Public policy, social issues, gender politics, religion, civitas, and other taboo topics fall under the hammer of Shava's iconoclasmic force of natural philosophy.
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From the advanced teledildonics group at Carnegie-Mellon
Monday, June 20, 2005
4:45 PM
Two guys at Carnegie-Mellon are creating an internet standard for duplicating a 3D kinetic model of a person, for example, over the net.
Back in the old days, we grey-hairs of the Internet used to refer to the ideal of this project as "teledildonics." It's the ultimate in safe sex, I suppose, assuming you don't get computer viruses...or trojans? :)
call and response
Thursday, June 09, 2005
9:14 PM
My father used to say that for everything that is taken away, a gift is given -- and conversely for every gift given, something is taken away. He used this as a cautionary against believing that some talent or ability made us better than someone else. People who are very smart may be socially awkward, for example. People who are often ill may be more patient and compassionate. It doesn't always follow, but it's worth watching for.
Recently, my friend Sam Hartman has been inspiring me in a number of ways. Sam is blind. One day, on the subway, with my eyes wide open, I suddenly *heard* the subway in a way I imagine it would seem to him -- full of textures of sound sources and echoes.
Instead of tuning out the "white noise" I learned in an instant to make it into a sort of percussive music. I was stunned. I was grateful. It wasn't anything that Sam said or did. It was just being with him.
What I've realized in the weeks since, is that I have always treated sound like background music. Like a person who listens to music but doesn't really appreciate it, I have just taken sound for granted except where it was "useful." Now, I have been consciously learning to appreciate everything in the sound environment -- the call and response of the source and reflection, the space-filling quality, the texture. The tang of a sudden shift up in volume, the fuzzy emotion of distant conversation. The world has become a richer place.
But tonight, on the dark mile's walk home from the trolley, my brain turned inside out. I was walking under a street light and -- as happens so often -- it fizzed out as I passed under it.
Like Newton's apple, perception changed. Call and response, source and echo, light and reflection! The entire visual field changed, I almost physically staggered in disorientation!
Perhaps to someone more visually intuitive or trained as an artist, this way-of-seeing would be obvious. But to me, like the transformation of my soundscape, the results are profound, beautiful, and awe inspiring. I wonder if it will take me weeks before I cease to be enchanted every time I open my eyes.
What an odd lesson to learn from a man who is blind! But often the most inspiring lessons are learned by catalysis.
Thank you, Sam.
A window into conservative paranoia
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
11:05 AM
Want to see yourself through the lenses of a conservative's nightmare? Check out Discover the Network -- something like a conservative's conspiracy theory window of the left, wiki-style.
Rhetorically artful, subtly deceiving, it paints a self-consistent but false picture of the left media-sphere that is perversely fascinating.
I know I shouldn't praise propoganda as such, but it's such a good job.
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