westid

computers are a bit of a use-it-or-lose-it category, if one could put computers into merely one single category nowdays. fuckin ubiquity. humbug. let me give you an example i’ve come to appreciate lately: pretty much every car has had a computer installed into it – since a long time ago. if you don’t count the whole time where there was no touch-screen “infotainment” panel at all, cars had computers installed for much much longer. did you ever wonder why your car goes nowhere unless you step on it, just after you’ve borrowed it someone? there was the unscreened eye of a built-in computer at work

my point being: you can build a computer into any car, but you can’t build a car into a computer. and that’s why the only reason [some of] you readers are employed in the first place, is because whatever it is that you do hasn’t been automated yet. i’d start worrying about that now and don’t wait for there to be an appropriate time because such a time can only be told thus: the sooner, the better.

anyway general luddite – ery aside, i remember the first person i programmed. obviously there wasn’t any natural language procesing or [not even web cams, any sort of camera tbh] which would have made it more… personable. but i never knew that one day we would be taking things like a commodore 64 for instance, to such dizzy heights. me and [very successful computer business] are the same age, and if said company was a person we would have been in the same year group at school [i think]

looking back and knowing infinitely more about computers and “computing” that i know now, all of the fundamentals / that binary is simply a radix system of 2 / meaning there are 10 types of people, those who understand binary, and those who don’t. and all that crap about garbage in / garbage out, the turing machine, moore’s law… should have been obvious. lo, it probably was obvious to someone and look at it now

i know i’ve probably said this before but i still believe it and i’m a consistent guy believe it or not. when i imagined what the future looked like, when human beings had evolved to the level of deep space exploration and traveling beyond the speed of light – i would think about star trek [the next generation – even though one of my lecturers actually turned up with the [original series] starfleet uniform] and imagine this beautiful future where the concept of money, poverty, slavery / even modern slavery; have been eradicated and the only reason people did things is the pursuit of their dreams, and bettering themselves through exploring other cultures. i probably said this as well but look at the star trek, the next generation. they are wandering around with wirelessly communicating devices in their hand, that are literally a tablet. they have a “communicator” badge, which directs a voice-activated line of communication to another member of the crew / gives instructions to the ship’s computer [they didn’t build ships into a computer though, did they?] – and the badge, going off what is being said when the 1 button on it is pressed and unspoken, knows if this is going to someone else or giving voice-activated commands into the computer. they even have something called a “universal translator” that conveniently makes both human and extraterrestrial life all somehow able to speak to one another in english, or [your first language] .. they even had something called ODN lines [optical data networking] .. yep, fibre optics were also foretold and even appropriately named – æons before anyone reading this were even a twinkle in their dad’s ball sack – predicted and used in performances written by gene roddenberry [fibre optics is a medium of sending data through a cable using light. [using light? yes using light ∴ traveling at the speed of light]]

in the words of the great Mei Ling: it is all made from currently existing technology

don’t get me wrong here, i don’t spaff myself off to star trek. in fact when you look at sci-fi altogether, i wouldn’t turn out to be particularly elite. the point i’m making is someone who had bang on visions of how technology progressed so long ago, but couldn’t be more wrong about how our society developed social / culturally, in a universe that didn’t need money any more

i’ve probably said this before as well, but this was in the eighties. when the show though – which takes place in the 24th century – shows them casually using all this technology and completely unimpressed by any of it in much the same way that people now use the same kind of world shaking technology that is just another piece in the jigsaw puzzle of the rigamarole of daily life. they weren’t wanking themselves silly, although they have basically the ultimate accomplishment of VR and it’s more than implied even that – thanks again to technology – wouldn’t be needed any more. if you were to climb down off it and thought about that remark … just how correct is that already?

everyone who is there, is so because they want to be there and not because they will be safe from destitution all their life. they learn musical instruments because they love them, and because poverty / war / famine had been completely eradicated / people who want to be there in abundance – they have the time to work on such things they have a passion for. alright i’ll wrap this up for you all this amazing technology some of which has been invented already conceptualised by a man lifetimes before we even got here was absolutely on point but when it comes to our culture, as though – to me, it appeared – because all of our frivolity / greed / prejudice / desperation / poverty / famine / disease wouldn’t hold any of us back, currently this is so possible it hurts just thinking about it – but he got the idea of culture and intellect and real passions you could give your life to as vocation so dissonant, it makes me wonder: “is this just another development, like the holodeck [aforementioned VR technology] that hasn’t been developed yet? remains to be seen? or did our species just wander astray from the ultimate would-be advancement of us all, and fallen into an whole abyss of memes, platforms, feet pics, smoking research chemicals, vaping [my own hypocrisy isn’t at issue here], continuing americanisement of the english language – it’s not “d’erect” it’s DIE ERECT say them both out fucking loud and if you’re english then it’s the second “direct”” – deep fakes, e-whoring, prohibition, there are so many more things but you get the message – we should have started to become a better species by now

i remember being an undergrad, walking through halls. just little things like someone goin for it practising guitar, everyone who hookahs more the sativa than the shashisha .. it’s fucking dank for ten metres in every direction. living in a big block with loads of random other people. shit like that i never thought i’d miss, even though i never thought i’d happen across things like this. there was your standard organised, intelligent, ambitious, driven. then there was the other kind, the people who will never get caught, always happen across some leverage to keep you eerily quiet, knows how it all works, will always have a hallowed reservation at the finest table on the very top. hats off to them, for letting me peer into the architecture that tomorrows world will see built all around us for a lifetime yet, until they become the old guard you might outlive one or two of them, but the idea will die long after your hapless cadaver turns to dust, no matter how much dedication you can amust

in the 24th century, roddenberry depicted people playing classical music putting on performances in the free time of the crew. there was no such thing as addiction, they even laugh at us “they irradiated their own planet?” dfq is that about … although even the holodeck is explored by this before-its-time series, as one guy struggles with his addiction to spending nearly all of his time in a fictional world because he had no time, patience, courage, to face reality

i’ve spent [cumulatively] two years of my life playing world of warcraft. you don’t need to tell me, an expert on addiction, how the shite that people can occupy themselves with – shite: all consuming and never ending – can really start to fuck with you in real life. they even predicted addiction to playing in a fictional universe would become an addiction, and it has

addiction is good, for people who want to lure you in. ask yourself: have you ever been in the middle of a conversation when the telly is on or something, and when certain advertisements came up, everyone stops talking completely and then when the advert is finished carries on as if nothing happened? that’s not an accident

the only shit thing about addiction, is that a promise well worth chasing after will somehow emerge, and no matter how good you are / much you pay / can withstand / whatever … they only need to get you to run in their direction and that’s the shit thing, the chase will last forever

i’ve probably said this before as well; i’ve always been fascinated by addiction. it would be quicker to list the things that didn’t give me the taste of it. it’s not as noticeable, lucrative, or remarkable as being in deep with things – but i’ve reached the level of maturity to recognise that some things are / feel too good, and i would fuckin smash it all. so i’m gonna say no

even now, i’ve had people asking me just for a few hours mate. but even bein around it i have come to realise; and you must understand what i’m sayin here i do NOT think i’m better than anyone else because i say no to things i didn’t do before. i’m saying that i probably wouldn’t have the will power to sit at that table and watch it take place without having a go myself

also, if i’ve got the dosh then i’m the sort who would sort anyone out because when everyone’s sorted then everyone’s happy. it’s like a covenant, it’s like one of them cultural performances of classical music on the space ship in the future. i’ve sat at various coffee tables across from some of the finest people who ever lived. yeah, there’s no chicken or the egg dilemma going on here. if you ended prohibition today, these people would be alongside the rest of everyone as if nothing was different, tomorrow

but i know addiction, i’ve researched it, fantasised about it, experienced it. sometimes on purpose. so it wasn’t just that … because when you’ve gone through a cultural subcategory as much as i have [i get “fixated” on things, which probably didn’t help] then you can’t wade through your environment without getting some of it on you. i started seeing it everywhere i go, like a biomedicine undergrad who is currently studying the nature of airborne micro-organisms

a few other things happened like getting robbed by someone and getting done for it myself, the fact that i was tarred with the same brush even though i’ve never lied or tried to blag anyone, ever. the list of places i am willing to explore, people i would just love to meet / get to know, ever. ever dwindled, the only possible hope? it may be still dwindling i could maybe find a way to stop it from doing so completely yet

i’ve never even hurt anyone, i will give anyone a chance because i know how painful it is when a complete twat tells a person you have been getting along with quite nicely that if person carries on talking to me, then twat will never speak to person again. this is just one example, so basically … and there’s a seat at that table and it is always reserved for me, anything’s better than dining alone … i’m fucked. the more i genuinely better my life, the less of a fuck anyone seems to give. whatever then, why should i bother?

it’s all well and good saying do it for yourself. there’s a certain absence of fulfilment in that i have never come to tolerate. it brings me right back from the 24th century into the valley, though much as i love this place. there’s more to life than having to do something you can tolerate because you have something to lose

if you ask me, and you have since you decided to bring this up in your browser, we took a wrong turn quite a while ago – as sentient creatures, if anything. and the future? how the fuck would i know? the world gets smaller every day; another day, another place i can’t go. another fucking hilarious episode of a very fucking wearily broadcast; another personality with another fucking entertaining special show

what will they do without me? til i came along the ratings were pretty fucking low