Greetings good citizen, some of you know this blog is, er, occasionally used to promote my literary works although I seldom mention my three books.
Well, yesterday I was clicking around the channelverse (looking for something that wasn't totally toxic) and what did I encounter but an, er, 'opinion piece' regurgitating an old meme that I first heard as a young man, that the first human to live to be 150 has already been born.
I find it far more compelling to contemplate if humans will still exist, not in 150 years but in fifty.
It is a theme I seem doomed to keep repeating. People (apparently) get lost in thought because they don't go there very often!
Like colonizing Mars, the capitalist pursuit of the 'perfect employee' is what's driving robotics and the quest/race for AI [in the asinine pursuit of only having to tell the machine what you want ONCE.
We wordsmiths perpetually bemoan 'the imprecision of speech', a phenomenon AI will only make worse. [We need 'better tools' just as we need 'better systems' to enable the survival of more humans on an already stressed out planet.]
Put a fork in it, capitalism isn't just DONE, it's burnt to a crisp!
I was just about to go off on a tirade about my, er, 'manifesto' to save humanity but first things first, my second novel deals with precisely the topic of longevity...albeit on more personal terms.
It is unlikely that anyone already born will survive the next fifty years never mind a hundred and fifty [I don't care how rich they are.]
War has a way of turning the social clock backwards in unanticipated ways.
How disturbing that there is no shortage of either despots or psychopaths [currently kept in check by a fatalist cabal of 'me firsters'.]
Anyway, my second novel takes on the topic of the planet's first 'immortal', starting with the likelihood that they will be among the richest of the rich...because it is money that drives 'will' [and my, er, 'protagonist' is not just A banker, he is THE banker.]
Rhetorical question good citizen, why do you think banking operates the way it does? [Rhetorical because it DOESN'T MATTER what YOU think!]
Now the, um, TV program proceeded on the premise that EVERYBODY would suddenly be 'longevid'. This is false even on the surface. Technology is losing the war of the mutant microbes [again due to the 'profit motive', more money in treating the symptoms than curing the disease.]
It is likely we, as a species, have already made a fatal misstep in the battle to remain on top of the food chain.
'Immortality: personal' is another situation altogether. In my novel my protagonist went into this with intent that he'd be the ONLY one to reap the benefits of immortality...and while he, er, succeeds in reversing the aging process he is presented with a series of problems as he reinvents himself so he can insert himself ahead of his own heirs.
In this he is NOT subtle.
If you want to learn whether or not he murders his own children you'll have to buy the book [Edge of Eternity, available on Amazon KDP.]
For those of you cutting to the chase and thinking 'why doesn't he just announce that he's immortal?' he MAY have succeeded in cheating death but he can still be killed. How many people would you let know that you held the secret of immortal life, and what would you think of someone that refused to share it with you? You'd want to kill them, wouldn't you?
It is a page turner (as more than one reader has complained.)
Back to TV.
The 'major malfunction' preventing our current society from being capable of absorbing more people into a rapidly dwindling workforce is the lie of the 'booming economy'.
The 'I got mine' crowd (purposefully) only employs enough people to keep the 'shitstem' running, the rest resort to 'any means necessary' just to survive.
Did you see the Mexicans protesting the arrival of the Guatemalan caravan, there aren't enough jobs for them, they don't want to be forced to compete with the destitute from another country because the CAPITALIST just LOVES it when workers compete for jobs!
This is the same thing that will happen to the already destitute and already here. They will be knocked back to BELOW where they were when they first arrived.
This is why capitalists HATE minimum wages. A 'TRUE capitalist' is a slaver are heart. He'd be fine paying workers nothing.
This is why NOBODY can live on The Minimum Wage no matter where they live! The cost of living EVERYWHERE is at least TWICE the minimum wage.
Did I mention the 'Justice deficit'?
So tell me again how we are going to suddenly find ourselves in a population that won't die and CAN'T retire?
Capitalism is based on your 'timely' death. Longevity will collapse a system that doesn't work even faster than the population is.
My proposal is on the table and under ASP those who live to be 150 'have the option' of retiring at 50 [and enjoying the rest of their lives] or 'staying busy' for as long as they want to.
Given the rapid onset of Alzheimer's in most people I suspect only a fortunate, gifted few will survive their centennial.
If I am wrong it raises the daunting prospect of dealing with a large and mostly near vegetative population incapable of performing even the most basic tasks of caring for oneself...bringing euthanasia screaming to the fore.
If our collective response to these very real problems remains sticking our fingers in our ears as we chant "I can't hear you!" over and over again I seriously doubt mankind has fifty years remaining on this planet.
That said there is a very real possibility humanity will not survive the Trump Presidency [largely due to INCOMPETENCE!]
Um, Friday was my Father's birthday...and today was my Mother's. If you are inclined, join me in wishing the departed the rest and reward they deserve in the 'endless sleep' we call death.
On that morbid note, we will be joining them sooner than you think if we don't stop following the dictates of the terminally STUPID!
ASP, an idea whose time has come! [There is NO SHORTAGE if things that NEED doing!]
Gegner
Well, yesterday I was clicking around the channelverse (looking for something that wasn't totally toxic) and what did I encounter but an, er, 'opinion piece' regurgitating an old meme that I first heard as a young man, that the first human to live to be 150 has already been born.
I find it far more compelling to contemplate if humans will still exist, not in 150 years but in fifty.
It is a theme I seem doomed to keep repeating. People (apparently) get lost in thought because they don't go there very often!
Like colonizing Mars, the capitalist pursuit of the 'perfect employee' is what's driving robotics and the quest/race for AI [in the asinine pursuit of only having to tell the machine what you want ONCE.
We wordsmiths perpetually bemoan 'the imprecision of speech', a phenomenon AI will only make worse. [We need 'better tools' just as we need 'better systems' to enable the survival of more humans on an already stressed out planet.]
Put a fork in it, capitalism isn't just DONE, it's burnt to a crisp!
I was just about to go off on a tirade about my, er, 'manifesto' to save humanity but first things first, my second novel deals with precisely the topic of longevity...albeit on more personal terms.
It is unlikely that anyone already born will survive the next fifty years never mind a hundred and fifty [I don't care how rich they are.]
War has a way of turning the social clock backwards in unanticipated ways.
How disturbing that there is no shortage of either despots or psychopaths [currently kept in check by a fatalist cabal of 'me firsters'.]
Anyway, my second novel takes on the topic of the planet's first 'immortal', starting with the likelihood that they will be among the richest of the rich...because it is money that drives 'will' [and my, er, 'protagonist' is not just A banker, he is THE banker.]
Rhetorical question good citizen, why do you think banking operates the way it does? [Rhetorical because it DOESN'T MATTER what YOU think!]
Now the, um, TV program proceeded on the premise that EVERYBODY would suddenly be 'longevid'. This is false even on the surface. Technology is losing the war of the mutant microbes [again due to the 'profit motive', more money in treating the symptoms than curing the disease.]
It is likely we, as a species, have already made a fatal misstep in the battle to remain on top of the food chain.
'Immortality: personal' is another situation altogether. In my novel my protagonist went into this with intent that he'd be the ONLY one to reap the benefits of immortality...and while he, er, succeeds in reversing the aging process he is presented with a series of problems as he reinvents himself so he can insert himself ahead of his own heirs.
In this he is NOT subtle.
If you want to learn whether or not he murders his own children you'll have to buy the book [Edge of Eternity, available on Amazon KDP.]
For those of you cutting to the chase and thinking 'why doesn't he just announce that he's immortal?' he MAY have succeeded in cheating death but he can still be killed. How many people would you let know that you held the secret of immortal life, and what would you think of someone that refused to share it with you? You'd want to kill them, wouldn't you?
It is a page turner (as more than one reader has complained.)
Back to TV.
The 'major malfunction' preventing our current society from being capable of absorbing more people into a rapidly dwindling workforce is the lie of the 'booming economy'.
The 'I got mine' crowd (purposefully) only employs enough people to keep the 'shitstem' running, the rest resort to 'any means necessary' just to survive.
Did you see the Mexicans protesting the arrival of the Guatemalan caravan, there aren't enough jobs for them, they don't want to be forced to compete with the destitute from another country because the CAPITALIST just LOVES it when workers compete for jobs!
This is the same thing that will happen to the already destitute and already here. They will be knocked back to BELOW where they were when they first arrived.
This is why capitalists HATE minimum wages. A 'TRUE capitalist' is a slaver are heart. He'd be fine paying workers nothing.
This is why NOBODY can live on The Minimum Wage no matter where they live! The cost of living EVERYWHERE is at least TWICE the minimum wage.
Did I mention the 'Justice deficit'?
So tell me again how we are going to suddenly find ourselves in a population that won't die and CAN'T retire?
Capitalism is based on your 'timely' death. Longevity will collapse a system that doesn't work even faster than the population is.
My proposal is on the table and under ASP those who live to be 150 'have the option' of retiring at 50 [and enjoying the rest of their lives] or 'staying busy' for as long as they want to.
Given the rapid onset of Alzheimer's in most people I suspect only a fortunate, gifted few will survive their centennial.
If I am wrong it raises the daunting prospect of dealing with a large and mostly near vegetative population incapable of performing even the most basic tasks of caring for oneself...bringing euthanasia screaming to the fore.
If our collective response to these very real problems remains sticking our fingers in our ears as we chant "I can't hear you!" over and over again I seriously doubt mankind has fifty years remaining on this planet.
That said there is a very real possibility humanity will not survive the Trump Presidency [largely due to INCOMPETENCE!]
Um, Friday was my Father's birthday...and today was my Mother's. If you are inclined, join me in wishing the departed the rest and reward they deserve in the 'endless sleep' we call death.
On that morbid note, we will be joining them sooner than you think if we don't stop following the dictates of the terminally STUPID!
ASP, an idea whose time has come! [There is NO SHORTAGE if things that NEED doing!]
Gegner
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