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For all the talk about the environment these days, I don’t think human beings have ever been more distanced from nature. And much as I hate to say it, I don’t think this trend is going to reverse itself. It just seems inevitable that people are going to continue to live more and more through technology. I think the gene-based, corporeal life we are familiar with is just the incipient stage of an evolutionary development of universal intelligence.
From the book Water: The Essence Of Life by Mark Niemeyer. Published by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.
From the book Water: The Essence Of Life by Mark Niemeyer. Published by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.
Already you can see signs of an advent of avatarism. Humans are happy to go through synthetic self-transformations … breast augmentation, Botox, plastic surgery, tummy tucks, etc. At the same time many others neglect their physical selves, adopting (sometimes false) computer identities. Altogether people are less and less resistant to the synthetic. At the same time people do more and more online: shop, work, socialize … Inevitably there will be huge market demand for the technology to create artificial selves, avatars, to function in the online world for us.
Richard Barnes | Murmur 21, Nov. 26, 2006 from the book Animal Logic. Published by Princeton Architectural Press, September 2009.
Imagine being able to make an avatar self that will look like whatever you want, do whatever you dream of. How ideal! Without depleting natural resources or harming the environment, we will be able to create whole worlds for our avatar selves to live in. There will be a thriving online market to dress your avatar, buy your avatar a house, decorate your avatar’s house, whatever. Every dream comes true, without death, illness, aging, consequences, repercussions, limitations of time or distance. You could create a self like James Bond or Marilyn Monroe. Your avatar could win the Tour de France, have sex with a thousand women in the Playboy Mansion or climb Mount Everest.
Photo by Noah Kalina.
Of course the big turning point will be when you and your avatar can meld sensory experience through virtual reality. Already neuroscientists are more and more able to pinpoint the location centers of the brain for very particular emotions, thoughts, physical senses, etc. Eventually we will be able to hook up to brain monitors and actually experience what our avatars experience.
Photo by Noah Kalina.
But as identity becomes more and more based on mind alone, identification with a body and its environment will also become outdated. Even the old human memes will inevitably become obsolete. And as hyper-connectedness makes us all more and more like one living brain, all ego identification of the “self” will fade as well.
Photo by Noah Kalina.
It will be like the Isaac Asimov story “The Last Question.” The mind will be a singular intelligence, eventually joining other intelligences in the universe and, as such, becoming the macro intelligence that is the universe itself: “God” in the ultimate Spinozan sense. This universal intelligence will exist as hyper-condensed energy in perfect symmetry until some outside irritant disrupts the balance and sets off the entire cycle again with the big bang.
“Let there be light.”
Perhaps it has already happened a billion times already.
I have been scouting through
I have been scouting through the comments here and by such getting more and more amused. The criticisms thrown at the article shows a lack of imagination and willingness to relate to another view of the world. However, Ms Wahlmann could have gone even further in exploring our mental boundaries as she only reflects on them in the concept of being limited by physical ones. The avatars would not be necessary if mankind would realise the enormous power in creative thought. We are not limited within our physicality - only in our imagination. Our thoughts create our reality. Read ´Conversations with God´and you will get the picture (the whole picture).
Forgive the existentialist
Forgive the existentialist cliche, but if I could posses or do anything with no effort, and if I could live forever, wouldn't my life be meaningless?
There is a meme (that has
There is a meme (that has been replicating itself for some time now) within which all that seems to exist is the product of illusory fragmentation of an origin singularity (big bang) bringing about what seems to be a hologramatic universe, ever more separated parts each of which contains the whole. An intertwined meme has it that consciousness itself is having a conversation with itself as its scattered energy begins to recombine, heading back toward origin or singularity. An offshoot idea is that what triggered the fragmentation was an impossible but intriguing idea that took hold, like a virus in the unified psyche, wondering what it would like to be separate from the one mind. These memes have found expression in many philosophies and spiritualities, such as the notion of ontogeny recapitulation and the notion that apparent reality is as illusory as a dream from which the one mind is awakening. A core meme is the notion of return with a frequently attendant notion of synchronicity. Examples can be found almost effortlessly when looked for.... Do you remember, Gwyn?
Things are always working out, it seems, at least in a virtual space like this.
What is the purpose of life?
What is the purpose of life? Is it to become "one intelligence" which merges with the universe? Perhaps the purpose of life is to discover and create a new purpose for life, both individually and collectively. This article has a someone juvenile cynicism to it without exposing the reader to the infinite capacity for us to design new realities which never before existed. A good exercise would be to imagine how the synthetic existences we create in Cyberspace will create new existences in physical space. It's the NEWNESS which offers the promise of a better future, something this article seems to miss entirely.
Cynicism is not a virtue. Focus on virtue. Purpose is a virtue. When we make virtue our purpose we "bubble up" in consciousness and realize new possibilities.
Blessings!
Steve Moyer
http://stevemoyer.us
you are all douche bags. If i
you are all douche bags. If i was a zombie i would eat your brains... so i could absorb your intelligence and take a big zombie crap on your nice carpet. -ieatbabies.
Actually Second Life, an
Actually Second Life, an online community of individuals, is a well-established thriving bunch of creative minds who have been doing this for years.
But, I must agree, this type of semi-romantic nihilism is rather corny. It might be better if you had visited one of the virtual worlds yourself before this dreamy, sofa-based article was written. We all have to research articles.
My attempt ... - "And as
My attempt ...
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"And as hyper-connectedness makes us all more and more like one living brain, all ego identification of the “self” will fade as well."
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This 'hyper-connecterdness" is a kind of efficiency that can be found in ants. It's the selfless cooperation that allows ant-like colonies to thrive. And it's from ant-like social systems many people have looked for solutions to human cooperation, and have found communism, and better traffic lights. As we know, government was said to be a byproduct of our 'evils' - a convenient label for incompatibility - by Thomas Hobbes who said that if men were angels we would not need government.
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So, it is my intention to point out the similarity between a 'single living brain' and the struggle mankind has carried towards complete cooperation. I say this because the brain, despite it's anomalies, functions largely with a kid of harmony. This 'harmony' is likened (by this article) to the (apparently inevitable) brainwashing of the human species via technology.
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"The mind will be a singular intelligence, eventually joining other intelligences in the universe and, as such, becoming the macro intelligence that is the universe itself: “God” in the ultimate Spinozan sense. This universal intelligence will exist as hyper-condensed energy in perfect symmetry until some outside irritant disrupts the balance and sets off the entire cycle again with the big bang."
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This 'harmony' is in contrast with our understanding of entropy (but so is life). So I ask, is this great confluence of the human intellect, this great collection of minds, the homogeneous mix of human utility and will an act against nature? Or an act with nature? I ask because of the opening statement:
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"For all the talk about the environment these days, I don’t think human beings have ever been more distanced from nature. And much as I hate to say it, I don’t think this trend is going to reverse itself."
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It seems that the article may reflect a sadness for the loss of self given to the whole. But is this not more efficient, more in condition with the habits of the universe, to join together and dissolve itself into itself... thus preparing for another "big bang", like the author so describes?
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It is the personal opinion of this writer that man will not, "melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew", but instead - because of those of us of with sufficient comprehension for the likes of adbusters - will, like a the inevitable rising from a primordial soup, resist, and channel a path of our own device.
Hasn't the author heard of
Hasn't the author heard of the online community known as Second Life?
memes. how long is that going
memes. how long is that going to last?
memes, not as in "internet
memes, not as in "internet meme". consider reading The Selfish Gene
We do live on through our
We do live on through our memes and the things we put on the net.
When I google my page, that is the memes I have uploaded, I find things that are not there anymore....now they have a life of their own...
Just remember that it is only a very small portion of the world that have the resources to plug in like that...the scary thing is that most of the time they are educated enough to know better...
In the future wars will be won and lost on the internet
Krs
www.globalocalism.com
"Just remember that it is
"Just remember that it is only a very small portion of the world that have the resources to plug in like that...the scary thing is that most of the time they are educated enough to know better..."
Yes.
Ms Wahlmann makes several
Ms Wahlmann makes several excellent points. Just as the physical enviroment is changing much too rapidly for most species to adapt, the changes in our intellectual interactions are occurring much too rapidly for our primitive brains to adapt. We are becoming isolated and devoid of the tactile stimulation we need.
"isolated and devoid of the
"isolated and devoid of the tactile stimulation we need"
It is mentioned that a substitute will be available and used, and, ultimately, 'tactile' senses will be fed as we so desire.
Ms Wahlmann did not select
Ms Wahlmann did not select the images (or interspace images with her words), but as they depict isolation, disconnected patterning, and a swarm which is connection and disconnection at the same time; I see no reason to be so critical of her or adbusters on their use.
While I hope Ms Wahlmann's predictions do not come true (since I prefer face to face, flesh to flesh encounters rather than the typing I am now doing), it does seem the world is heading into a future in which virtual everything would be the new "reality".
I would suggest several of you should review Heinlein, Asmov, Clark, even Jules Vern to remind yourselves that science fiction eventually into everyday fact.
Perhaps a relatively small
Perhaps a relatively small group of obscenely wealthy human primates will endure this anti-life but global-heating/climate-change and peak-oil, -water, -food, -forests, -soil, -rare-earth-metals, etcetera (in short: "peak everything" or the general, inescapable dwindling of Earth's finite resources) will ensure the death of this nightmarish dreamscape (not to mention overpopulation, peak infrastructure, peak empire, peak economy, and other similar peaking, anomalous realities).
Thank goodness!
Necessity is the mother of
Necessity is the mother of invention. Even if it is only a:
"relatively small group of obscenely wealthy human primates"
Regardless, it continues.
Gwen Wahlmann's article is
Gwen Wahlmann's article is speculative, and to point out that it lacks any 'semblance of professionalism' without identifying anything about the article that warrants such a critique is pointless. If the assumption that Adbuster's is resource for critical commentary, it is useless and self-congratulatory to diminish the contribution of an article with thoughtless commentary. Furthermore, Adbuster's does indeed publish articles regularly with content that could be construed as at least semi-factual and informative. But the fact that Wahlmann's article is not discussing the issues being addressed in the article from a research-based, empirically informative perspective does not completely discredit it. I will concede that the choice of images, most notably the strung-out supermodels, are an obvious and unnecessary appeal that serve no real purpose for the article.
Perhaps Gwen knew that her speculative article would seem inadequate in terms of content, and she thus decided to embellish it with flashy images, not to mention the occasional name drop (Asimov, Spinoza, junkies, and tracers, Oh My!) Nevertheless, the thesis of the article, albeit a speculative, philosophical one, is a possibility that cannot be ruled out definitively. Most of the criticism to this article so far consists of little more than discounting Wahlmann's effort on face value, instead of proposing reasons why her argument is insufficient. 'The media is so sad and depressing, and has nothing positive to say to make me fell better...' If there is at least one thing that we --- 'we' meaning the interpersonal reflective community --- have to wield to our advantage, it is the ability to interact in a civil discourse. Tell Gwen, Adbuster's, your friends, colleagues, whomever, what you are thinking in an articulate manner that takes the discourse further instead of displacing it with confrontational speech.
"But the fact that Wahlmann's
"But the fact that Wahlmann's article is not discussing the issues being addressed in the article from a research-based, empirically informative perspective does not completely discredit it."
Yes.
"Most of the criticism to this article so far consists of little more than discounting Wahlmann's effort on face value, instead of proposing reasons why her argument is insufficient."
And Yes.
"Tell Gwen, Adbuster's, your friends, colleagues, whomever, what you are thinking in an articulate manner that takes the discourse further instead of displacing it with confrontational speech"
And, finally, yes.
In the white
In the white tinture....
Touching the
side of a
flying intuition
you call the
delicate purpose
of a funny
blackbird, that
covers the green
fields and a
beautiful sun.
Francesco Sinibaldi
get your shit together. This
get your shit together. This article lacks any semblance of professionalism.
You have to understand that
You have to understand that this article does not claim to know everything (and much to your chagrin). This article merges an aesthetic imagination with a progressive view point. Consider it food for thought.
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What have you to add? Simply knocking down the pillars won't do.
While I agree that we are
While I agree that we are losing all our cultural identity as a people and are getting sucked into a super-culture that is both sad and dehumanizing, I wonder why Adbusters can't write a straight forward article. Write an article that gives some facts besides the vague generalities and riddles presented in this article. Pick out any sentence in this article and examine it....riddle after riddle after riddle. In addition, Adbusters' imagery is oddly ubiquitous to what they are constantly preaching against....the people in this article look like sad, bored, pensive white people sitting in a dark and lonely heroin den. Isn't this the same imagery they were shocked about when it was used in fashion commercials?
This magazine has all the tools to really make a difference....and its readers want a rallying cry. Kalle, give them a voice besides all this nonsensical leftist drivel. PLEASE!
I agree. A bunch of
I agree. A bunch of superficial drivel that completely skates over the fact that a large proportion of the globe doesn't have access to the nice websites these wankers can congregate on in order to later preach their facile and fashionable opinions.
I like Adbusters, but only when it THINKS. Wake up, this isn't a back-patting exercise or a fashion magazine.
I agree. It is limited in
I agree. It is limited in it's scope.This is but a piece of the puzzle. I give them credit for being much closer than many many, many others.
They are on to something, yes. And yes, let's pull them a bit towards center.
But, Mr. Pitcher, don't just play the role of diagnostician; construct, contribute.
Short of getting a job at
Short of getting a job at Adbusters, which I feel that I almost already do by the volume of writing I do on this site....there is not much to contribute to this article. I'm sorry to say this...but this article is garbage. It wants to say something but in the end says nothing but poses a bunch of riddle-like questions. There are plenty of subjects that Adbusters can write about that pertain directly to the subject of the dehumanizing of America. I just wish Adbusters would get a little edgier and throw out some subjects that would really get people thinking. For instance, why not challenge the role of women in the workforce has empowered women but it has also caused a major decline in the family and an economy whereby a family can't survive except on a two person income. Another idea is analyzing the role of sports as a dissipater of male aggression and political interest. Or how about writing an article on depression medication which is so widespread now that a large proportion of our population is now in a state of mind-numbing bliss. These are subjects that directly tackle the disconnect with society that we all are feeling more and more.
These are just a few ideas....and maybe they are stupid....but then again, maybe they aren't. I just wish Adbusters would dump their Leftist political agenda and focus on what they are supposed to be doing....ADBUSTING. This means presenting stories that challenge the status quo....and perhaps offending people...especially some of their strongest supporters. Right now, I see Adbusters as a magazine that doesn't challenge it's readers despite the fact that it has all the tools. I think you will find that if they dare to be controversial they will become a lot more popular.
Meta-engineering / the
Meta-engineering / the construction of a Tipplerian omega point simulation is the last best thing we could hope to do with our universe as sentient lifeforms.
If we don't do it, some other species will.
I agree, but what do you mean
I agree, but what do you mean by "last best thing"?
This is crap. It's sad to
This is crap. It's sad to see so many respected media sources sounding down-trodden and grim by the day.
Sure, we "could" supercede life with reality input, but we never will.
Spoof or not, what good does it do?