of Nairobi, or the bridges and rivers that flow through Amsterdam. But it’s the little yellow man that you drop in the middle of the map that really gives you a close up look of the streets and nooks and crannies of a place. That little yellow man is what this book will endeavour to be.
Side thought: I wonder what the price of Keyrings would be at an Earth Tourist Information Centre….
