BMW ELEGANT
The ad from the website is inviting.
The language reads, directly from the homepage, “…human leather is the finest grain leather that is obtainable. It is free from defects and has the smallest grain size which makes it the smoothest, softest leather on earth…there are a few areas of the body, (back and abdomen) that have uninterrupted skin coverage, and are therefore the best for processing into human leather. These areas allow the maximum usage when being crafted into large coverage items, especially satchels and briefcases…We cater to a small but highly discerning clientele. They are amongst those lucky few who have everything they could possibly desire.”
Buy it now on the internet.
THE BIPED KOAN
Like most people, I have optimism about the future, but I also have a spooky feeling.
I worry about humankind.I can’t sleep at night without pharmaceuticals. I am concerned about the survival of our children. I am sorry. I have a spooky feeling.
For years, as if a koan, I remember what Arthur C. Clarke said about the future. He proclaimed that there would be no discernible difference between carbon bipeds (we, humans) and silicon bipeds (*robotics”), except we carbon bipeds were less energy-efficient. We eat disproportionately to the energy we produce. We get sick too often. We poop too much.
“DIAL F FOR FRANKENSTEIN”
Of course, Arthur wrote “Dial F For Frankenstein” . This is a sci-fi story about telephone networks which destroyed the world when their machine intelligence began communicating with each other’s network. This was the inspiring tale that brought young Timothy Berners-Lee to create the world-wide web.
Before he died, the knighted Sir Arthur C. Clarke grandly took credit for “ Dial F For Frankenstein” inspiring the world-wide wide.
CAN’T WE BE MORE LIKE OUR IPHONE?
The Director of Technology and Self at MIT, Sherry Turkle says, in her brilliant book Alone Together that based of research, we humans don’t like being human.
We have contempt for the circumstances in which we find ourselves. We bleed and die and are conflicted in sex . All of that is icky.
We want to be more like the technology which lies on our pillow or bed stand . It texts us, updates us, advises us on snowstorms, and awakens us to the sun. The battery life and efficiency is growing stronger.
“PEOPLE ARE REALLY GOOD AT HEART”
I know how the human race has fought to be free. I see the tremendous beauty in people, I do. I look how their nobility surprisingly triumphs in great poverty, depravity, and hopelessness.
I believe what the beatific Anne Frank said, “In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.” Yet in the end, Anne Frank died in the concentration camps like so many others.
“SHE IS NOT AN ORDINARY GIRL, SHE IS AN OSCAR GIRL.”
Fifty years after Anne was killed, only 4 years ago, an indian girl, Rubian Ali, was sold by her father to a rich Arab for $425, 000 dollars.
“This was no ordinary girl,”her father said, “this was an Oscar girl.” The movie in which she was featured , Slumdog Millionaire, had won a the golden statue in 2009. Her Dad wanted some extra cash.
Dad was found out. The media went nuts. The rich buyer reneged. The transaction was negated.
BELTS OF HUMAN SKIN SELLING FOR 100 K
Over eggnog this Christmas, my cousin told me that on the internet’s black market you could purchase a belt made of human flesh for $100,000. “Human flesh is worth a lot of money. A suit of human skin can go as high as half a million.”
My cousin is a college student. He had no real moral revulsion. He was a Reddit- Instagram kinda guy. He was quoting me the facts as he stared into the screen in his palm.
Einstein wasn’t right about everything.He was wrong about locality. He dismissed quantum mechanics as “spooky action at a distance”. But who the hell cares? He was a genius, right? A Jew, raised in a Catholic school system, Einstein later rejected all religion, but not really, not truly. For as much as the genius knew, in the end, he knew very little.
We are still growing as a race. Maybe, in time, we can reach a wisdom beyond the human constructs of time and space. We might get there, right? Are we not suppose to try?
HUMAN SKIN SOLD AS IF BOTTEGA VENATA
Yesterday, a freak sent me a link about high-end human skin belts that could be bought for less than 20,000 pounds. This is a real bargain when you consider the 100 K in the US Market.The human skin site was selling its products of bags, wallets and belts with images of Bottega Venata-like luxury.
We humans are conflicted. That is our nature. Socrates called it “daemonic” — the rush of life that could bring us to doom, but could also lift us to the heights through art and music.
According to Socrates, civilization could only be established by society’s individuals’ disciplining their daemonic energy. Buddha called the daemonic “Mara”. Buddha had to wrestle it down. Jesus called it “Satan” and he told the thing to get behind him. Whatever the naming, we are bonded by our passions. We must fight them to control them so that goodness can shine.
As Moore’s Law unfolds, as things speed forward in whiplash fashion,the universal moral compass slips. Human value drops as the metaverse grows. How do we get control of the speed throttle?
I have a spooky feeling.