Writing scifi: pack-goats in 20 years?

[Bob Jones]

Spiced rum? ?

I usually carry some old Hydro-codone left over from my kidney stone, for emergencies. I have found that a shot of rum is almost as effective for the pain associated with sciatica after a hike. It is useful for cleaning wounds and starting fires.

Sailors used to get a pound of hard tack, or sea biscuits, and a pint of rum daily for their sea ration. Sea biscuits are made by mixing flour and water, and baking the biscuit 4 times to drive out the water. They could survive a flooded hold since they resisted absorbing water.  They could survive vermin since they are easily much harder than teeth.

Hard tack left over from the Civil War was used to feed troops in the Spanish-American war over 30 years later. Soldiers would use the butts of their rifles to break the biscuits small enough to insert in their coffee cups to boil and soften them.  Sailors received the rum so that they didn't care if they broke their teeth.

I made some hard tack to take on hikes. They are useful for driving away unfriendly dogs, and for a makeshift fire pit instead of stones.

Rum has been a staple for hundreds of years, it is doubtful that will change in 20