
those with access to a smartphone or computer have the ability to access much of the world’s body of knowledge and communicate instantly and internationally. most disregard that within the Internet architecture, a co-parasitic relationship is formed between a controlling interest of crony-capitalists with pleasure-seeking end-users. the additional aspect of anonymity leads some to act in ways they might otherwise not act; aggressively, divisively, instantly fueled by emotion. everyone is an ‘instant expert’ on everything from world affairs to science. within the architecture of social media, in particular FaceBook and Twitter, the ‘like’ and ‘share’ buttons in the hands of non-skeptics ill-versed in critical thinking skills and science are perhaps the second dangerous buttons only to the nuke.
paranoia as an overarching theme in Western culture since the Protestant Revolution:
here, we think of ‘witch hunts’ based upon fear of the unknown. catholic conspiracy, religious conspiracy, governmental conspiracy, all thought-processes naturally geared toward filling a blank of understanding with something of certainty in the absence of truth. in a largely chaotic world, human beings come with a capacity to make their own sense of something random; which leads to the discovery of patterns, pareidolia, a moon-man or face in the clouds, the invention of the flying spaghetti monster, et.al. and always, there are charlatans who begin taking advantage of this human weakness by praying on the gullible, fueling their fears for control but at a certain point, the charlatan is absorbed down his own rabbit hole and begins to believe his own rhetoric as fact. paranoia is genetically encoded. welcome the Alex Jones, the John Edward, the Sylvia Brown, those who commune with the dead, predict the days of doom, the faith healers…none of which seem to be able to win a lottery or escape their fates. these, the inventors of cold & hot readings, who understand the psychology of the con, the shapers of language.
generation Y and narcissism
social media, instant gratification, multi-tasking, short-attention-span-theatre, from the 60s where one might invest forty minutes to take in a concept album like sgt. Pepper’s or Court of the Crimson King, to now the music becoming either background or switched from one song to the next while not less than twenty seconds have played. it is the give-it-to-me-now and easy while I-kill-all-the-humanity-living-in-my-Xbox mentality. generation Y will be the prey of generation X. The ashes will be composed of selfies.
surveillance and privacy:
gps in automobiles, gps smartphones, chips in pets, possibly in people (don’t have the chip, can’t enter the high-security area—airport, bank, hotel…) the end of paper money such that all transactions are a record of both purchase and location. the remarkable ironic case of a man who was robbed and beaten, law enforcement was not able to help him because he was living off the grid and therefore, there were no electronic traces to apprehend the perp…we have the capability in neuro-supercomputers to track each and every piece of space junk so it only stands to reason…thoughts from the Speilberg film, Minority Report in which targeted ads follow and hound one, the lines blur in arts as to what is the entertainment and what is the advertisement, subliminal messages, the use of psychology of sound and color, the gun which can be aimed at a person and cause his inability to speak, mind control in videogames, mind control in drones, AI drones, we just heard what Hawking predicted: "Whereas the short-term impact of AI depends on who controls it, the long-term impact depends on whether it can be controlled at all." Paranoia: are we a simulation and if so, whose?
the potential for art objects traditionally believed to be low culture having the potential to transcend into the realm of high art (television reality for example)
the comeback of vinyl, honey boo boo Bible, the scripts written for ‘reality’ shows in which even the producers are not in on the truth, virtual reality characters indistinguishable from their original old-fashioned human counterparts. AI observing its own manufactured reality.
~ A Simulation of Tom Miller
OFF THE GRID LIVING ILLEGAL IN FLORIDA