May 17, 2009
Numb3rs
We use them to mark the passage of time, to attach value to the things we buy, to set a point in the future we can stress about or look forward to, like recess or a full moon or a date, to create schedules and organize our days, like when to catch a bus to visit our grandmother (me, today.)
The one that concerns me most at present is the number of revolutions around the sun that we use to mark how long we’ve been on the planet. This very year, I went to a 40th birthday party, my father turned 65, I went to a 30th birthday party, the current crisis in Darfur is 6 years old and I have been an actor for 10 years, professionally in this city.
I am fighting off, and not well, some sort of mid life crisis. Is it too soon? I’ve been feeling this for a year or more now. People around me in my age group are marrying and having children, I’m not concerned with the stereotypes or in any rush to ‘couple’ or procreate. We all have our paths, some clear, some muddy, just gotta stay on them but I think, not comfortably.
I think the solution lies where it has always lain. In doing the things you love and being with the people you love, who inspire you and not letting ‘time’ waste away(!) that’s always been my solution, I just feel on some level I’ve got to do it quicker now.
Statistically I’ve got about 40 more years of life left in this body and I don’t say that to be cynical, but to wake myself up and realize I don’t want it to be comfy and easy, there’s a lot to do and a lot that needs doing and I’ve got a deadline.
I don’t know if I’ll make it that far, Ray Kurzweil says farther, but I plan to make it count.
April 28, 2009
Singularity Imminent
Inspired by tweeting with @netwonder about ‘The Transcendent Man‘, I picked up two of Kurzweil’s books today; Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever and The Singularity is Near. I get excited imagining wearable computers and cybernetic replacements for organs and body parts that have lived out there usefulness or let’s be honest, been abused past sustainable function. I cannot wait to see this documentary. I had a thought though, that as exciting as all these advancements are, joining computer mind with organic mind, would they really filter down to the lay population immediately? If you think about it, advancements like these are usually designed as weapons of war first.
Then the rest of us would get something. . . like a mobile communications device maybe? Or a contact lens with a Heads Up Display! They may even increase life expectancy but then when we all get them, will we need a whole new type of medicine? Organics line up over here and cyber-organics line up over there. A whole new social system. What about racism?
Will your kid be bullied at school ? Called names? ‘Astro-boy’, ‘skin job’, ‘toaster’ . There would be entirely new illnesses to contend with. . . trojan flu, organic virus crossed with a software virus. Cyber-parks where you can walk your Aibo’s.
I would take bionic enhancements to my knee ligaments, metacarpals and lower lumbar. Why not? ( mind you metacarpal enhancements might be made moot by new user interfaces replacing these clunky keyboards and mice.)
I find it exciting. I’m a tech lover though, maybe others would find it scary. Will our flesh still decompose? Will our cyber selves keep our personalities alive once we’re gone, like BSG Cylons? Downloaded personalities are not a new idea. What happens to the soul, I guess some might ask. I figured at first, if I had a soul it would go when my organics died out and my family could keep the parts somewhere or reuse them. . .or they could just fashion me a new body and download my personality.
Diving into the book now. . . as this just came in:
@tonyrobbins tweets: what a world we live in.. the first bionic eyes allowing blind people begin to see.. watch.. http://bit.ly/1gAk9
April 5, 2009
Creative Jumpstart
Posted on 4th April, 2009
He wanted to help people, to protect the good from the bad. He made a cape, a mask and took Karate at his gym. His mother bleached his cape. –me
Inspired by a new and growing trend to write 140 character stories. It’s a good exercise, everyone should try it whether you write or don’t, tweet or won’t. When I first discovered @arjunbasu , I sat down and wrote 10 that very morning (only three of them are any good). I used to do a variation of it via text message when not many folks were texting, but most phones had the capability. I called it a ‘tlog’. I know, inventive, and really easy because my audience was captive! The only criteria for being considered a subscriber was to be in my address book. I would send ‘text poetry’ that inspired me in the moment, not with any regularity mind you, maybe once every few weeks. Don’t remember any of them either. They might be on an old phone saved in a dusty, decomposing sim card. I’ll have to have a look! If you’re on twitter, there are a variety of creative types to follow, I can only name a few, maybe come up with a list at some point.
Would be interesting to see an entire column of tweetdeck filled with twort stories or tworts. 
Twovellete? Too much methinks.
Carlos
