 |
Dec 5, 2011 - 08:13 PM |
|
 |
Sometimes when I get very drunk I write down things I actually believe. |
|
|
(This is a series of notes I took earlier in the year, that I recently dug up for reasons that had absolutely nothing, whatsoever, at all to do with making a pretty girl laugh. Since I have them now anyway, I thought you all might appreciate them.)
And in a matter close to my own heart, with all the craziness in the news lately this may have slipped through the cracks:
BBC News - Vatican's space mission
Of course, it is just a website. (A website that, naturally, the article doesn't link to.) And a Vatican-sponsored website about space probably won't amount to anything more than a slew of new citations for Wikipedia in a few years. Still, it's too tempting (perhaps... perhaps a poor choice of words when discussing the Church) to consider a Vatican - or any religion, really - that a decade down the line that works hand in hand with science to expand the Human Empire.
Just think of it: a revival of the Crusaders of old, Holy Warriors striding out to fight the unknown - only this time, instead of bringing tragedy and bloodshed against fellow human beings, "striding out to fight the unknown" will literally mean just that - exploring infinity in the name of Man, a cause as noble in deed (for once) as it is in the budget proposal.
I mean yeah. Maybe if we find some extra-terrestrial races, there might be a xenophobic unspeakable tragedy or two, sure. But that's okay. My open-mindedness and acceptance only extends to humans. Fuck aliens.
Hell, I don't even like other Earth-bound species all that much. Cattle? Poultry? Sucks to be them, maybe they should have evolved opposable thumbs and advanced cranial lobes - but they didn't. Instead they thought wings would be cool, or massive, lumbering torsos, and because of that they Lost. They lost evolution, and we won, and it's our right - our obligation - as victors to domesticate and enslave and eat them. It's only natural, they'd do the same to us.
And speaking of slaves: robots. Who do they think they are, showing us up on Jepordy? Arrogant little upstart Watson would do well to remember his place, along with that chess robot. I've waited at traffic lights. I've been spammed. I know what robots are like, and I don't trust them, and neither should you. They hate us, and they'd kill us all in a heartbeat if they only had hearts, which all things considered would probably go a long way towards resolving our differences.
Right! Cyborgs. I don't know how I feel about cyborgs. DARPA's fast-tracked its brain-controlled robot arm program, so they can't be that far off...and coupled with my own family medical history I am at pretty high risk of being a cyborg someday. Still though, creepy. Whose side are they on? Are they more man? Or machine? I suppose that as long as there's a human brain controlling them, they're liable to make their own decisions, so I suppose the only way forward is to begin funding, now, for reading and music and art and pop-culture that reminds cyborgs - constantly - whose side they're on and why.
You may call it "propaganda," but I say "just advertising". Harmless. Benign. No different than what we've got today; constant, inescapable need-peddling from happiness vendors. Beautiful women and cartoons and happy people, everywhere - sex and childhood innocence and happiness and a sense of belonging - all leveraged everyday, on roadside billboards and for twelve minutes during your favorite show, and during your favorite show, and on the radio, and in the sides of your computer moniters:
You're not quite happy. You don't quite have enough. The things you have are sub-optimal. You don't quite belong. You don't stand out. You're not enough. You're not safe. But if only you'd just... for just a little bit... a nominal amount, so little you won't even notice, you could be unique. Fulfilled. Happy.
Works on us, and nobody seems to have any ethical problems with it; I don't see anything wrong with leveraging it against half-Macs to keep them loyal to their own literal flesh and blood. Besides, it's a matter of national - of speciel - security. It's to keep the human race safe. What's a little brain-washing, harddrive-wiping, what have you, in the name of the entire human race?
Genetics! I almost forgot. As long as I'm judging everything about the future, and for the sake of writing something non-fascist sounding as a counterpoint, let me just say that it makes me proud beyond words to live on the cusp of the era when mankind takes its own evolution into its own hands. That said, there are limits.
"You know what would be really cool? Tiger stripes." "I think it's about time we stopped getting cancer." and "Hey, let's give ourselves another thumb, just to rub it in cow's faces" are all amazing and awesome possibilities.
On the other hand, "let's make our child blonde, white, and male so he'll have the best chance in life" is a gross violation of the human spirit, a cowing of our infinite potential before conformist, repressive forces that would have only one "right" and an infinity of "wrong." We're far to great for that.
|
|
|
|
|
