Friday, October 20, 2023

The government vs UFOs vs my interest




I glanced at CNN yesterday morning, just as I always do.

Yeah, yeah, I know. But it’s only for a quick rundown. When I read in-depth I go elsewhere.

Anyway, the usual stories of global collapse were there. Israel/Gaza, Ukraine, environmental pollution. There was, however, a new and odd addition.

UFOs.

The new program the Pentagon launched to collect UFO (or UAP as its officially been designated) data has received a windfall of reports. To the possible dismay of the “true believer” crowd, the vast majority of these reports have already been identified as prosaic in origin, such as balloons or civilian drones.

I wonder if I could start a trend of calling them “over-the-counter drones”?

This program stems in part from a Congressional hearing on UFOs last July, where it was basically agreed that if there are these UAP sightings at or near US military airspace, we should probably take the reports seriously regardless of any stigma.

Reasonable.

Said same hearing also featured David Grusch, a former USAF officer and intelligence official who asserted that the government is possession of both “non-human spacecraft” and “biological material” from those supposedly acquired craft. When asked for any concrete evidence to support his assertion, Grusch said that would require the hearing to go to closed session.

Which they did. If any names or files were given up, we don’t know.

I’m not sure I care, either.

That’s a staggering realization to come to considering posts I’ve written, and hopes I’ve held far earlier in life. At this point, I’m too overwhelmed to give the subject any energy. There are too many immediate concerns.

Things have changed considerably for us this year, as they do for most anyone as they age and pivot to care for those who once took care of us. Also, my workload keeps increasing, or so it feels. Conversely, the value of what I do seems to be viewed in an increasingly dim lit by American society as a whole. In turn, I question my own value. If you’ve read my book, then you know how viscerally I’ve come to realize how one good shove in the right place can send all the dominoes tumbling, and your life goes to pieces. What will I do if it all falls out from under me again? Especially at my age?  

I have bills to pay, a wife who needs tacos, and a dog to send to college.

Seriously, I have been on close, personal terms with the Nietzschean abyss the past few months. As turmoil plays out in my microcosm, terrors, both foreign and domestic, burgeon and boil over in the macrocosm, threatening all of us. How do I keep the ones I love safe in such insanity? So unless they’re somehow going to fix my problems, the revelation of an alien presence on Earth wouldn’t mean much to me in the face of the existential. Would it really change much, or would we be too immersed in our own very real problems to even care?

Somewhere, I think I hear 8 year-old Jon wailing. 



Follow me on X: @Jntweets

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

The Jondroid is in



There is a lot of promise in that pic.

At least to me there is…or was…anyway. That picture is of a toy robot I had as a kid. Back then, it wasn’t too hard for me to imagine a future where interaction with robots or other intelligent machines would be commonplace. It was a non-threatening notion. I mean look at the guy. He’s clunky. He’s boxy. He’s cute and inoffensive. He’s here to help. But never once did I contemplate standing before it and saying, “So tell me what I should do next,” or “Write this for me.”

I probably should have. Because that’s where we’re at.

Since I’ve written about artificial intelligence off and on over the past 12 years, a few people have asked me if I know what’s going on, or if I have new predictions for us in this age of ChatGPT, large language models, and the multitudes of other AI applications. I find it helps to assess our situation by stacking it against the idea of “the singularity.”

What’s that? Depends who you ask. But believe it or not, it’s that variability that has help me get an understanding of current AI…or to try to, anyway.

Alan Turing thought the truly revolutionary moment would be when one could no longer confidently know whether they were interacting with a person or a machine. If you’ve played around at all with any of the LLMs, then you know we could probably make a good argument that we’ve already hit that point. Now that we’re here, it feels like that bar might’ve been set a bit low.

Then there’s Ray Kurzweil. In his book, The Singularity is Near, he called the singularity, “a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed.” One of these transformations may be that humans will merge with technology to the point where any difference between human and machine will be meaningless. We could upgrade ourselves from this flawed, ever-decaying “meat” we inhabit. As someone with off and on health problems, I grabbed on to the promise of that new future and became something of a Kurzweil fanboy. I even assigned his books in a few classes, and was ready to extol his virtues to all who would listen.

I now think he was overly optimistic, and…by extension…so was I.

Turns out, to my way of thinking at least, that the most accurate descriptor of our current moment is the original definition of “singularity.”

It comes from 1950s computer scientist John von Neumann. He said, “the ever-accelerating progress of technology will yield some essential singularity in the history of the human race.” Mathematician and science fiction author Vernor Vinge gave the greater depth by calling it a time when “technological progress in the realm of intelligence will reach a point where the future is very difficult to predict.”

That’s it! And viola we’re back in the 50s.

Because in many ways, I’m as intoxicated with the possibilities of AI, especially when coupled with robotics, as the tech mavens. In many other regards though, I’m as terrified as the rest of you when I think about what could go wrong, or especially when I consider my impending obsolescence…and being an English professor in higher education, I’ve had many years to ponder that latter point.

I don’t believe the doomsayers are correct. There will not be a superintelligent HAL 9000 telling us, “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” I was fortunate enough to have a colleague in psychology explain to me years ago that the complexities and true nuances of the human brain are unlikely to be replicated by a computer.



Conversely, I don’t believe it’s wise at all to dismiss AI as “just another tool like YouTube or Google.” That analogy doesn’t work. Neither YouTube nor Google can produce work for you. This really is like nothing we’ve seen before.

That’s why nobody knows anything.

I guess that's why I miss those days of playing with that little robot.




In other news, India successfully landed a rover on the south pole of the Moon. This region of our lonely satellite has been particularly enticing as it promises to hold a good deal of water. Elsewhere on the Moon, a "massive structure" (not my words) has been found underneath the Aitken basin. As one astronomer put it: "Imagine taking a pile of metal five times larger than the Big Island of Hawaii and burying it underground."

It's all likely from a massive asteroid collision, but I'm hoping for something else.



Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

Friday, August 26, 2022

Where I'm Calling From




Hey! Look! An actual post!

 

A blog is a living document.

That’s both good and bad.

Go back to 2010 when Esoteric Synaptic Events had its genesis (although it misguidedly started as Strange Horizons, but I don’t want to get into that) and root through every post across the 12 years…though why anyone would have the patience or desire to do so is beyond me…and I’m certain you will find something I wrote that would embarrass me. My reaction to such a post (or more likely “posts”) will no doubt be “I thought that??” Fortunately, as I mentioned at the outset, a blog is a living document. It should show an evolution of thought. There should be changes in opinions.

I’ve been inspired to post for the first time in a long time because I’d like to make my current self clear. I’d like to provide a 2022 snapshot of “where I’m calling from” (with apologies to Raymond Carver), and offer my current thinking on topics I typically covered on ESE.

-Transhumanism.

I’m well aware that I’ve proclaimed myself as “an unabashed transhumanist.”

I’m a fair bit more “abashed” these days. Why?

Covid changed my mind. At the onset of the pandemic of 2020, a few of the more vocal proponents of transhumanism opposed lockdowns. Their argument ran something like this paraphrase: scientific research labs should remain open. Sure, we will lose a few people now, but that number is small compared to the number we will save in the years to come if we keep at our work.

I’ve never been a fan of cold equations, so this line of thinking didn’t sit well with me. I’m not willing to toss human lives on the bonfire of transhumanism for the dream of something that might materialize tomorrow, with the feasibility of said somethings…such as total body prosthesis…being questionable.

These claims really drew my attention to the strong strand of libertarianism inherent in the transhumanist movement. My attitude towards that particularly political ideology is not exactly xenial. As my friend Armando says, “The only place either libertarianism or communism work is in a sophomore’s dorm room at midnight after a few joints.” One of the criticisms of transhumanism is related to the widening gap between rich and poor. Would only those with means reap the benefits of transhumanism? If the attitudes expressed during Covid are to be taken as any indication, then it seems signs say “yes.”

This is not to say I oppose continued efforts in cybernetics, body modifications, and potentially life-saving developments. I still wish I could transcend my human frailties and take control of my biology. Rather it’s the “crypto bro” style of thinking involved that has allowed this new daylight to emerge between the transhumanist movement and me.

There is, admittedly, one other more personal…”objection” is almost too strong a word, but I don’t know what else to call it. While I don’t want anything to happen to me too soon, I don’t want to live forever. Both of my beloved dogs died in 2020 (I wrote about them here). If there is any chance of existence hereafter, then I want to see them again.

A book-length exploration of that subject is in the pike.

 

-UFOs

It may seem counterintuitive in what might appear to be a halcyon era of UFO research and political attention for the subject, but I’m actually more skeptical now than I’ve ever been.

Sure, Navy videos, tac-tacs, “go fast” and so on and so forth all the livelong day. What’s getting lost in the circus of opinions is that many prosaic and reasonable explanations have been offered for these videos (check out Mick West). Of course, many “ufologists” have summarily rejected them. Additionally, just because the government and the military deny they possess any flying objects with the flight characteristics in the videos doesn’t make it true. Previous assets such as stealth aircraft were openly denied until declassification.

My other sticking point is that I’ve seen too many cracks develop in what I once thought were strong cases. Rendlesham, Malmstrom AFB, and Barney and Betty Hill are but a few examples. When these corrosions are combined with how, as I see it anyway, the concept of “aliens are here” falls apart under close and logical scrutiny, I can’t help but be disabused of any likelihood of the pop culture, ufology equation of “UFOs=ETs.”

Another factor that has rather soured me on UFOs is how members of the alt-right have grown increasingly involved in the subject. After all, if you operate from a conspiracy theorist mentality and believe the government is “out to get the people,” then the UFO mythos is an automatic fit. As one researcher of conspiracy rhetoric described it, QAnon, white supremacy, and UFO conspiracies are all different conspiracy trees, but their branches have started to intertwine. These conspiracy theorists are dangerous and must watched.  

I remain fascinated by the topic, though. It’s a genuine mythos, a complex narrative more human in creation than anything else. I’m intrigued by how it has affected culture, politics, and history really. Many turn their noses up at hoaxes, and that’s understandable if one’s mission is to conclusively prove that UFOs are signs of alien visitation. Me? I’m so intrigued by the motives and the lengths to which someone will go to in order to pull off a fake. Like everything else in human existence, there is a rhetoric to UFOs, and that means there are conflicting interpretations of what constitutes “reality.”

By the same token, I must also leave the door open for spectacular possibilities. Falcon Lake, Belgium 1990, Tehran 1976, and RB-47 1957 are examples of the small percentage of cases that have solid evidence and remain unexplained. Does that mean aliens? Well, maybe not in the popular sense. It might be even weirder. Want to know more? Read Jacques Vallee.


-Cyberpunk

We’re living in it. One of the many many definitions of the subgenre is “High tech. Low life.” Many characters in cyberpunk narratives are just trying to carve out an existence, but are unable to get past certain social barriers. There are the ultrarich, and there is everyone else. There is no real “government” to speak of in texts like Neuromancer or Blade Runner. There are, however, mega-corporations that seem to be happily running the show and making a hefty profit. Think back to the early days of the Covid pandemic and recall a) the sense that no help was coming, and b) Amazon’s treatment of its “essential workers.” All we’re missing are the cybernetic implants. Give Elon Musk’s Neuralink a little time, and maybe we’ll even have those.

That is if they can get their test subjects to stop dying.

 

-Climate change.

We’re fucked.

I wish I could be more optimistic, but every day there’s new evidence that the “chickens are coming home to roost,” in the words of Malcom X. It was recently over 100 degrees in London. A report on NPR this morning talked about the water levels receding at Lake Tahoe and Lake Mead. Will there be a population spike here in the Great Lakes region of the Midwest? We’ll have access to fresh water at least. Superstorms and rainfall might be a problem, though. You might be ok.

Then again, when the consequences of climate refugees and economic fallout hit, we’ll all be feeling it.

 

Want to boost your spirits? Check out these images from the James Webb Telescope. 

Shameless self-promotion: My book Requiem for a College is available now on Amazon. I first let you know about it here, but my opus of literary journalism came to be at last.

Might warrant a post of its own.

Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

Saturday, January 9, 2021

1950s b-movies as a shared universe





Dedicated to my Svenpals!

It’s 1950.

World War II ended five years ago with the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan. American life is a mixture of gleeful prosperity and existential dread. Sure, suburbia is booming and we’ve got a lot of cool stuff, but is another war ahead? This time with the “commies” and this time even more destructive due to atomic weapons? Little did anyone know that the copious atomic tests of the previous five years would unleash “atomic horror.” Fortunately, it would all be chronicled in b-movies…that I now propose as a shared universe.

A few words about what I’m doing.

I am engaging in fanfiction. Just in case you might not know, this is where someone takes plot and characters from established, copyrighted media, and writes their own stories using the content. It has been around for at least 50 years in the modern sense of the term, and I’ve been studying it off and on through the lens of Rhetoric and Composition. To me, fanfiction writers are reclaiming their agency in order to engage in the natural human need to contribute to mythmaking. Often this means taking liberties with the “canon” of the media. In my case, I will be monkeying with the timeline of these movies.

Why am I doing this with no hope of publication or compensation? A couple reasons.
One, I am so tired of writing about small college closures, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Two, I am exhausted from a month of class-building in Canvas while watching America erode into chaos. To say I want something diverting is an understatement. Fortunately, I happened to be tweeting back and forth with a few pals during my weekly viewing of Svengoolie, and this idea of a shared universe was born. I couldn’t wait to play in it.

And to be honest, that’s what I or any fanfiction writer is really doing. Playing.

I feel I need to make one more point. As one may logically conclude, these 1950s b-movies are reflective of the ethos and ideals of the society that created them. That means they are very, very white. There is opportunity to add diversity. Maybe African American characters who overcame the Jim Crow of that era in defiance of all expectations? Not all characters in these films have explicit sexual orientations. Maybe someone is LGBT? There is much that could be retroactively fixed and lot of cultural baggage shed. I am currently trying to figure out how, but a handful of films did it already as this article on female scientist characters points out.

Here is my attempt to weave together what a 1950s “atomic horror” (plus a handful of other pop culture properties thrown in for “seasoning”) shared-universe would look like:





1951
New Mexico-Authorities investigate a mute, wandering child and her parents’ apparent murder. Unbelievably, this leads to the discovery of giant, hostile ants inhabiting New Mexico. Radiation from the Trinity test mutated regular ants to the size of city buses. The military eventually destroys these ants. A few people stand out in the whole fracas. One is a G-Man named Robert Graham, and another is New Mexico State Trooper, Ben Peterson. Most of all, there is Dr. Harold Medford and his daughter, Dr. Pat Medford. Both are trained in the academic subfield of myrmecology (study of ants), but we’re open-minded and intellectually nimble enough to recognize and accept what was actually going on. As Dr. Harold Medford said, "When Man entered the Atomic Age, he opened the door to a new world. What we may eventually find in that new world, nobody can predict."
Once it was all over, these four all got a visit from a smiling “man in black” who said his name was “Indrid Cold.” He represented a covert government organization named Anomalous Scientific Events (heh! See what I did there?) or ASE (pronounced “ace”). The American government was growing aware of the unintended consequences of nuclear energy, and a team was being formed to meet the new challenges. The four accepted membership in the club. They might also have been persuaded by the presence of the ASE agents flanking Indrid Cold, as these men wore black trenchcoats, black hats, and their faces were obscured by black gas masks.
(Film source: Them!)





Japan-Something rose out of the depths of the Pacific. Resembling a dinosaur-like creature of enormous stature, it laid waste to a small fishing village. Dr. Kyohei Yamane, a paleontologist, determined the monster to have been in hibernation and then awoken, and perhaps mutated, by oceanic atomic testing. Given the name “Godzilla,” the beast attacked Tokyo and Japanese citizens suddenly felt like it was 1945 all over again. The Japanese military was less than useless against Godzilla, particularly as Godzilla could expel a fiery, radioactive breath. A scientist named Dr. Daisuke Serizawa was beseeched for help. Serizawa had built a device called an Oxygen Destroyer, but he refused to provide it, fearing it might proliferate into weapons even more deadly than the atomic bomb. As Tokyo burned, Serizawa’s conscience was moved and he agreed to use the device, provided he could first burn his design notes. Godzilla returned to Tokyo Bay and Serizawa dove down to plant the Oxygen Destroyer on the monster’s leg. The device worked, killing Godzilla, but Serizawa turned off his own oxygen tank, choosing to die and take the secret of the device with him. Yamane conjectured that if atomic testing continued, more Godzillas could await.
Indrid Cold met Yamane and invited him to join ASE. At the same time, ASE agents raided Dr. Serizawa’s lab and confiscated all they could to reconstruct an Oxygen Destroyer. Also, an ASE intelligence named Race Bannon spent two days interrogating Steve Martin, an American reporter who witnessed the devastation wrought by Godzilla.
(Film sources: Godzilla, Jonny Quest)




1952
The Arctic-A secret nuclear test at the North Pole had an unintended consequence. It dislodged a block of ice containing a gigantic praying mantis, frozen since prehistoric times. This mantis awoke and attacked US military forces in northern Canada who were building the DEW (Distant Early Warning) radar line. From there it headed south, attacking New York and Washington D.C. Members of ASE, such as Drs. Yamane and Medford, formulated the means to defeat the monster bug and it eventually died trapped in Manhattan Tunnel.
(Film source: The Deadly Mantis)

The same classified nuclear test knocked loose yet another significant block of ice. This one contained a Nazi bomber of advanced design. It crashed in the Arctic in the 1940s as it was piloted away from American cities…by Captain Steve Rogers, better known as Captain America. The bomber and Rogers were found by ASE agents and US forces scouring the area following the deadly mantis attack. Incredibly, Captain America had been frozen in suspended animation all that time. Indrid Cold persuaded the newly-thawed Rogers that ASE…and all of America…still needed Captain America.
(Film source: Captain America: The First Avenger.)

By sheer uncanny coincidence, ASE enlisted yet another “special agent” at this very time. A researcher and industrialist had perfected his own rocket pack. With such propulsion on his back, a leather flying jacket around his torso, and a streamlined and bug-eyed helmet on his head, he quietly pledges his daredevil flight skills to Indrid Cold, ASE, and the good ol’ US of A. His codename would be “Commando Cody.”
(Film source: The Commando Cody serials)




1953
The Arctic (again)-The US Air Force responded to a call from Polar Expedition Six about the crash of an unknown aircraft. ASE agents Peterson, Graham, and Captain America accompanied. It was discovered that the downed aircraft was in fact an alien spaceship. The ship was accidentally destroyed, but the ship’s frozen occupant, presumed dead, was brought back to the research station. The alien thawed out and immediately began killing mammalian life in order to devour its primary food source: blood. Dr. Arthur Carrington, Nobel laureate and lead researcher at the polar station, determined that the alien was a form of plant-based life and demanded that “The Thing” (for lack of a better term) be captured for study. Captain Kenneth Tobey, commanding officer of the military expedition, rejected the proposal due to obvious security concerns. After a fierce battle with Captain America, the alien made its way inside the outpost. Dr. Carrington attempted to reason with the alien, but was killed. The alien was at last destroyed by electricity.
Ned “Scotty” Scott, a journalist who accompanied the detachment, radioed the story along with a warning to “Keep watching the skies!” This transmission never made it to the newswire thanks to interference by ASE. Scott and Tobey, however, were recruited into the organization, with a keen eye on Scott’s ability to manage public information. 
This incident prompted a subdivision to form in ASE. The objective for this group was to confront possible extraterrestrial threats. Primary agents in this task force were Arthur Dales, Bill Mulder, and Carl Busch, the latter never giving his colleagues his actual name. This led to him simply being known as “The Cigarette Smoking Man” due to his three-pack-a-day-habit. Calling their subgroup “The X-Files,” these agents retrieved pieces of the alien’s destroyed ship. A computer was eventual salvaged and restarted. It contained numerous intelligence on terrestrial atomic weapons as well as data on Godzilla, the mantis, and giant ants. The three agents also confiscated all of Dr. Carrington’s analysis of the alien. This would become invaluable later.
(Film sources: The Thing From Another World, The X-Files)




Arizona-A small town seemed to lose its mind. Local resident John Putnam and a schoolteacher named Ellen Fields blamed it on a crashed spaceship and its mind-controlling occupant. ASE took statements and noted that an extraterrestrial presence appeared to be growing on Earth. To keep pace with the growing threat, ASE recruited a scientist named Dr. Clayton Forrester into the fold.
(Film source: It Came From Outer Space, War of the Worlds)

1954
Los Angeles, CA-Two scientists construct a robot named “Tobor” designed to take the place of human astronauts in space travel, thus presumably saving human lives. Tobor was briefly stolen by enemy agents (presumed Soviet), but the robot prevailed with the assistance of Commando Cody.
(Film source: Tobor the Great)





1955
Pennsylvania-An object fell from space outside a rural town. Later, two teenagers found an elderly man with a strange, purple, jelly-like substance. The youths took the man to a local doctor, but the old man was consumed by the growing “blob.” The blob would have devoured the entire town if not for the quick thinking of local high school students. There were two main outcomes from this incident. Teenager Steve Andrews became ASE’s youngest recruit because Indrid Cold “liked the cut of his jib” and said he could “really handle himself.” Secondly, ASE scientists and investigators came to suspect that the “blob” was an alien weapon covertly dropped on Earth.
(Film source: The Blob)

1957
Mexico-Yet another object fell from space, this time splashing down in the Pacific off the coast of Mexico. An enormous alien robot rose from the ocean and came ashore, absorbing all energy sources it encountered. The news media dubbed the robot “Kronos” for reasons unknown. ASE responded to threat as its scientists determined that bombarding Kronos with nuclear ions would reverse its polarity. This worked and Kronos fell to pieces. ASE collected the fragments and began to reverse engineer the device. Despite the work of Ned Scott and Race Bannon, it becomes more difficult for ASE to conceal the alien threat.
(Film source: Kronos)




1958
Washington D.C.-All efforts of ASE and its “X-Files” to cover up alien visitation on Earth are negated when a flying saucer landed on the White House lawn. A human-looking alien named Klaatu met with ASE scientists to warn that human experimentation with nuclear weapons has garnered attention in the galaxy. If the human race did not agree to abandon the nuclear arms race for the sake of its own existence and prosperity, then other civilizations may regard humanity as a threat and wipe the face of the Earth clean. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was onboard with the idea, but said the Soviets would never agree, so it was judged as a non-starter. Klaatu departed for his home planet, but not before imparting the ominous threat, “Beware. They’re coming.”
(Film source: The Day the Earth Stood Still)




1959
WORLDWIDE CONFLAGRATION 
Earth was invaded.
Cylinders dropped from the sky all over the world. These cylinders disgorged hovering war machines armed with heat rays. Blobs, just like the kind encountered in rural Pennsylvania in 1955, plopped into major cities. Additionally, giant ants, just like the kind encountered in New Mexico in 1951, attacked heavily populated areas for the first time. Drs. Medford determined that these ants were under the control of the alien invaders. Mind control, just as seen in Arizona in 1953, was brought to bear as a weapon against humanity as the alien invaders created small armies of zombified humans. Captain America and Race Bannon fought these brainwashed citizens in the streets. Commando Cody struck the alien war machines from skies with mixed success. Response from the world’s militaries was swift, but ineffective as weapons such as tanks and jet fighters disintegrated when hit by alien heat rays. Not even the atomic bomb made any difference. As broadcaster Ned Scott noted, “it was the rout of humanity.”

The tide of the war turned in the Pacific when the aliens awoke another Godzilla to do their bidding. Godzilla was not interested and turned his destructive force on the aliens. ASE agents, armed with experimental laser guns and commanding robot armies based on the designs of Tobor and Kronos, brought down war machines. Race Bannon single-handedly killed one of the aliens. He brought the corpse to ASE scientists, led by Dr. Clayton Forrester, in a makeshift lab built in the California hills after the loss of ASE HQ when Los Angeles. One breakthrough occurred at this lab when the aliens’ language was deciphered by Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones. Then analysis of the alien body found it to be identical the alien encountered in the Arctic in 1953. Using the notes of the late Dr. Carrington, ASE scientists developed a bioweapon against the aliens and dispersed it widely. The aliens abandoned Earth after many of them were felled by the virus, “the tiniest weapon ever known to man.”
Though victorious, humans faced a difficult situation. Over one million died and many more were injured, whole cities needed rebuilding, and we still had giant ants. What’s more, Godzilla still lurked somewhere in the oceanic depths. And rumors began to fly about a giant, pterodactyl-like creature that rose out of  Japanese volcano. In its own significant blow, ASE came to learn that sometime during the war, Indrid Cold had disappeared.
(Film source: War of the Worlds)

Addendum
Arthur Dales believed there was far more weirdness out there than ASE was investigating. He left ASE, went into journalism, and changed his name to "Carl Kolchak."
(Film source: Kolchak the Nightstalker)

So there it is. The skeleton of a shared universe. A lot of grist for the mill, and plenty of nooks and crannies to fill in, but for now…I had fun. 



Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

Thursday, November 21, 2019

This is the year of Blade Runner




Figured I needed to get this Blade Runner post in while there's still a week left in the month.

November, 2019. As depicted above, that was temporal setting for one of my favorite films of all time, Blade Runner, based on the novella "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick. Thus, the movie is now about the present.

Maybe it always was.

So strange to think it is now November 2019, particularly when I remember my first viewing of Blade Runner sometime circa 1984. My young eyes and mind could not appreciate the depth and grandeur at the time. I thought it slow, boring, and most obtuse, but visually captivating. Oddly, my love for the movie grew in a snowball effect only after it was viewed in connection to multiple other texts (Derrida, I hope you're reading, because you were right...of course I would never argue otherwise).

A couple years after seeing the movie for the first time, I became a devotee of the short-lived ABC TV series, Max Headroom.




The show took place in a dystopian future where TV networks ruled the world. The character of "Max", while omnipresent in the series was also somewhat peripheral, allowing interesting plotlines to arise from supporting characters. I loved the show (still do) and began to recognize that I had seen a few of its aspects before. Like Blade Runner, the sun never seemed to shine in Max and everyone and everything operated under this oppressive atmosphere of weight. In my first months of undergrad, I would learn that this atmosphere and its accompanying generic motifs had a name.

Cyberpunk.

At my friend Chris' blog, Dorkland!, he does a fine job of explaining what that genre means, so I'll leave you to read it at the link. It was through Chris and the role-playing game, Cyberpunk 2020 (odd yet again that next year will be the projected setting for that game) that I would be introduced to the wide range of books and films that fall under this umbrella category. Chris, in what he will no doubt eternally lord over me, introduced me to my most favorite writer, William Gibson. "If you want cyberpunk, you need to read its foremost author," Chris said, or something to that effect. I read Neuromancer and then Count Zero and the rest, as they say, is history.


Art by Liang Mark

Throughout my early 20-something deep dive into cyberpunk, I kept seeing the obvious connections to Blade Runner. In fact, William Gibson is said to have left a showing of the movie in deep distress. So much of what he portrayed in his book Neuromancer he saw depicted on the screen. He thought Hollywood had beaten him to the punch. But Gibson went on to do just fine, publishing numerous short stories in Omni and long line of books. It was Blade Runner, though, that took its time cultivating an audience. It was something a box office flop, but people like me gathered as a cult following and the film eventually came to be regarded as a classic.

Here in the actual November 2019, many are publishing articles of what the film got wrong and got right. Those "gotcha" pieces seem to satisfy a pesky need for people to crow, "Ha ha! Science fiction doesn't get it all right!" Of course it doesn't. Gibson said as much when I heard him speak in 2010.

"I'm surprised how often we [science fiction writers] get it wrong. There were no cellphones in Neuromancer," he said.

There weren't any in Blade Runner either. Neither Philip K. Dick, nor Ridley Scott, nor most anyone else involved foresaw the omnipresent connection of technology in the way we would have now. We also don't have Replicants, artificial constructs that mimic humans in most every way and only an empathy test can help tell the difference. This of course is probably the biggest disparity between real life and the 2019 of Blade Runner, but give it time as we're getting close. Still waiting on the flying car, but we're getting there as well.

So what did it "get right"? Well, voice-responsive technology is one check mark in the "got it" column. Image scanning and manipulation is another, even if it's not quite to the degree shown in Deckard's apartment. I'm going to guess going by the incessant rainfall in the film that there was a serious climate shift. The warmer air holds more moisture and the rain just keeps coming. It's also probably an acid rain, given the sheer amount of pollutants belched into the air by stacks in the film. We've taken steps to curb acid rain, but there is no doubt that our climate is changing in real life.

Corporations also dominate the world of Blade Runner. The Tyrell Corporation, manufacturer of Replicants and no doubt many other "must-have" products, operates above and outside the law, wielding influence over much and greeted with shrugs of "that's the free market." It's a paradise for Libertarians and a dystopia for everyone else. The gulf between the haves and the have nots is both wide and deep. Need I really draw any overt parallels between the two 2019s? When almighty business sits so high upon its lofty perch?

There is one other aspect of the movie that I believe stands out far and above all the others when compared to our 2019: people want to live authentic lives.

That sounds like a no-brainer, but I urge you to really think about it as you watch the film. The environment of Blade Runner is downright oppressive in economic, environmental, spiritual, atmospheric, and in many other senses. Yet people persist. They eke out livings using what is available to them, usually technology. J.F. Sebastian builds his own "family" using his skills in robotics and biotech. Scan the street scenes and pause from time to time, inferring the different ways people of the city find to survive.

In yet another connection to Gibson, this practice is evocative of one his better known quotes: "The street finds its own use for things." This is seen our time as protesters in Chile use inexpensive laser pointers to confuse police drones and cameras.


Photo from The Atlantic.


What is amazing to me is that the people of Blade Runner still want to survive despite all reasons not to. I see little quality of life for the common person, I see little chance of them surmounting the draconian mechanisms which confine them to their stations, I see no room for avocations apart from vices, and yet...and yet...through either fear or courage, they persist. Perhaps as Camus suggests, they imagine Sisyphus as happy.

All of this, one may argue, is neatly encapsulated in the film's final scene. Why does Roy spare Deckard? The viewer is left only to speculate. That speculation is percolated (or spoon-fed, depending on your ethos) by Harrison Ford's noirish voiceover. Maybe in his final moments, Roy wanted life so much that he could not bear to take it from Deckard or anything else. Why am I here? How long do I have? Or as Roy perhaps less eloquently puts it to Tyrell in an earlier scene, "I want more life, fucker."

Speculation. Not all the blanks get filled. That is often the mark of great art. More to the pity of Blade Runner 2049, where I begged for them not to answer the questions. Unfortunately, that was but the least of the sequel's problems.

We live in uncertain times. File that under Understatement for $100, Alex. Often I and others of a similar mind find ourselves asking just how do we continue during such an era of political and economic oppression? I don't just mean that in regard to myself, but more specifically to many others, such as the protesters in Chile...and if you don't understand why we should care about others then we really have nothing left to say to each other. Additionally, I question my own future vis-a-vis what I value and what I do. What place is there for someone of the mind in a "go into the trades" world? How do I have? How can I keep going?

Today, as in the Blade Runner version of 2019, there may be no way to win. But people keep going.

"It's too bad she won't live. But then again, who does?"









I leave you with an instrumental piece by Nine Inch Nails which to me sounds most Blade Runner-esque.








 Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

Friday, September 6, 2019

Hike for Hesed




In two weeks, I will be participating in the Hike for Hesed. This is a five mile walk to raise funds for Hesed House, the second largest homeless shelter in Illinois.

Why am I doing this? It all starts ten years ago with a man named Gordon.

It was a chance meeting in the food court of Chicago Union Station. I was in the city, killing time before meeting my adviser at DePaul University. While in the Metra station, I saw CPD hustle out two homeless men. 

“They do it to me, too,” someone to the right of me said.

He sat reading a discarded newspaper. He wore a 49ers sweatshirt that had seen the better of days. I saw weathered skin on his face, teeth a deep shade of yellow in his mouth, and detected the slightest scent which indicated an absence of soap and deodorant. We started talking. He told me his name was Gordon. In 2001, his wife contracted cancer. They found it harder and harder to cover the innumerable bills that came their way, despite their having insurance. They wiped out his 401k. They took out a second mortgage on their house. Then the other shoe dropped.

Gordon worked as a machinist at a Chicago factory. The CEO of the business decided he could make a greater profit if he moved the plant to Mexico. Gordon lost his job. He and his wife soon depleted their savings. She died. He lost the house. With no other family to speak of, Gordon went to the streets.

I never forgot that chance meeting. For the ten years since I have reflected on how we are all, in the end, subject to the capricious whims of chance. You never, ever know how someone came into their situation, whatever it is. I am certain there are those who would greet this account with counterclaims, such as, “He should have worked harder and saved more” or “Why didn’t he just get another job?” To those claims, I offer yet another question.

Would you say that to me?

If you are reading this, then chances are you know me, either informally through the ether of cyberspace, or as an intimate friend. You might even be an extended family member. My point being, seriously, would you say those things to me if I were homeless?

Because I easily could have been.

When Saint Josephs’ College closed in May of 2017, I lost my job. As my wife has serious health conditions, I was the sole provider for my family. I sent out hundreds of job applications and went on numerous interviews. I ended up getting two part-time jobs, which still did not come close to covering monthly costs of living. How did we make it?

Pure accident of birth. I am blessed and grateful beyond belief to have been born to parents with both the love and the means to help my family survive…and I do mean basic survival…for that year before I was again blessed and acquired a wonderful, full time faculty position. If not for my parents, my family would have been homeless. Every day I reflect on how few people have such a safety net. I also believe that to whom much is given, much is expected. 

Therefore, I must act.

There are unique pathologies within our society. One of them, I believe, stems from our pioneer times, times which disappeared well over 150 years ago. This thinking goes: “As long as you work hard, you will make it.” Another is a reductive equation which states wealth=virtue. If you don’t have money, then you must be poor in character and morality as well as finances. Thus, I concede the fact that someone out there would still have belittled me for my situation or worse, belittled someone like Gordon for his, with “You should have worked harder” or “it’s your problem.” I posit that those harboring such an ethos are susceptible to the many myths surrounding the human tragedy that is homelessness in America.

“Homeless people just don’t want to work, or if they just got a job, they’d be fine.”
A 2013 study from the Department of Housing and UrbanDevelopment found that 55% of homeless had worked in the previous year. Gordon had worked the year before I spoke to him. I worked in the first half of 2017. I then worked two part-time jobs, just as many housing insecure people do. A minimum wage worker needs to work between 69 and 174 hours a week in order to afford a two-bedroom rental.

“Fighting homelessness is too expensive.”
A study from the Central Florida Commission onHomelessness determined that subsidizing housing for people costs $10,000 per person, per year. If left homeless, then people can cause a strain on jails, law enforcement, hospitals, and other community services that amount to $31,000 per person, per year. If one cannot see assisting the homeless as a moral imperative, then perhaps one might yield to the logic of numbers and finance.

I am also struck by how many young people are homeless. Last March, a student confessed to me that they were living out of their car and were running out of cash for food. I connected this student with campus services in order to change that situation post haste. But this student was symptomatic of a larger and systemic plight. Yesterday’s Chicago Tribune reported that 16,000 public school students qualify as homeless. “I felt very embarrassed to tell people”, was a common comment from those students.
Nationwide, one may see the scope, namely a 70% increase, of homelessness among school-aged children in this chart:




Something must be done.

That is why I like the simply stated mission of Hesed House: “Because everyone deserves dignity.” Every human deserves the dignity of a roof, heating or cooling, and food in their stomach.
Consider the many victories won by Hesed House:

-Over 200,000 warm meals were served to people in need.
-80,766 Warm, safe nights of restful sleep were provided.
-120 children were served over the course of the past year.
-So many people who now have jobs and their own housing via Hesed House training and assistance programs.

You may read of more successes at this link.

So that is why I am participating in Hike for Hesed. Several of my fine colleagues at the college, along with a few of their family members, will be joining me. Our team name is “Waubonsee Walkers.” I assure you none of us are Walking Dead fans, but rather the name comes from my being unimaginative at the time of registration. Because we’re from Waubonsee and we’re…well…walking. If, however, you are a zombie fan and that motivates you to help, then by all means.

I ask that you please consider sponsoring my team in this walk by making a donation of whatever you can afford. In doing so, you will be helping so many people to change their lives. Yes, it is the moral thing to do, but it also just makes good sense.

Everyone deserves dignity.
Everyone deserves to feel like they matter.
Everyone.

I’m going to do what I can to help make that happen.

Thank you all so much and take care.



Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets