The nearly full moon rose like an old friend as I walked my dog last night. When my mom died in October many years ago, it rose in beauty, giving me familiar comfort and ushering me into a new phase of life.

I’ve loved watching the moon since I was a child riding with my grandpa on his tractor. The way it traversed the sky and changed phases delighted me. In fact, I thought the Moon was called the Move and would turn my grampa’s face to see it and say, “Look at the Move!”

I was so curious about what it was made of and if anything alive could be up there. I even had the privilege of watching the Moon landing with Gramps.

If we didn’t have the Moon there’ d be no eclipses, no moon dance, no moon shadow, no moon light sonata, no blue moon, no Dark Side of the Moon.

We’d see weaker tides with their ebb and flow. Marine animals wouldn’t be able to navigate or spawn. Corals wouldn’t reproduce. And what would I decorate my house with if there was no moon?

First Men in the Moon by HG Wells has been a favorite novel of mine, despite having a dearth of female characters. Two English gentlemen find themselves launched to the Moon thanks to a substance that shields their rudimentary travel sphere from gravity. Although implausible, I found this a clever twist but what unfolded on the Moon caught my imagination most strongly because it contains a shred of truth. The two men, one a businessman and one a scientist, encounter both gold and lifeforms. While the scientist wanted to learn more, the businessman schemed exploitation.

If you read reviews of First Men in the Moon the naysayers point out all the ways it’s unrealistic. But Wells got one thing right: Greed is coming for the Moon.

While scientists wring their hands at lost opportunity to study the Moon, the greedy are firing up for a moon-mining race. Yes, companies are salivating at a chance to harvest. The Moon, having once been part of earth, doesn’t have anything the Earth doesn’t but in some cases, the concentration of the materials might make them easier to mine them. As HG Wells predicted, the Moon does have water to provide for all the new exploits and it also has a rare isotope of helium, Helium-3 also designated ³He. This might be useful in providing fusion power, which so far, hasn’t been successfully achieved. After all, we’ve got to power all our AI some way. Why not shoot for the Moon so to speak?  Don’t worry. US companies are already planning to suck off the government to make this happen.

And if we don’t do it, Russia and China will. China’s been to the dark side recently so we in the US are not going to let “safety be the enemy of progress.”

I rue the day when I look up at the Moon and instead of imagining moon-rabbits, handsome men, or werewolves, I see avaricious people making money. What can I do about it? I think I will go on an internet diet and restrict my pointless searches. I’ll try to ignore Alexa  and Siri for several hours a day, even though Alexa has been calling out to me lately in a somewhat creepy way.  Although I hate to admit that Republicans ever had a good idea, my grandson says that since they banned cellphones at school, he’s been reading books again. Maybe if I disengage once a day for 4 hours, I will finally get the next novel done. When it comes to energy gobbling AI powered by elusive fusion, you know what they say: don’t obey in advance.