Breadcrumb Project

Breadcrumb Project

Talking to JoJo Stratton , Yik Sheng Lee, and Mustafa Said this evening, the topic of breadcrumbs came up.

A famous tactic of Hank Johnson's to retain information between recursions, breadcrumbs are information left behind at significant portals to him: places he would be drawn to visit without knowing exactly why. This is useful as after a recursion, Hank had no idea what he was trying to accomplish.

JoJo asked, if we were sensitives, what places would we leave our breadcrumb trails in order to remember what we absolutely had to? These would be places we were drawn to even before there we knew of Exotic Matter, places we found attractive and irresistible without even knowing their true nature. The very suggestion brought to mind, unbidden, a great many places: proof of the power in this tactic, and a very clear reason why Hank thought of it. 

This isn't exactly a true search into the nature of the Niantic Project, but instead a bit of a fun personal examination, and maybe a way to resurrect some old memories.

My criteria for a breadcrumb location is that it has to be a place you think of a few times a year out of nowhere, and you had to think of it as important before you even knew about portals and XM. I'll start with a few places I thought of immediately:

St Mary's College

https://www.ingress.com/intel?ll=39.250457,-76.769053&z=18&pll=39.250527,-76.769411

Founded by the Redemptorists as a novitiate school after the Civil War, as it had excellent proximity to the rail lines tracing the Patapsco river. It fell into disrepair and was sold to another owner who wanted to make it into another sort of spiritual retreat, but he never made it happen. It was slowly destroyed by local kids, who called it "Hell House"- an ironic reversal of its true nature. The portals here are tiny pieces of what used to be, but they are still striking.

Tomb of Qin Shi Huang

https://www.ingress.com/intel?ll=34.388398,109.283654&z=16&pll=34.388735,109.285118

This place was important to my early professional life, as the company I helped start imported and sold more reproductions of these soldiers than actually existed in the tomb. I remember the strange stares of passers by as an old friend of mine carried a half-size statue reproduction with him on the train.

Pinewood Battery

https://www.ingress.com/intel?ll=22.277209,114.136112&z=18&pll=22.276911,114.136361

Every time I passed through HK I would get up here if I could. People apparently used to do airsoft here, until the park authorities banned it. I wish I'd gotten the chance. An amazing departure from the urban chaos of Hong Kong, and let me tell you, if you spend enough time there you want nothing more.

Poulnabrone Dolmen

https://www.ingress.com/intel?ll=53.048685,-9.140056&z=18

Another one of my favorite places in the world. It's a Neolithic tomb located in the Burren, a stunning karst landscape in County Clare. Yik Sheng Lee posted about it a while ago. The Burren itself is a place I've always wanted to live near, and I'll never forget visiting it.

Fengdu Ghost City

https://www.ingress.com/intel?ll=29.889304,107.720351&z=16

This is a set of ancient temples that have become a ridiculous Hell-themed amusement park. Yes, an amusement park where you are going to Hell. You see big statues of everyone's favorite devils and bureaucrats you might meet in Hell, such as Ox Head and Horse Face. No one believes this place exists when I tell them about it.

What are some places you might consider to save yourself in your next recursion? Who knows, you might go there and find out why you were drawn to the place.

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