Post-modernisms and other isms, ions and ogies

The eutrophication of our lake resulted in such an evolutionary reversal than we decided to stop cultivating casparian stripped eudicots with floral organs in multiple of five and we made sure they all had no more than two cotyledons. Besides this filter feeding life was not bearable anymore, since no more cholecystokinin bottles were available on the food chain market because of the competitive exclusion.The worst happened when we started to produce way to much chylomicron. We should have cogitated about it as soon as the decomposers disturbance interfered with the keystone primary consumer species. Who would have ever thought that the immediate disturbance hypothesis could potentially be diagnosticed valid? Certainly not the Chelicerates, they are too much into Müllerian mimicry. They only deserve to be abiotic anyways.

Cuba v/s Brave New World

Why, when we think about the future, do we always imagine flying cars, Brave New Worlds, highly medicated people, robots, electronic body substitutions, we will never be able to go so far, our environment will crash before then. Instead of highly chemically made drugs we are going to head back and seek for medicine plants and insects. Not being able to support ourselves with cars and boats and planes, we'll have hand made bicycles. Milk will come from cows again, not from plastic bottles. Who want a sweet cockroach for dessert?

Straight to the Bowling Scgreen

I was walking around my grand mother's house last week when I stepped on a hard box, containing this journal. Even though it was not in bad shape, I was not able to read it entirely because it was not all in english, the writer also used a kind of weird script composed of holes and black dots. Anyways, here are the first paragraphs, if you think you have heard of anything in relation with this story, it could help me in my investigation, so I would be extremely grateful if you could speedbubble me as soon as you can through my bone implant messenger (stirial # 163/5284/92): 

"It was such a hard life we had in the OYC that I decided not to wake up anymore if it was to see each one of my actions supervised by Ms. Carlington. I could not bear her piggy nose, her tuna eyes behind her low decibel adapted ears. On the top of it, these two long antennas coming out of her back were actually two long hair sensible to any molecule movement around her. 

That night had to be my last night there. I needed to find a solution. I sneaked into the high energizing powder room in which kilocalories were drown from tube to tube, mixed with vitamin C and D and a pink colored spinach which tasted like mango, if I can assume that mango tastes that way, I am not sure, it is just what they say. I grabbed a pair of sun powered scissors and put them in my boots waiting for the night to come. 

She was there sleeping on her vertical bed, on the stomach so that the two antennas could still feel any danger. I had to be quick to cut them both at the same time without being detected. Finally all went the way I wanted and the next day I was able to pass behind her without being noticed. 

I knew that the back door was forbidden for some reason, because of all the stories they say about it : it was, depending on the day, a bowling center, a movie theater, or even an aquarium. Well I put my labor days to an end walking on my fingertips behind Ms. Carlington until I reached the back door. It was neither a bowling center, nor a movie theater, nor an aquarium but a bowling theater in which the scgreen was actually made of an atomically desintegradable windows through which one could look on the OAA gardens. From one scgreen window to the floor there was a huge stainless steel slide. The OAA gardens, I did not believe Jamieson when he told me about them. It is too bad he is not there anymore, he was too curious and had to be teleported. I believe that all what he said about the OAAs is actually true. First, compared to the OAA citizens, we terribly smell, and we are easily detectable by small military frogs.

 

They usually walk around in multiple of 2, never more than 10 though. If it happens that they are not in multiple of 2, one of them has to burn out within twenty one seconds so as to be in respect of the orders. 

Jamieson also told me I was supposed to find a long concrete nail which could go into the bowling ball hole. I had to be careful about which hole I was going to put the nail in since there are three of them, even though two of them are obviously useless. Can you really imagine any one with more than one finger? I don't even want to think about it, it's so disgusting. Well, my roommate has two on the right hand but some directors say it is a mutation, the one who said it was an inheritance from a common ancestor was teleported, like Jamieson. So I put the nail in the less circular hole, and on the scgreen appeared a pixelized pattern with a target. I stabilized my finger in the hole of the smaller perimeter and tried a first time to throw the ball on the scgreen target on the slide. I failed. My lifetime went half down on my Growth Processor Arrow. Hopefully, the second time, it worked out. I don't even want to think what could have happen to me otherwise. I became pixelized and I was blown through the scgreen. The OAA gardens were amazing, but I did not enjoy being there because of the military frogs around sniffing every biotic organism they encountered so as to detect any OYC smell. I finally ran to the top of the S-Building, and punched a hole in the steel structure of a Dog-shaped Balloon. I have never used one before, I don't even have a dogflying licence yet, and who knows if I will ever be able to get one now that I have to dogfly for the very first time without any experience. In a few minutes all the plans I have ever made for my future will be up in the ozone. I must have made too much noise breaking the steel layer, I should turn on the e..." 

It came with a glued passport-like page: 

From my researches I am able to make the hypothesis that OYC stands for the Only Youth Center and OAA for Only Adults Area. 

The Bowling Scgreen is a self sustained biological green screen. 

The Growth Processor Arrow in an implant measuring the average lifetime one individual has. 

The Dogflying balloon has been recently discovered by Professor Jeff Koons, at the MET University and is exhibited currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the Historic District of New York City. 

 

"The truth is he hadn't come back. Nobody comes back who has once made the transatlantic voyage westward." ( H. Miller)

after all maybe we are not so far from it, in space and time

Maybe, the baby mutant is the girl next door...



Maybe not yet, this is a bit exagerated BUT the first genetically modified embryo did exist : should we now say it or he did exist? It/he even was fluorescent and green. Thus the famous little green guys with antennas won't come from out of space but from our laboratories ? from OUR Earth? worse, OUR hands?

You had enough already? ... well sorry but it's not finished yet...let's now consider chimeras , human-animal hybrid embryos. We are working on it, be patient, they just have to look up a few legislative papers, and you might see soon a great picture of them on the next first page of the Times.
Anyways "It's already too late to stop human-animal hybrids. Duh'bya is a pig, Congress is full of pigs, the police are pigs..." (Noah Important-Wired)



Well, let's get a bit more serious now.



It is hard to believe how close we are to such a situation. Because we now know that embryos have been genetically modified, now, but we have been informed of this experiement one year almost after they first mentionned it. Who knows what is going on now?
I'm astonished to see so much positive opinions about GM, as I was actually reading the article I thought that most of the comments would be critical and cons.

I will need a good night to think about it, one more time. I have never came upon positive consequences of GM. So far, I've only seen it as an "irresponsible progress".
These two comments are especially puzzling :

"Those who can't afford it will be left behind ... the human race will split off into two branches, one perfect, the other saddled with all our deficiencies [...] The problem is that the criteria used to decide who gets "improvement" and who doesn't will be based on the socio-economic status of the parents. What if there's a way to ensure that people from all levels of society can get this? We might have to handle this like the atom bomb - with international treaties to try and bring the whole race along."
(Malarkey)

"[That] is the exact reason I believe we should develop this technology as swiftly as we can, subject to the afore mentioned guidelines. Since we can't put the genie back in the bottle then it necessarily follows that those who don't follow the guidelines will abuse the technology. This then leads to the necessity of society being capable of handling the problems such will create. Without serious effort to develop this technology we won't be ready or able to do so."
(Ward)

Ward's statement makes sense, definitely. However I think he is still in his dreams. If any abuse is made for the genetical improvement of only a few "dominants", ...dominants have always been around, their power would be highly multiplied, no reason to share it, since it is in their interest to dominate (hello Bourdieu!) ...I mean, at some point in the conversation, GM was compared nuclear weapons to GM, well think of a highly g. modified military unit of a rich country versus the one of a poor country.

We have just put a dangerous step in a New world.

"I, for one, welcome our glowing, fluorescent green overlords." (Paul)

Cause and Reason

Sometimes there is a cause, and sometimes a reason.
Thirst causes to drink, one doesn't search to determine if her, drinking is a good or bad thing to do. Causality heads someone to act in a special way and not another one. Reason heads to determine what is good/bad, right/wrong.

Coming back to the modified embryo, I think we are still at the "reason" stage. It is stilll possible to study the case, to go backwards, or not. However, a first foot ahead in the GM world might CAUSE a vicious circle, and from causes to consequences, and to causes to consequences, who knows where we will stop? There will possibly be a REASON to go back to our previous ethical believes, but CAUSALITY would weight much more.

Let's go back to this one, we all came upon it at some point, heard it somewhere somehow : What is good in life? Certains things are desirable as means and others in themselves : we do not desire stress but stress could lead to fulfillment. Being genetically modified :

" If I could choose that my children would not suffer from Schizophrenia as I do and maybe never have to worry about Cancer as well then I see it as an advance and preventer of misery." (Jericho)

Well, it is here a hard topic, Schizophrenia, cancer...
Is it really desirable to look back on our life and see how unatural human beings we are, how not human...? We are somewhat already there with all the medications we have, they can make us loose our identity, make us feel lost, make us feel like we have been modified not at birth but during our lifetime ...

"Another point: I've struggled with severe anxiety and depression all my life. I've been taking medication for it since I was 16, to the point where I really don't know what my "true" personality is and what the medicine is doing. How is that better than being modified at birth so I didn't have those problems in the first place? At least I would have be able to develop some sense of self. And I wouldn't live or die (literally) on whether I can afford medication."(Jessica)

On another hand, is it really inhuman, not human, to go on with science, since science, reason is a human characteristic?

Could GM be seen as a mean to "fulfillment" for some people, a mean to become a "dominant", have a dominant life? Feeling modified but being at the top.

Merchant of Venice

To say what I love is much harder to say what I hate. I mean if I speak about the little every day things. It is much easier to say that we love or hate the "big things" like friendship, love, honesty, justice, temperance, freedom, or egoism, violence, troubles, lust, venality, vanity (Narcissism)...I haven't said which one of those I love or hate so far, and you can already guess, because, usually people love the virtues and hate the vices, hopefully. And in this case it is as easy to say what I love and what I hate. So there are virtues and vices. Then there are the seven deadly sins. Sins are vices, but only some vices are sins. There are seven sins (humility against pride, kindness against envy, abstinence against gluttony, chastity against lust, patience against anger, liberality against greed, and diligence against sloth), and seven holy virtues (faith, hope, charity, fortitude, justice, temperance, prudence) : I just wonder how they chose the seven sins among all the existing vices possible: 

absent-mindedness 

addiction 

aggression 

alcoholism 

animosity 

antagonism 

apathy 

bigotry 

bitterness 

callousness 

caprice 

carelessness 

child sacrifice 

cowardice 

corruption 

cruelty 

denial 

dependence 

despair 

diffidence 

dishonesty 

dishonor 

disobedience 

disrespectfulness 

drunkenness 

excess 

favoritism 

filthiness 

flippancy 

flightiness 

foolishness 

greed 

hatred 

hostility 

ignorance 

inconstancy 

indecision 

indifference 

indolence 

indulgence 

inequality 

infidelity 

ingratitude 

injustice 

insincerity 

intemperance 

immodesty 

immorality 

impatience 

impiety 

improvidence 

irresponsibility 

irreverence 

laziness 

lewdness 

licentiousness 

lightmindedness 

malevolence 

malice 

misanthropy 

misandry 

misogyny 

moral relativism 

negativity 

omissiveness 

officiousness 

paranoia 

parasitism 

passivity 

permissiveness 

perversion 

pessimism 

poor judgment 

prejudice 

presumptuousness 

pride(hubris) 

procrastination 

promiscuity 

purposelessness 

rashness 

rudeness 

ruthlessness 

secretiveness 

self-degradation 

selfishness 

sensuality 

shortsightedness 

slackness 

slavery 

slothfulness 

suppression 

stinginess 

stubbornness 

stupidity 

tactlessness 

treachery 

unfairness 

unforgiveness 

unkindness 

unscrupulousness 

unsophistication 

vanity 

violence 

wantonness 

weakness 

wildness, uncivilization 

wiliness 

worldliness

Let's not get too depressed, let's see the virtues now, to cheer up 

acceptance 

altruism, unselfishness 

appreciation 

assertiveness 

attention, focus 

autonomy 

awareness 

balance 

being beautiful in spirit 

benevolence 

charity 

chastity 

cleanliness 

commitment 

compassion 

confidence 

consciousness 

consideration 

continence 

cooperativeness 

courage 

courteousness 

creativity 

critical thinking 

cunning 

curiosity 

dependability 

detachment 

determination 

diligence 

discipline 

empathy 

endurance 

enthusiasm 

excellence 

fairness 

faith 

fidelity 

fitness 

flexibility 

foresight 

forgiveness 

fortitude 

free will 

freedom 

friendliness 

generosity 

happiness 

health, health-minded 

helpfulness 

honesty, truthfulness 

honour 

hopefulness 

hospitality 

humility 

humor 

idealism 

imagination 

impartiality 

independence 

innocence 

integrity 

intuition 

inventiveness 

joy 

justice 

kindness 

lovingness 

loyalty 

manners 

mercy 

moderation 

modesty 

morality 

nonviolence 

nurturing 

obedience 

openness 

optimism 

patience 

peacefulness 

perfection 

perseverance 

philanthropy 

philomathy 

piety 

potential 

prudence 

purity 

purposefulness 

respectfulness 

moral responsibility 

social responsibility 

restraint 

self-awareness 

self-confidence 

self-discipline 

self-esteem 

self-reliance 

self-respect 

sensitivity 

sharing 

sincerity 

spirituality 

strength 

sympathy 

tactfulness 

temperance 

thankfulness 

tolerance 

trustworthiness 

truth 

understanding 

wisdom 

Aaahhh, I feel better now.

Well. Let's complicate everything now:

The seven sins were founded by the early Christian, and the seven virtues too, by a Roman poet, Christian too. There are also "Cardinal virtues" (Classic Western virtues: temperance prudence fortitude justice), four this time, and "Theological virtues" (in Christianity, love, hope, faith), three. 1 Corinthians: 13,thirteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, is also citing, categorizing, clasifying, picking up, choosing, electing, virtues and vices, throughout the description of agape, the concept of selfless love (derived from there the 7 contrary virtues: humility, kindness, abstinence, chastity, patience, liberality, diligence ). And I don't even talk about the Hindu virtues, the Islamic ones (Goodness, moral consciousness, patience, justice and fair-mindedness, cleanliness, trust in God, repentance), the Roman, Buddhist, Samurai ones. I have to had another layer of classification : virtues can be grouped into categories of values.

So now I just can say that I love to wake up in the middle of the night before an important exam day for example only to realize that I have still a few hours of sleep. I love to be half awake half asleep, like when one is struggling watching the end of a movie and finaly give up. Usually what happens here is that I close my eyes once just because it feels good, open them again to watch a bit more, and then I think that I can just close my eyes a few more minutes, because they start burning, and open them again soon, thinking that I won't miss anything of the movie because I would listen to the actors voices, dialogues, so it's going to be okay. And I do open my eyes again but I have actually slept and missed half an hour of the story. Then I just turn off the TV. Pointless. I love to study hard for a test, to be in a hurry because I have only a few hours before the exam, and then look at my notes to discover that I made a mistake, my test in in three days, I am free, and on the top of it, my work is all done. 

I love to have too much things to do, to fight with my schedule, it really turns me crazy, and stressed, but I am just depressed when I have nothing to do, I don't remember the last time this happened actually. 

I am going to contradict myself now, because I love also to find that I have an hour with nothing special to do, and fill it up with a nice walk, a great book, a sketch book, to draw, paint, write, swim. I love summer storms and fireworks. I love eating apple and any other fruit or vegetable that crunch and make a lot of noise. I am currently into carrots. I like eating grapefruit like if they were oranges. I like to be organised, to put things in boxes, figuratively, as I write for example, I need paragraphs, I love to untangle tangled ideas, but not to untangle my tangled cables. I love l'Oulipo.

I hate spending hours on the phone. But there are exceptions. I hate spending hours on TV. No exception. I hate infinitely repeated sounds, depends which ones. But the tic tac of my alarm clock it's okay, but not the cat next door. I hate chocolates with alcohol inside because one can never tell which ones are those. It's like hot peppers : never know which the bad and horribly hot ones are. I hate the chalk on the blackboard, and the fork grating a plate. I hate superactive people around me while I am having breakfast. I hate sarcasm, most of the times. I hate bank statements.

I've never been to Venezuela, the Sagittarius serpentarius and Branta canadensis' story.

Dear Bird of Prey,

Try not to forget me too fast, try to remember from time to time the bird of W4th who left a little piece of her heart on your island, Peter Pan. 

Remember the birds singing in the morning, the spaceship near NYU, our migration to Japan sitting on the Cooper Union's steps, the night at Columbia, walking around the walls, lying on the steps until their marked our legs and wings, Central Park and the camouflage blanket, this weirdo hiding next to us, remember the New York Philharmonic Orchestra's fireworks in the park, and the race under the rain to catch a sight of the 4th of July's lights, the moments we stopped the time for a few seconds behind the japanese movies, or on several floors flying up or down Marita's staircase, the Niagara falls at W4th when I saw the city for the very last time, the cockroach running yesterday in the street, the raccoon in Forest Hills and you perched on a tree branch in Central Park after a never ending meditation, the second you opened your eyes exactly when I was about to picture you, the ice cube on your back, the frozen T-shirts, the shampoo in your eye, the huge sangria, and the night dancing in this bar with a lil' wood thing on the sidewalk to roost , the moment I finally broke this strange wood and steel object I was poised on around White and Church streets, the polaroid picture, me trying your shorts, the three orange and yellow seats aligned on the subway train, the blind man we walked to his hotel near Times Square, un helado, a gelato, a tu lado, Alex and the cane candy, the Colossus of Marroussi, the weird sake in Chinatown, the songs Jared played while we were falling asleep, you with your pirate shirt, my black necklace squeezed between you and me on 30th Prince street, the bench on wich we had coffee and muffins in Soho, me about to explode each time a group of girly geese passed by, each time we caught an entire sentence of a person walking by, you trying to put a red ribbon around my feathers, all the mosquito bites, the vampire bites, when I take off your glasses, when I found your belly button, your back burning after the Tiger Balm, how I like to fall into the blue of your eyes, how you were drawing me with the tip of your claw as I was falling asleep, my crazy martian voice the next day, the sound of your alarm clock, how surprised I was the first time you said you loved me, how mute we were the last morning, me behind your wall as you were playing Yann Tiersen on your accordeon, Le Jour d'Avant,  remember the Kurt Vonnegut kiss and the first one after days of survival, the glasses of water, aquaholic, Quaker oatmeal, the curled feather on your chin, ciboulette, Marita Meredith, when we hid from my bro in the back room, danced on Ray Charles, went through a small passage in Forest Hills, stopped in a video game store to cheer up, flew a last time to the 71st avenue subway station singing the Beatles, ce sont des mots qui vont tres bien ensemble. If I didn't lose you between the Californian waves, where did I?

Branta Canadensis.