Posts Tagged ‘Good Stuff’

Thinking of starting a band?

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

October 7th, 2009
For Humanity’s sake, this may be the time!

From Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure:
Rufus: Well you can start by signing this for my kids.
(Holds out a CD of Wyld Stallyns music.)
Ted: Why?
Rufus: They’re big fans of yours.
Ted: What?
Rufus: Everyone is. Wyld Stallyns music is the foundation for our whole society.
Bill & Ted: No way.
Rufus: Yes way. In fact, I believe you were there. The futuristic place with the domes?
Bill: And the totally excellent music.
Ted: They totally worshipped us there, Rufus.
Rufus: I know. That’s why I was sent to make sure you passed your History report. If you guys were separated it would have been disastrous for life as we know it. You see, eventually your music will help put an end to war and poverty. It will align the planets and bring them into universal harmony. Allowing meaningful contact with all forms of life. From extra terrestrials to common household pets. And, it’s excellent for dancing.
(If you’d like to hear the full song and are into that sort of thing [I am], you can find it here. Great if you need some cheering-up from contemplating existential risk all day.)

One More Time

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

September 21st, 2009
Posthumans know how to party (obviously).

(From Daft Punk’s film “Discovery”. This version includes the intro and credits but was the best that could be embedded.  Feel free to skip forward)
This song is an old favorite. The rest of the album and film are worthwhile as well.

Nobility

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

September 17th, 2009
Riding the bus this morning we were stopped at one corner for a bit, and there was a woman there waiting for another line. She was dressed very simply in a work uniform, with her hair back, and a 2 or 3 year old son in her arms. He was looking about, squinting and seeming a little irritated with the sunlight. She seemed in that quiet early-morning mood, and though she gave off a strong impression of intelligence and maturity I got the feeling the child was unplanned, perhaps had when she was still a teenager. I’d also guess she was single, and I started to think about life and outcomes we may never have wished for but that we come to live with. Then, as he was looking with confusion at the bus or something else, she came out of her reverie and with great warmth and easy affection, kissed him on the cheek.

The People You Don’t Know

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

August 18th, 2009
I got back recently from an 8-week research internship in Idaho, working on artificial neural networks. Like my 3-month study in Japan, my reasons for going had nothing to do with meeting people, but like Japan the other students are what I most remember. Unlike in routine life where everyone has their established groups and limited motivation to branch out, here everyone is a stranger, and since almost everyone likes to interact with people they don’t stay that way for long. When I went to Japan, I hadn’t had the experience of getting to know so many new people since junior high, and it really kind of blew me mind. We obviously all shared some kind of large interest in Japan, and I thought having less in common with the Idaho students might make a large difference, but it didn’t much. These kinds of things make me wish we didn’t normally live such cloistered social lives, but with few exceptions, c’est la vie.
It’s interesting to think back to first meeting the other students, getting first impressions, running through the conventional where-are-you-from and what’s-your-major, etc. This is the level on which we know most of the people we interact with in life. And yet most of those first impressions weren’t very accurate, and they necessarily all did an abysmal job of representing those people’s depth and complexity.
I love to think back to first meetings and imagine telling the past me all the things I would learn about a person, all the things we would do, and how surprised past me would be. We each have people who’ve radically affected our lives, who’ve become fixtures and critical elements of our stories. With the exception of some family, those grand arching interactions all began with a “Hi, how are you?” or a “Hey, what’s up?”. The tip-of-the-iceberg cliche just doesn’t cut it.
Back at home, I feel like I know those other students relatively well. There’s sure to be much more to learn, things that only years of friendship might uncover, but those 2 months made a world of difference from being strangers. I care about them, their lives and their futures, but I don’t actually think those people are exceptional. I can’t find any good reason to believe that a great many of the people I see or meet for a short time aren’t just as interesting and enjoyable and able to be missed, if one gets to know them.
There are currently 6,778,285,580 people on earth, according to the estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau. Yes, some of those people are basically  assholes. And there are some exceptional people who are just as trite and uninteresting as they first appear, who do not merely hide or repress their depth so much as they utterly lack it. But unless you’re a real misanthrope, there are billions of people on this world that with time and a common language you’d come to appreciate and enjoy. Millions upon millions of potential friends, kept from being so only by lack of social and physical proximity. A million years, lived as we live them now, would not be enough to know them all†. And each and every one of those intricate and valuable lives would be lost in an existential disaster‡.

†  If we assume conservatively that friendship can be shared with 1 in 14 people, that leaves about 500 million such people. If you got to know one a day (really know, not just learn a few facts about), this would take you more than 1,369,863 years.
‡ Or possibly have so few survivors that the human race will be unable to maintain its numbers, or be repressed by an immortal totalitarianism, etc

Matt and Kim

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

August 12th, 2009

“Daylight”
I’ve been listening to Matt and Kim for a while now, they’re a local band out of Brooklyn that a friend got me into. Besides the music itself I really enjoy how happy they are in all of their videos. I fantasize about a world in which more people are free and able to be that happy, at least if they want to. I have some friends going through hard times, and they in turn have it better than the millions who lack basic necessities. Even on the scales of happiness we’re familiar with already, there is a lot of room for improvement.