Great post and wonderful poem! One note: I find that the Thiel-style transhumanism of the elites and "death with dignity" trends are not at all contradictory. When you give it a cold, hard look, it's really "eternal life for me [the super-rich], death with dignity for thee [the peasants]." It's a Neo-feudalist system of the stakeholders living forever—perhaps as bodiless consciousnesses floating in the digital ether or downloaded into shiny, million-dollar android bodies—and the useless eaters being put down like old dogs to "end their suffering." All rhetoric to the contrary is just that, smoke and mirrors. Thanks be to God that this is not what reality is like. The transhumanist elites are creating their own hell without realizing it, their own eternal prison where their minds can roam without ceasing. What a horrendous idea. I, on the other hand, will be glad to be reunited with my maker when the time comes.
You could be right about the elites themselves, but I think some people imbibing their ideas genuinely do just have rose-colored glasses on when it comes to medicine/anti-aging science. I've talked to a couple of them. They think this will be a rising tide that lifts all boats sort of affair.
“Hedonic zero” sounds every anime villain’s plot ever made. “I will take over the world through my technique/power/skill/genjutsu and end all pain forever!!” And the plucky shonen hero, while mightily straining against that infernal power, screams “PAIN IS WHAT MAKES US HUMAN!” And than snarls his catch phrase while performing his greatest attack and defeats the villain.
It’s cool when it’s a Japanese cartoon. Lame and gay when it’s a sad academic.
Also, I don’t want to die in a state of hedonic zero. I want to die surrounded by the bodies of my enemies who have fallen to my prowess giving my loved ones time to escape in one last glorious stand. Every man I’ve ever talked to (unless lame and gay) has the same daydream.
Great post and wonderful poem! One note: I find that the Thiel-style transhumanism of the elites and "death with dignity" trends are not at all contradictory. When you give it a cold, hard look, it's really "eternal life for me [the super-rich], death with dignity for thee [the peasants]." It's a Neo-feudalist system of the stakeholders living forever—perhaps as bodiless consciousnesses floating in the digital ether or downloaded into shiny, million-dollar android bodies—and the useless eaters being put down like old dogs to "end their suffering." All rhetoric to the contrary is just that, smoke and mirrors. Thanks be to God that this is not what reality is like. The transhumanist elites are creating their own hell without realizing it, their own eternal prison where their minds can roam without ceasing. What a horrendous idea. I, on the other hand, will be glad to be reunited with my maker when the time comes.
You could be right about the elites themselves, but I think some people imbibing their ideas genuinely do just have rose-colored glasses on when it comes to medicine/anti-aging science. I've talked to a couple of them. They think this will be a rising tide that lifts all boats sort of affair.
“Hedonic zero” sounds every anime villain’s plot ever made. “I will take over the world through my technique/power/skill/genjutsu and end all pain forever!!” And the plucky shonen hero, while mightily straining against that infernal power, screams “PAIN IS WHAT MAKES US HUMAN!” And than snarls his catch phrase while performing his greatest attack and defeats the villain.
It’s cool when it’s a Japanese cartoon. Lame and gay when it’s a sad academic.
Also, I don’t want to die in a state of hedonic zero. I want to die surrounded by the bodies of my enemies who have fallen to my prowess giving my loved ones time to escape in one last glorious stand. Every man I’ve ever talked to (unless lame and gay) has the same daydream.
Based.
This hedonic zero sounds like Lewis' depiction of Hell in The Great Divorce.
Thanks for the great poem!