RANT
Daemons and Dragons invade
Venice.
My name is Duke and I am a
gameaholic.
The hours I have spent crawling thru the
dungeons
of Neverwinter Nights or Diablo, or
Bashing
Alien mercenaries in Freedom
Now!
No worse a fantasy than My Big Fat Greek
Wedding.
I fiddle with my avatar while
daemons of finance churn
local, state,
national, world markets.
As a young geek I
learned from Peter Weiner and Dick
Fiddler
that daemons rule UNIX, and, what it
is not, LINUX.
Both are full of daemon
processes that carry out the will of the
invoker,
for common tasks, database
synchronization, printer sharing,
network
multiplexing. In a classic tragedy of
the commons, network marketers,
spammers,
pop-up ads, and sabotage seek to dominate
the
daemons and the desktop, with enticements
to deviations
of
orgasmatronics.
I was invited to USC's
Information Sciences
Institute's all day
presentation of short talks about their
projects.
Neural implants, self-healing
networks of sensors,
self-reconfiguring
robots, artificial administrative
assistants
(Electric Elves). It will soon be
unthinkable not to be
connected to the
network. The networks sensory range
will be
global, including trash dumping intruders to the
wetlands.
The location of your family and
friends will be known to you.
Is it a
generous and kind Big Brother or a
fascist?
Why should the FBI/CIA/IRS care
where you are
unless you are dangerous
enough?
self
destructive
At least I wanted to love
you
The node was a tiny crystal
cube
a hi resolution 3d visual and
enviromental sensor
and would give you a
undetectable ultrawideband feed.
Two nodes
could give a 360' stereo feed.
As bugs they
were unbeatable,
As reality show telepresence
they were the ultimate drug
as educational
tools they shifted the paradigm
They came to
be called Angel Heads because
the hats with
raised eyes and eyeflyers would give an elevated
view.
A virtual heyday for voyeurs and
exhibitionists
But then all those lives just
became like background noise
to the prime
purpose of doing more damage to virtual
fascists
while real fascists did more damage
to real people.
He was a bipolar
activist, like most of us,
bouncing between
impotence and despair and
righteous
indignation at humanity's greed and
ignorance.
He exclaimed the unwashed mass of
mass unconsciousness
at the Boardwalk vs the
bougeois pleasure of a lovely
garden concert
of transcendental jazz.
I wish I could tell
you
What prank would break the
veil.
- Eric Ahlberg
Posted: Fri - November 1, 2002 at 06:44 PM