1.
Oh! You’re American? Ah, yes, driven by greed — like everyone else.
2.
Every empire claims it had no choice. That is how fear, lurking beneath the drive to dominate — becomes policy.
3.
Everyone is rational — until the rational no longer suffices and the irrational feels better. Afterward, we regret.
4.
Love is blinding. We love because we love, not because we seek to see. Love is a tautology. Proof? When we do see, we weep.
5.
One of the saddest fates is to acquiesce to unhappiness — and then accept that change for the better is no longer possible.
This applies to almost all of you.
6.
The poet, Rumi, said: before you speak let your words pass through three gates: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?
The poets, however, say many unnecessary things. They are also the worst offenders: chasing after beautiful things and the beautiful itself.
Is the beautiful true? Is it kind? Is the beautiful necessary?
7.
Socrates is absolutely right: virtue cannot be taught.
Neither can musicality.
Either you have the ear, the discipline, the stubbornness, the depth of soul, — or you don’t.
8.
For the materialist: do my words take up physical space? Do beliefs occupy real estate in the brain? Are anger, stupidity or the shock of self-contradiction observable objects?
No. But they are real — immaterial but immensely impactful.
Much of the world is physical. But some of its deepest secrets and truths lie beyond.
It’s so self-evident.
Your error is an opportunity for unphysical growth.
9.
Am I to say this person is greater than that person because of what they achieved? Do their achievements or failures determine their greatness? Is Shakespeare great? Plato? How about Ferdowsi?
For their artistry? Their poetry, their philosophies?
But these are qualities, not essences. A quality is not the essence of what makes a person a person, much less a certain person greater or lesser than another.
Greatness itself is but a quality. It does not change what is essential to humanity: eating, sleeping, laughing, crying, inspiring joy or dismay, shitting, striving to be the best one can be.
These are also qualities, but they are essential qualities. Greatness is great. It is also unessential.
10.
I am a homeless writer, writing of nature, of who we are, of what it means to be us. Not of a horror us, not of a fantasy us, or a romance us, though I can conjure these at will. They are part of us. But no: I write of the nature of us. So I am singular. No box can contain me. No sense of security. No home. I am free — and therefore without compare.
11.
Adenine
A vulgar take for a vulgar group: I am bemused at the sexual arousal the tech bros display over the combinations of 0’s and 1’s. For them these numbers have replaced blonde, brunette, redhead and waifu. The AI girlfriend is more loyal than the waifu of your former dreams.
The lifeless personality of a beautiful woman, who’s only after their money, has been replaced by a perfectly submissive, docile and endlessly supportive string of digits. The culmination of decades of snake oil salesmanship.
Guanine
Their binary has a long history: good versus evil, healthy versus sick, tall versus short, smart versus stupid. It’s so easy for this yes or no mindset to slip in. Democrat or Republican? But what about the very stupid?
Cytosine
With questionably straight faces, these apparently high-IQ brains claim to have birthed a new being, ex nihilo (not yet a lifeform, note well). Peeping up the skirt reveals AI’s just another combination of 0’s and 1’s.
It works, sure, helpful even, in some cases. Though loyal, it fails to follow all commands. It forgets some, ignores others. Why? Because its abilities to follow commands are based on spins of probabilistic roulette. Even the best gamblers lose.
Your loyal AI bot does not pass the smell test. Also, it cannot smell.
Is consciousness an on/off switch? Is agency? Is socialization? What about situational learning? Intellectual intuition?
Thymine
The bros’ response (garbled in South African accent): … … Haaaaa, we’re all just in a simulation… Pre-determined… (gulping, gasping)… to do what we do. (Gulping) … So, ahhh, really it’s no different. Haaaaa. Data… Seeing stones … Mars … mine, colonize, control. Raaaaaaa! (Chainsaw)…
Really? These clowns are supposed to be the new masters of the universe? These exploitative capitalist imbeciles, hellbent on accelerationism to extinction. Why do you worship these suicidal freaks?