009 📻 I dream of a flying home.

A flying castle might be too much, but a flying house would be ideal. That is something I absorbed from the movie version of “Howl’s Moving Castle.”

This is a beautiful animated film. It’s one of my favorite animated films. And the major reason that this is so is because of the very idea of a flying abode.

Personally, I don’t think I could handle a whole castle. That sounds like an awful lot of cleaning. And I’m not sure if I would feel comfortable outsourcing it. I’m not sure if I want another person around in my personal space, and home is my personal space. So, a flying castle might be too much, but a flying house would be ideal. Say, a three-bedroom house. I can handle that.

Although, it’s entirely possible that by the time flying homes become actually available, we might be able to purchase small humanoid robots that can take care of some aspects of cleaning. But even then I wouldn’t be sure if I can trust the bot. I don’t even have an Alexa where I live, and I don’t plan to have one. I don’t even use voice commands on my phone, although I’m pretty sure that my phone is listening all the time anyway.

But enough with the dystopian worries. Regardless of the possibility of a robot uprising, I would like a flying home.

And I am not joking. Neither am I speaking hypothetically. I am dead serious. I think this is something that will become completely possible in my lifetime—if not legally, then at least technologically.

So far, I have lived more than a quarter of a century, and less than half a century on this planet. If I don’t get into some freak accident, I think it’s safe to assume that I still have three decades left on this planet, at the very least. So I’m thinking, a flying home, in my lifetime—why not?

Even with current technology, a very small, rudimentary version of this seems to be possible, just as it is possible to have a flying-car version of Uber. The issues seem to be more in the laws and regulations, less in technology.

Anyway, I imagine it would be gorgeous to float above the oceans. And when the sun rises above the Pacific near Los Angeles, I’ll call my friend on the other side of the Pacific and tell her how it compares to the sun over there, and she’ll do the same for me, and vice versa.

As in, we’ll all be floating around in flying homes! Those of us who want to, at least.

Now, there might be people who’re concerned with all these flying homes blocking the sunlight. That is a perfectly legitimate concern. I like me some sunshine too.

Also, there might be concerns about people throwing trash at random places, especially in the ocean. That would be a big no-no.

There’d need to be regulations about that. Perhaps there’d be designated areas where people can park their flying homes. Everywhere else would be reserved for everyone and everything’s natural right to sunlight. And maybe there’ll be drones monitoring illegal trash-throwing. I don’t know. Something like that.

Oh, and plumbing. Gotta figure out plumbing. Those are my big three: sunlight, garbage management, and plumbing.

Food, I can imagine myself purchasing prior to leaving shore.

Clothes, no problem. Hey, since no one can look in through my window, except for some crazy seagull, I might just walk around naked. I mean, it’s my flying home.

What else, besides sunlight, garbage management, plumbing, food, and clothes?

Hmm. Nothing of any urgency that I can think of. I imagine we’ll soon have a pretty reliable and truly global communications network. Internet will be accessed from my flying home, no problem.

Then what else?

Oh, I want an auto-piloted docking feature. My flying home and my friend’s flying home, when we meet, I want them to sort of high-five and they form a bridge—or a door connects to another door, and it’ll be like the two homes were one home for time eternal. And then my friend can walk into my home and I can walk into her home and we’ll be like, “Let’s grab lunch at these coordinates.”

Then we’ll fly halfway across the globe in our two-but-one flying home, just to grab lunch.

This is what I want.