The Omniverse Chronicles is the voice of the Omniverse Project, and as such constitutes a vehicle to express ideas on how to make the world a better place, and how to improve quality of life for all, two objectives which are inexorably intertwined. It is a unique publication, not only by virtue of its content itself, but also by virtue of the manner in which the content is presented and structured.

Some content is rather editorial in nature, and reflects my own personal opinions. Some content is more rigourously factual (although there is often an editorial slant). Also, a certain proportion of the writings is devoted to ideas and concepts which are philosophical in nature. These are meant to feed the soul and the mind and will hopefully lead to constructive reflexions, and can be thought of as the “think globally” part of a famous slogan. Another portion of the writings describes tools, techniques, and recipes which can be applied directly in day-to-day affairs to improve quality of life, solve a particular problem, or reduce our environmental footprint. This constitutes the “act locally” part of the slogan. Among such articles, some are descriptions of practical experiments of varying degrees of sophistication which we have actually performed. Such “experimental research” will be labelled with the Omnilab icon (see the legend describing the icons), can serve as a recipe for your direct usage, or as a basis for your own creative experimentation.

Themes which will be recurring herein include self-sufficiency (financial and otherwise), positive thinking, natural health, alternative architecture, alternative energy, appropriate technology, and in general anything related to quality of life and celebrating its grand adventure. The publication, with its newsletter format, is also an encyclopedia in perpetual construction, a repository of alternative and appropriate knowledge.

“Newsletters have a proud tradition of independent thinking, an alternative press whose heritage goes back to the pamphleteers of the US Revolutionary War and others in Europe before that.”

-Harry Schultz

One unusual aspect of the presentation style adopted here is its focus on the high-level links between ideas and topics. This may be disconcerting at first, since it might seem that the text is jumping from subject to subject and lacks focus. While it might take some getting used to, this constitutes in my opinion a necessary rupture with the classical way of presenting knowledge. Our tendency to view things in isolation leads to an incomplete picture, and is partly responsible for society’s damaging stance towards the environment and, in fact, many social and political problems as well. Nature is systemic and synergetic, which is to say that it needs to be considered as a whole to be understood. The same can be said of the human body, and perhaps the proper adjective here is “holistic.” Not only does appropriate understanding of the environment and the human body require this holistic viewpoint, but so does the appropriate design of technological objects, including houses.The Internet gives us free access to staggering amounts of information. This information, however, is raw, unstructured, difficult to verify, and unstable in time. Indeed, websites tend to be unstable (here today, gone tomorrow) and the manner in which they present information is chaotic, non-uniform, and constantly changing. As most of us suffer from mild cases of information overload in the Internet era, there is a need for distillation and structuring of information. This is what this Encyclopedia Omniversalis in the making aims to do, by presenting information in easily digestible chunks, by classifying it using an icon system (again, see last page for details), and by structuring it into “knowledge trees” which will be presented in detail at a later time.

The aim is not to compete with the likes of Wikipedia or Encyclopedia Britannica. We aim not for that sort of comprehensiveness. Rather, the goal here is to amass a body of “alternative” or “appropriate” knowledge on topics related to quality of life, and to structure it as one cohesive whole based on homogeneous philosophical underpinnings. As such, neutrality and the absence of advocacy are not goals which will be pursued here. As we seek to present material that unites mind, heart and soul, the writings will be at times scientific and factual, and at times inspired and poetic. I do not believe these two aspects to be at odds. If knowledge is power, then knowledge wrapped in inspiration is potentiality with purpose. Perhaps it is a necessary combination to bring about positive change in the world.

Once one reaches a sufficiently high degree of awareness, it can be seen that selfishness and altruism are inexorably intertwined. In other words, what is rightly and appropriately good for you is also good for the world. Working towards the right kind of quality of life for oneself (act locally!) is therefore tied to improving the global social and environmental picture (think globally!). This is not always obvious to actualize, however, given the many negative forces at work within the fabric of society.

Yet, while one should be aware of the negative - and we will underline negative trends within these pages - it is counterproductive to dwell on it. A hopeful and positive stance must be maintained to achieve change. At the same time, it is important to dare to look beyond mainstream conventions. Indeed, society advances through its margin, not through conformism. This is one of the central philosophical principles put forth through the Chronicles, and it implies that within these pages, it is OK to dream up the craziest notions with total disregard for conventions and / or common sense. In fact, we do believe that it is perfectly acceptable, even laudable, to dream, to have one’s head in the clouds, as long as we keep our feet planted on the ground.

It may seem paradoxal that we can in fact rise and be tall enough to do both at the same time.