When your measure is the number of toys then he who dies with the most toys wins. If it's not then they just become things to dust or paint.
If your measure is security then the mainstream lifestyle is perfect even if more vulnerable than it seems. To someone who wants travel and experience, it's strangling.
My view of things is necessarily subjective but I've seen both and I know how fast the secure mainstream lifestyle can collapse into smoking ruins. Some of you know how that goes as the punch won't come from a predictable path and suddenly you're flat on the floor without knowing for sure who or what hit you. There won't be any details since I don't know which things constitute family secrets.
I'm not even remotely defensive but I don't see much understanding from people about major luxuries which come from poverty which others have never experienced and can't possibly know or buy for themselves.
It's a major luxury to have no concern whatsoever for whomever calls me a drugged-out lunatic, old burn-out crank, or whatever. People understand truth or they can piss off. Maybe you don't call that freedom but I sure as hell do. (It still does concern me in certain quarters but it's vastly-reduced from anything which ever existed in any previous lifestyle.)
It's a major luxury to have no particular concern about anything except breathing to the next day and whether real friends and the pets do ok. There are no payments on anything and I have no idea if I could get credit but I don't want it since that's one of America's worst life-sucking cancers. You can have anything you want ... for twenty+ percent interest.
(Ed: that's usury!)
It's legal.
There's no escape for concern for a car since in Fort Worth you either have transportation or you won't eat and your rotting corpse will only be discovered after people complain about the smell.
My perception of the chaining of things goes all the way back to my first guitar which had to be there no matter what I was doing so I had to carry it. That thing becomes part of an exoskeleton which really doesn't have much to do with the music beyond giving the ability to play it. As the music got more electronic and metallic so did the requirement for things and that exists even today. I've always regarded that aspect as a curse because it prevents doing a whole lot of things, musical things. For example, sure, I can jam but I have to get my kit over there (probably impossible or extremely difficult).
That usually leads to the idea of holographic jams via the Internet but they're not possible with the existing VR which seems mostly for ooh wow and jerking off. The holographic visualization of multiple jammers in real time may well be as cool as music can get before the advent of some breathtaking new instrument.
The weakness is it's too easy to find. Good music is supposed to be rare and traditionally it has been. In the Classical period, you would hardly ever hear the music unless the composer performed it. Pop music abounded as it always does but hearing the masters was rare and think of the marvel of opening night when Mozart is conducting.
Bringing music to everyone all the time may well be the worst thing you can possibly do it because availability can easily lead to trivialization. Heya, what's happenin'?? Well, there's a Mozart opening or there's going to be a Demolition Derby at the track so what's your preference.
This isn't Luddism as I revel in the discovery of new technology but there doesn't seem to be much consideration for whatever will come from it. That's been true at least since the first A-bomb.
As you may have noticed, none of the robos being built today know anything about Asimov's Laws of Robotics. I rest my case.
If your measure is security then the mainstream lifestyle is perfect even if more vulnerable than it seems. To someone who wants travel and experience, it's strangling.
My view of things is necessarily subjective but I've seen both and I know how fast the secure mainstream lifestyle can collapse into smoking ruins. Some of you know how that goes as the punch won't come from a predictable path and suddenly you're flat on the floor without knowing for sure who or what hit you. There won't be any details since I don't know which things constitute family secrets.
I'm not even remotely defensive but I don't see much understanding from people about major luxuries which come from poverty which others have never experienced and can't possibly know or buy for themselves.
It's a major luxury to have no concern whatsoever for whomever calls me a drugged-out lunatic, old burn-out crank, or whatever. People understand truth or they can piss off. Maybe you don't call that freedom but I sure as hell do. (It still does concern me in certain quarters but it's vastly-reduced from anything which ever existed in any previous lifestyle.)
It's a major luxury to have no particular concern about anything except breathing to the next day and whether real friends and the pets do ok. There are no payments on anything and I have no idea if I could get credit but I don't want it since that's one of America's worst life-sucking cancers. You can have anything you want ... for twenty+ percent interest.
(Ed: that's usury!)
It's legal.
There's no escape for concern for a car since in Fort Worth you either have transportation or you won't eat and your rotting corpse will only be discovered after people complain about the smell.
My perception of the chaining of things goes all the way back to my first guitar which had to be there no matter what I was doing so I had to carry it. That thing becomes part of an exoskeleton which really doesn't have much to do with the music beyond giving the ability to play it. As the music got more electronic and metallic so did the requirement for things and that exists even today. I've always regarded that aspect as a curse because it prevents doing a whole lot of things, musical things. For example, sure, I can jam but I have to get my kit over there (probably impossible or extremely difficult).
That usually leads to the idea of holographic jams via the Internet but they're not possible with the existing VR which seems mostly for ooh wow and jerking off. The holographic visualization of multiple jammers in real time may well be as cool as music can get before the advent of some breathtaking new instrument.
The weakness is it's too easy to find. Good music is supposed to be rare and traditionally it has been. In the Classical period, you would hardly ever hear the music unless the composer performed it. Pop music abounded as it always does but hearing the masters was rare and think of the marvel of opening night when Mozart is conducting.
Bringing music to everyone all the time may well be the worst thing you can possibly do it because availability can easily lead to trivialization. Heya, what's happenin'?? Well, there's a Mozart opening or there's going to be a Demolition Derby at the track so what's your preference.
This isn't Luddism as I revel in the discovery of new technology but there doesn't seem to be much consideration for whatever will come from it. That's been true at least since the first A-bomb.
As you may have noticed, none of the robos being built today know anything about Asimov's Laws of Robotics. I rest my case.
1 comment:
Family secrets only last until a family member gets pissed
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