I'm writing a book about technology.
While I concentrate on that effort, I’ll be posting some of my older published material from a time when I used to write about humans.
Of course, there will be plenty of new stuff coming. My hope is that a handful of previous pieces might give you some insight into where I’m coming from. I also think you’ll be entertained.
Unregistered Podcast — w/ Thaddeus Russell
In case you missed it, I recently joined Thaddeus Russell on his Unregistered Podcast. It was a fantastic conversation.
I neglected to pass along my impressions of the book, when it first emerged 29AUG2023. Here it is;
Without disrespect intended to military veterans, the landmine or IED is a vivid metaphor for any unseen disaster lurking nearby, just off the radar. We tend to step on this fragile soil unexpectedly, not recognizing the danger until it's too late. My own experiences have unearthed the inability of pet owners to tolerate those of us who walk through the world with debilitating allergies to all things fur (cats/dogs/hamsters/etc.) or hair (horses/cows/goats/etc.). Talk about mass-market intolerance. I am an unwelcome entity, shunned by society, psychologically tortured by family/friends and acquaintance or stranger. The cost involved in allergy medications over many decades seems incalculable. At both ages thirty and fifty, it stopped entirely. I gave up all meds, first by doctor's orders during pregnancies with my offspring, then second, by choice, for good. The older one gets, the less one cares about public opinion, and less again about private opinion. I do not believe in pet ownership. Farming is different. Deal with my edge and bias. You need never agree with me, you need only know that I exist.
Joe Allen has set himself in a barbed-wire holding area, surrounded by landmines, holding gasoline in one hand and a stick of dynamite in the other. His new book, DARK AEON: TRANSHUMANISM AND THE WAR AGAINST HUMANITY, has been embraced by some and dismissed by others. There seems to be no middle ground. It is all one or all the other. For or ag'in. Friend or foe. Public enemy number one or a man who simply set a cobblestone pathway through dangerous terrain, for us to follow, or not. Indifferent observations are not the norm here. Detached visions of fictional sci-fi stories cannot suffice now, with the vast collective of accelerated threats before us. The number is staggering. The mindset is unnerving. The science of technology melded to our mind or our 'ugly bag of mostly water' physique is downright terrifying. It begs to differ. It stupefies. It confuses and cajoles. It looms in an otherworldly ether far out of the reach of most of us misfits. Greetings earthling rings in our paranoid ears as having the potential to conquer us or elevate our status, since we're seen as inferior flawed human beings without practical purpose. Some see humanity on par with vegetation and domestic or wild animals, using up earth's seemingly finite resources in impractical fashion. Sustainability is the latest buzzword meant to infer needless pain and suffering on future generations, herds of livestock, acres of plants.
He is a flare illuminating the darkness, the danger, the quicksand disguised as pleasant meadows.
Joe warns us to pay attention to the minutiae. Anchored in Film Noir, and GothicLit, and apocryphal poetry, my sensibilities are often drawn to the nothings that most people overlook entirely or intentionally ignore. Case in point, THE STRANGER (1946) directed by and starring legendary Orson Welles as Professor Charles Rankin. Alongside Loretta Young, who plays his betrothed, Mary Longstreet. Edward G. Robinson plays 'The Stranger' who calls himself Mr. Wilson. He is immediately suspicious and suspected of allsorts. What we learn, throughout the course of the film, is how to manouevre in a landscape of a closely knit community. As JoeBotxyz has done. He is the outcast, the isolated entity. He strolls through our midst with 'hidden knowledge' made famous by the dreaded Gnostic heresy of old. Firmly rooted Film Noir tropes include; dead bodies, mysterious circumstances, the end justifies the means mentality, etc. Welles didn't write the film script, but the most vital element of the themes of deception and control woven throughout the plot is one comment by Mr. Wilson, who expresses, "Well, who but a Nazi would deny that Karl Marx was a German because he was a Jew?" No one else noticed. No one else cared. All were submerged in their own beliefs which were intentionally fabricated by a madman, a genius intellect and master at improv and theatrics. There he was in plain sight the whole time. The villain. The murderer. The deceiver. The evil one. The ancient one. Biblical predictability, yet we are still often duped by gloss. Glare blinds our instincts, mutes our opposition, cripples our ability to lash back at an invisible crisis just out of reach. Like a landmine. Unseen perpetual threat. The decoy is our demise.
Joe, too, attempts with his whole heart and mind and soul and strength to simply make us see what is right in front of our eyes. Perhaps it's not yet within reach financially, or intellectually, but it's riveting in its attraction of convenience or futuristic possibilities. Each of Joe's thirteen chapters conveys overwhelming details with little opinion on the matter. The tension between comedy and tragedy is ever-present, yes, but each topic is taken very seriously. With Joe Allen at the helm of this shape-shifting ship, subject to the siren song, we feel more at ease, less likely to willingly walk the plank. We, Joe's readers, cannot thank him enough for the privilege of ingesting his literary precision with these words of worth. 400+ pages of intricate ideas and potential morose outcomes, of historical references from world religions and scientific experimental formulae. The three components; hypothesis, action, conclusion. Beakers filled with red herrings abound. Joe encourages each of us to glimpse beneath each shell-game barrier, stare down the gypsy-switch, to determine false from fixed, the Con-Man plan to dupe the dreary or disinterested. He sets fire to the plank, with the potential for the entire ship to ignite, but the glare from the flare in the air is what offers hope to the horizon. A light in the darkness. A glow of satisfaction and discernment. All hands on deck. All eyes on the target. All landmines exposed. Walk in wisdom and guidance to rest in the omnipotent outstretched arms of God.
(FMI/FYI: book review original draft = 939 words trimmed to < 800 for online publication submissions)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword by SKB (ix)
Preface (xiii)
PART I – SELLING THE “INEVITABLE”
1. Into the Electric Ant Farm (3)
2. Gathering Nano Swarms (29)
3. Mechanical Bodies, Artificial Brains (57)
4. Cultural Eugenics and Digital Darwinism (87)
PART II – THE PENTAGRAM OF POWER
5. A Global Pandemic as Initiation Rite (123)
6. The Devil’s Dollhouse (153)
7. Homo Deus – A Man of Wealth and Taste (181)
8. In Praise of Mad Prophets (211)
PART III – A REFLECTED INVERSION
9. Images of Jesus – A Confession (239)
10. Virtual Gnosis (269)
11. Countdown to Gigadeath (301)
12. Singularity and Its Discontents (345)
13. Axial Powers (365)
Appendix – My 55-Point Plan to stay Human (397)
Footnotes (405)
Index (000)
This is my effort to show people how we get from "What are you talking about to OMGawd!"
It ends with your website and a few book titles about the coming AI world. If humanity doesn't get this part of the IQ test they'll be eliminated from the game or absorbed into it is how it seems. I know you're busy but you should scroll through this. It needs promotion! Open Source, can be used by anyone as long as not for profit. GRATEFUL FOR YOUR WORK!: https://neighborsorganizingagainsttrespassingtechnology.blog/2022/10/26/public-health-warning-document-w-instructions-for-action/