Around 2002 I had a surge of ideas that came to me while working as a project manager for a large mechanical company. We installed building HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) for buildings and their controls. At the time it was winter and I was very much into bonsai and want to continue to enjoy viewing my trees even in the cold and dreary months of winter. This is when an idea came to me of creating a display case that can emulate the weather from any place any season and display it anywhere anytime. Yes, that sounds outrageous but with current technology it is possible. Think of it at as modern tokonoma (Japanese term for a display alcove) with the ability to replicate the weather conditions of a tree’s origin using a live feed from the internet.
So here’s my fantasy with this, being that I enjoy warm weather, I would import a bonsai tree from the Philippines, a Pempis Acidula or Bantigue and keep inside this modern tokonoma (I call it Green Cube) I type in the location of the weather feed into its control pad and the Green Cube will simulate the weather conditions that this tree is happy with, just like it never left its native environment. That is, the temperature, humidity, lighting, precipitation, and ventilation, will all be artificially simulated by Green Cube. On the other hand, the Green Cube can also be programmed to simulate the colder conditions so that for someone who lives in southern California who may not be able to enjoy a mountain hemlock in their part of the world can now use the Green Cube to display and maintain a tree in their part of the world.
Something like this will obviously take a tremendous amount of resources to build and produce and only a few can afford it. Perhaps Larry Ellison (Oracle Founder) can fund this, I know he likes Japanese gardens and he probably have bonsai trees. Next option will be Kickstarter. For now it remains in my fantasy.
