How does one write a bio when one is convinced the self is an illusion, a construct of the brain with no basis in reality? If the character that appears to be Dave Pollard actually has no free will, choice, volition, agency, control over or responsibility for anything that has happened in his apparent life, how can a bio even be said to be ‘his’?

If you’re reading this because you want to know more about ‘me’, I suppose ‘I’ can at least offer a summary of the things that have apparently happened to, or because of, ‘me’, though ‘I’ am now quite sure ‘I’ really had nothing to do with any of them: They are, in the circumstances, the only things that could have happened. ‘I’ can also list some of the apparent characteristics, entrained and conditioned beliefs of this character.

Things apparently done by the character Dave Pollard (though ‘he’ had no choice in the matter):

• Born in 1951, lived in various parts of Canada, was married for 27 years to a woman he remains on good terms with, and has two wonderful step-children and four grandchildren he is immensely proud of.

• Author since 2003 of a blog How to Save the World, described as a “chronicle of civilization’s collapse, creative works and essays on our culture; a trail of crumbs, runes and exclamations along the path in search of a better way to live and make a living, and a better understanding of human nature and how the world really works.” 7500 pages and counting, with a suggested reading list and ‘best articles’ list.

• Wrote a book called Finding the Sweet Spot: A Natural Entrepreneur’s Guide to Responsible, Sustainable, Joyful Work in 2008, and co-authored Group Works: A Pattern Language for Bringing Life to Meetings and Other Gatherings in 2011.

• Since resigning from 35 years’ paid work, mostly as an advisor to small enterprises, and moving to Bowen Island BC in 2010, he’s worked with the local Intentional Community and Transition movements, the local Arts Council, and various international networks of artists and students of culture dedicated to chronicling and preparing for industrial civilization’s collapse over the course of this century.

• Currently living alone in the guise of a hedonistic, poly, vegan, unspiritual, insatiably curious and skeptical, deschooled, and comfortably retired person. Seemingly also slowly becoming, in spite of his ‘self’, a kinder, more loving, compassionate, playful, compersive, sympathetic, equanimous, hopelessly joyful, realistic pessimist.

Things apparently learned by