Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Friday, January 10, 2014

Chapstick for Robot Cultists

Blistex is being sold as an "anti-aging" wand now. Like "nano" "upload" and the rest of the go-to coinages techno-transcendentalists use to conjure up "The Future" for their transhumanoid, singularitarian, techno-immortalist faithful, the actual deliverables tend be marketing gimmicks to sell packaged lunch meat and chewing gum and landfill-destined hand-held devices when they are not being deployed as marketing gimmicks to sell guru-wannabes as Very Serious "tech" experts.

4 comments:

jollyspaniard said...

I doubt it does much for sagging facial muscles, bad backs, knackered knees, cancer et all which are the real signs of aging.

I've relayed in this comment section before that I've observed a much reduced appetite for these kinds of fantasies. That trend has been accelerating since I last mentioned it. I've seen a number of op eds in the guardian lately advancing the kinds of arguments you've been making here in Amor Mundi for years. I've also seen people in meatspace saying these kinds of things to.

Dale Carrico said...

I've seen a number of op eds in the guardian lately advancing the kinds of arguments you've been making here in Amor Mundi for years. I've also seen people in meatspace saying these kinds of things to.

I agree with you. I doubt that my own relentlessness over the years in making these critiques had much of an impact on the greater incredulity toward techno-utopianism you mention, but I must say I find this very gratifying personally. Criticism of and skepticism toward extreme futurological and also more mainstream tech hype undermines unaccountable plutocratic scams and wealth-skimming and also opens the way for more real problem-solving with real harm-reduction policy-making using, among other things, real qualified consensus science.

jimf said...

> I doubt it does much for sagging facial muscles, bad backs,
> knackered knees, cancer et all which are the real signs of aging.

Maybe this:

http://gawker.com/this-documentary-about-men-who-dress-up-like-rubber-dol-1496480109

could be the first solid step in the direction of
an anti-aging treatment.

I have no desire to wear a "fem-skin", but if I could put on
a bodysuit that would make me look like, I dunno,
Ryan Reynolds -- hell, why not?

;->

Dale Carrico said...

Ryan Reynolds, ewwwww!