Wednesday, April 19

I walk down the road in the deceptive sunlight, wishing I had gloves on. I pass one of the pipes that allegedly let out the excess heat from the district heating.

I have photographed the view through the hole before. I photograph it again.

I walk on, listening to Hannah Fry and Adam Rutherford discussing how the Egyptians built the pyramids. They counter the argument that aliens did it in an interesting way. With the aid of an Egyptian archaeologist they suggest that the root of the problem lies in imperialistic racism.

A view of history forming a pyramid with white European males at the apex leads to a belief that “primitive peoples” could not possibly have done something that we might find daunting, if not impossible. Otherwise we would not occupy the top spot on the pyramid.

The actual solution to “how on earth did they do it?” apparently revolves around the extraordinarily competent administrative systems of the Egyptian state at that time. They simply organised thousands of workers in shifts, and provided them with unlimited beer and burgers, and wages.

No, slaves did not build the pyramids if Martians didn’t. That too stems from racist assumptions.