ethics

Bigmouth, whip in hand

Standard

All at once the winds of the past start whipping, frothing up a deposit of the beautiful debris of yesteryear. It’s blowing without warning, independent of forecast.

The man, steady, with whip in hand and discussions of ethics on the lips; the memory of yet another Creeley poem (which I had forgotten entirely in my Creeley hysteria a few weeks ago, despite “The Whip” long being a favorite), The Ukrainians and the frenzied sound of their Ukrainian-language Smiths’ covers.

I spent a night turning in bed,
my love was a feather, a flat
sleeping thing. She was
very white
and quiet, and above us on
the roof, there was another woman I
also loved, had
addressed myself to in
a fit she
returned. That
encompasses it. But now I was
lonely, I yelled,
but what is that? Ugh,
she said, beside me, she put
her hand on
my back, for which act
I think to say this
wrongly.
And on the horizon, the PoPos – not slang for the police, but the “Po” countries: Poland and Portugal. And the UK, which I prefer to just call (Y)U(C)K.
Photo (c) 2008 nerissa’s ring used under Creative Commons license. And no, not that kind of whip.

Humans and Mr Robot: The Synthetic Now on TV

Standard

I obsess a bit too much about robots, artificial intelligence and robots taking over the world.

I’ve just indulged in a handful of episodes of the show Humans, and it’s creepily promising. Humans coexist with a population of humanoid “synthetics”, who are basically slaves. A small group of these synths has been created and given consciousness – and this is the story unfolding alongside the intricacies of daily life in which humans rely on, feel humiliated by, feel inadequate next to, feel creeped out by, love and humanize their synths.

Mr Robot is not a show about robots except in the broadest sense, but instead is about a loner-hacker-morphine addict named Elliott. It’s suspenseful and often funny (love it in the first episode when Elliott, also the narrator, recounts for the audience all the ways in which his best friend Angela’s douchebag boyfriend is offensive – including the fact that he listens to Maroon 5 and Josh Groban).

Both shows drum up questions on ethics that are becoming more pervasive all the time, which is part of why I am excited about both shows.

Meanwhile, technology has already taken over.