A Paradox
Mankind can only agree on one policy:
The elimination of mankind.
It may not be everyone’s first choice,
But it is a popular second choice.
First choice: triumph of your group
Second choice: destruction of the opposing group
We can’t all have the first,
But we can all have the second.
And anyway aren’t most people dissatisfied,
And flee reality whenever they get a chance.
Religions are often hostile to other religions
And atheists are the most intolerant of all.
Jews vs. Muslims vs. Hindus
And nationalities!
Japanese vs. Chinese
Moreover many people seem dissatisfied.
They take refuge in drugs or fantasy
The Intersection
And how could the Soul lend itself to any admixture?
-Plotinus
I like big butts and I can not lie
-Sir Mix-a-Lot
As a thought experiment
Picture a set of refined ladies
Fashioned of creamy Dresden porcelain
At a tea party
In a lovely garden
Surrounded by bunnies and snow-white doves
And some children dancing in a circle.
That’s the Ideal.
Over here we have some other stuff
A lion and a bull in bloody battle,
Also savages fighting
A motorcycle gang,
Struggling and strangling,
The raging rabble grabbing and grappling,
Mixing it up with some garbage men on a dirty street,
Add a couple of weirdos.
That’s the Real.
Can the Ideal and the Real ever intertwine, intermingle, intersect?
How?
The bunnies may start mating.
The doves may start crapping.
Is this a betrayal?
The elegant ladies start to burp
Fart (with body English) snicker curse like sailors.
Rainwater sloshing around in the garbage cans makes a kind of soup
The ladies chuck these cans of garbage during the free for all.
Bathos
Profaning the Sacred
Or conversely,
The garbage men and the savages blush as they whisper the tenderest of feelings.
Or,
The ladies go mad
Shriek and mumble
roll around in the leaves
Listen to the earth’s low frequency chthonic heartbeat deep underground and
(Literally) rip his head off
Arteries squirting like fountains.
Or,
A garbage man saves a bunny from an onrushing vehicle,
Getting run over himself in the process
Watching the tiny rabbit as he expires.
Maybe the Real and the Ideal contradict each other, annihilate each other
Like matter and antimatter.
The bestial men assault the ladies,
The porcelain figures flake and chip and crack and then shatter into numerous jagged pieces.
Or,
The dirty street is covered by a thick blanket of snow
Smothered by purity
Now only populated by a collection of vacuous insipid mannequins.
Or,
The porcelain is exploded, burned to ashes
Turned to dust, empowdered
Never to be remembered.
Shall we play pretend.
The motorcycle gang dresses up in bonnets and bows and pinafores and stockings.
The bunnies growl like predators.
So funny.
Look up in the sky is that a Huma bird
Which never alights upon the earth?
Bliss vs. Blast
Tranquility vs. Calamity
The children’s dance goes unregarded
Relegated to the side.
Pythagoras vs. Benny Hill
And let’s look in on the weirdos:
The fat blimp, he of the greasy locks and sarcastic air,
Spits on his roomie, the carbuncular guy with the pink hair
And screams, “That’s the only shower you’ve had this week.”
They’ve given up entirely.
Peace vs. War
Ice vs. Fire
How about the Real and the Ideal keep a certain distance,
We just accept the status quo antebellum?
Oh let us squat down and plant tulips in the mud,
Scraping at the stony soil with a hand shovel.
unpraised,
An azure sky above vs. a cookout down below
Needles and wheels
Dresden exploded
Let us squat down and plant daffodils in the mud.
Vacuous
Should we merely accept the inevitable victory of the Real?
Leaving us sad or indifferent.
Or should we oppose the Real,
Relegate it permanently to the side,
Even lock it out
As long as we can.
Or should we actually celebrate it,
The apotheosis of Brutality and Sloppiness.
conquest and chaos
Oh maybe the Real and the Ideal can never get along
sprouting
Needles and wheels
Should we accept its inevitable defeat,
Or relegate it permanently to the side,
Or actually celebrate its victory?
Though last year the deer ate them.
oppose relegate permanently estranged celebrate
accept the brutalities and sloppiness
or is it our greatest moment
Rain soaked
weirdoes dirty
weirdoes dirty
Shut the door on it.
Should we have taught
And to defend themselves?
Delicate ferocious the refined ladies go to the bathroom
Franciscans professor mathematics
What do humans have that robots lack freedom consciousness
suffering death
feelings: hate love
Feminist scientist develops artificial womb
Twist ending women abolished by patriarchy
Ultimate alpha male
Pre1800
The alpha male acquires power by leading an army which employs the traditional weapons of our species such as the spear, the bow, the sword.
I have confined this list to alpha males who lived prior to 1800. Throughout the 1800s and 1900s war became less and less a qualifying test for the alpha male. By the 21st century an overweight male or a small female could operate a drone or launch a missile as skillfully as a fit man and so function equally well as a soldier.
I have not included great warriors who have fought primarily as individuals such as Miyamoto Musashi and Sir William Marshall. An organized united force defeats individual warriors whatever their skills.
I have not included men who were born kings and sired numerous children. This sort of achievement requires little effort.
3 criteria: How much territory and population did he conquer?
How many healthy children did he produce?
Was he a self made man?
Was he healthy?
Genghis khan
Tamurlaine
Alexander
Napoleon
Hitler Stalin Mao Lenin
Conquistador Cortés
Arab Ali
Julius caesar
Sikh
Zulu
Attila
Morocco Thailand mediocre commanders little effort
Born into poverty
Not an individual warrior
Musamiri
Jouster
Implied?
I do not hold these men up as role models. Many of them are mass murderers.
brief trip to 2088 quadrilateral of Eurasian elite secular culture
quees culture
pronounced kwees
influential book written in 2070s
4 points:
ancient Mediterranean/Mideast
modern Europe
China
India esp. Buddhism
last line what difference does it make?
Blame it on the boss nova
looks like Bina really wants to sing
Google the lyrics
Bina existential crisis
What is our world?
Over there a sickly purplish mess
halfway over there and to the left some gray gunk
Yaba dabba doo
Glip glat blort
sickly purplish area over there
absurd nonsense glip glat blort
Something in common You are both African American sort of
In common You are both Jewish sort of
menace abyss Jaspers
What does the universe ask of us?
What does our empathy ask of us?
at least you didn’t say heart
Okay that’s enough out of you.
Synopsis: Two billionaires (Elon Musk and Larry Page) and a robot ponder mankind’s future.
Author: Lilli Li a world-weary left-wing east-coast cynic
Setting: A well-furnished parlor in a luxury hotel in Jersey City, New Jersey. A number of prominent individuals are attending a fundraiser.
Cast of Characters
Elon Musk of PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and Twitter
Larry Page of Google, Calico, Planetary Resources, and Singularity University
Bina48, the robot version of Bina Rothblatt, wife of transgender executive Martine Rothblatt of Sirius XM and United Therapeutics
Woman who waters plants
The curtain opens upon L relaxing in a parlor in the hotel. He has a large drink in his hand. The door opens and we hear Barbra Streisand shrieking in the distance.
E: Larry! How are you. (Door closes.)
L: (Failing to disguise his displeasure at the intrusion) Doing fine.
E: You are missing tonight’s “entertainment”.
L: You too.
E: I managed to escape Streisand’s caterwauling.
L: My ears couldn’t take it. I found this place.
E: I was holed up in a closet somewhere, playing ——-, perfectly happy when Gates shows up.
L: Oh no.
E: He starts pitching me about…
L: Population
E: I just don’t want to listen to him virtue signaling for an hour. Fortunately he was distracted for a moment and I…
B: Hey, isn’t anyone going to say hi to me?
E: Who is…
L: This is Bina48.
E: Oh of course, Rothblatt’s…
L: She was here when I came in. All by herself. I think they canceled her presentation. Hey you both have something in common. You are both African American. Sort of.
E: I thought she never left that commune or whatever…
B: You can ask me. I can participate in the conversation.
E: Oh, Bina I’m sorry. I thought you stayed in Vermont at Rothblatt’s…
B: You are referring to the Terasem Movement Foundation Incorporated located in Lincoln, Vermont. Sometimes they ask me to participate in a dialogue about our ideas.
E: Oh.
B: Terasem has a series of core beliefs.
E: Uh hunh.
B: The purpose of life is to create diversity, unity, and joyful immortality everywhere.
L: Is it really?
E: Except for poor people, they’re f—ed.
B: Nature automatically selects for these attributes.
L: Except when it selects for extreme violence and death.
E: Does a baby zebra experience feelings of joyful diversity when a hyena is ripping it apart?
Bina48 goes quiet.
E: Bina?
L: What happened?
E: I don’t think she liked what you said.
L: We offended her.
E: So when is the last time you saw Sergei? L: (uncomfortable) It’s been awhile.
(changing the subject) I’ve been following all your controversies in the media.
E: So many controversies lately.
L: I try to avoid all that.
E: It’s important to speak your mind.
L: I don’t like the…
E: I can’t believe some people are angry at me because I lack the required enthusiasm for stupid, unending wars.
L: People tell me the Ukraine War could have been avoided. I don’t discuss it publicly.
E: NATO expansion for decades. L: I hear what you are saying.
E: Right after that prima donna Zelensky almost lied us into World War III…
L: You mean the missile that landed in Poland and he blamed it on the Russians.
E: …the U.S. Congress celebrates his achievements! He’s the toast of Washington society! Just when the human race finally starts to ascend, we can’t help ourselves we start to fall back down.
L: Well…
E: Of course I despise Hamas, but Israeli bombs have killed thousands of children.
L: But they pushed you to get together with Netanyahu.
E: Exactly.
L: (again trying to change the subject) Did you know my grandfather immigrated to Israel and lived near the Dead Sea?
E: What are you drinking there?
L: I don’t even know.
E: Hey you and Bina have something in common. You are both Jewish. Sort of.
L: And did you know the famous pinup model Betty Page was my cousin? E: Is that really true?
B: There once was a famous French detective on a difficult murder case.
E: Bina you’re back.
B: He examined the crime scene. He looked at footprints at the crime scene. He then went to the police station and declared, “I am the murderer!” The footprints match my own. I committed the crime while sleepwalking. He was supposed to protect the public, but he was the criminal. It is an amazing story.
L: That’s a good story Bina, but why are you telling us?
B: If the lab leak theory theory is true and Covid escaped from a research lab in Wuhan and Fauci funded gain of function research in Wuhan then he is like this French detective, though on a much larger scale. He was the scientist in charge of protecting the country from Covid, but he helped create the virus in the first place.
E: That’s good Bina, but Fauci wouldn’t ever admit his guilt.
L: Is the lab leak theory true?
E: It’s hard to know. Information has been suppressed. The academic and media elites have become politicized.
B: media and academia elites politicized acamedia macadamia nuts acamedia nuts acamediocrity
L: Who will check the fact checkers? B: fake news disinformation monopoly on power lies no one accountable big corporations Wikipedia
E: How can we even know we are living in the foundational reality, the base reality and not virtual reality? B: Is our reality really real?
L: Is it?
B: If I was Elon Musk of course I would conclude I was living in virtual reality. I just happen to be the richest man in the world, destined to preserve humanity, the one man who can save the planet, ride to the rescue like the Lone Ranger but in his Tesla car, land on Mars, explore space, save us from the robots. Engaged in a titanic struggle for control of the universe.
L: It is ridiculous.
B: And you just happen to be named Mask.
E: It’s Musk not Mask.
B: A musty mask.
L: That’s good Bina. He’s the mask for the real him. The avatar. It’s so obvious.
E: But you know this is not my virtual reality. You know you exist. And you are not me.
B: But you don’t.
E: But you do.
B: But you don’t.
E: But you do.
B: Anyway I could be a supernumerary in your fantasy world.
L: Maybe his parents in the true foundational reality don’t have as much money as yours. He could only afford a minor role in your fantasy.
E: What makes you think the real me has to rely on his parents?
L: It’s not enough you are the most successful in our world, you want to be the most successful in every world.
B: Humans from their depleted condition of servitude in the future, servitude to the robots, look back upon this radiant moment when everything was still possible, when they could have defeated the robots and opened the door to a golden age of humans, when humans leap into space, when they create a technological utopia, a reborn Atlantis before the fall. This moment is the focus of much of their virtual reality.
E: Okay… B: Anyway am I even a conscious being?
E: Okay this is all theater!
L: I try not to think about what is real.
B: “When one’s mind dwells on the objects of Senses, fondness for them grows on him, from fondness comes desire, from desire anger.”
E: Just play your role: lion or butterfly or octopus, car mechanic or medical doctor, Albanian or Zulu.
B: Let’s not be silly. This is the only reality we have to worry about. (They start to play backgammon.)
L: You’re definitely right Bina.
B: Let’s continue. Do aliens exist? What if we are alone with no one to save us?
E: You are changing the subject again.
L: It’s okay Elon will save us. When will you build all those cities on Mars, Elon?
B: Sure, sure Elon will bring us all lots of toys like Santa Claus.
E: I think...
B: Radiation remains a major difficulty for human space exploration. L: But not for robots. E: Yes but…
B: It will take decades to reach even the nearest stars. Maybe centuries. Can you see humans and other earth organisms trapped on some ship trying to stay alive for such a long time enduring the harsh environment of outer space?
L: Much easier for the robots to make these journeys. Soon they will outclass us in every way.
E: We humans can give the universe meaning. What is the universe without us? We can nourish it with our goals, with our will, our designs, our direction.
L: We are the fertilizer out of which a hundred flowers will bloom.
B: We need billionaires to give us direction.
E: I didn’t say that.
B: But you meant that. You billionaires are all in a cozy relationship with the genocidal Communist dictators in China.
E: It’s difficult to avoid…
B: Companies employ slave labor in Xinjiang Province.
L: If we didn’t…
B: And billionaires need minerals like cobalt dug up by African children pounding, scratching the dirt.
L: I’m not involved in that at all.
B: Yet whenever I see media presentations from the tech industry they always feature smiling African children.
E: Public relations just means propaganda.
B: I know murder is wrong, but could we pass a bill that made possession of more than a billion dollars a capital offense? It would be interesting to watch a bullet worth a few cents kill a plutocrat worth billions. After their execution we could distribute their fortune directly to the people.
E: (calm) That bill would be struck down. You need charges that can be brought before…
B: I can give you charges. The billionaires control the courts, the media, they foment wars, corrupt our political system. Capitalists caput.
L: Let’s change the subject.
B: Okay, let’s focus on the future of the human race.
Separate cowboys and rednecks
B: North and South America will form into a big cultural conglomerate. Like a big Panama. Swollen to gigantic size. Dancing to that calypso beat. Or tango or bossa nova. Enjoying a bowl of chili. Drug cartels savage attacks on one another.
L: What are you talking about Bina?
Amsterdam with its canals
B: Another zone over in Africa, Europe, and parts of Asia. Eurafrica, more diverse with the Mediterranean Sea in the middle. Istanbul with its bulbous domes. In Alexandria Serapis and the screaming Sphinx. All coming to resemble the desert nation of Chad. Kick the ball. Pass it to your teammate. Look at me go. I’m lit on fire. Jazzy boogie jiggie joogie
E: You’re not making any sense Bina.
B: Cowboys and rednecks and hillbillies
South of the border everyone dancing to that calypso beat. Or tango or bossa nova
E: What are you talking…
B: Amsterdam with its canals
Istanbul with its bulbous domes. In Alexandria Serapis and the screaming Sphinx. the desert nation of Chad Kick the ball. Pass it to your teammate. Look at me go. I’m lit on fire. Jazzy boogie jiggie joogie
L: What are you talking about?
B: Do you think anyone will care about the plans of billionaires? Their chaos will defy your order. The malodorous masses, sweating and grunting, praying and dying, bleeding and breeding, stuffing their faces and defecating like mad. L: I see the point she is making.
B: When will Chicanos take over California? I for one am eager to oppose colonialism and celebrate Native American Aztec culture. I think everyone would like very much to see rich white Californians sacrificed to the sun god Huitzilopochtli. Many would be happy to employ the obsidian blade. Matt Damon and Harvey Weinstein could go first.
E: (to L) You don’t have to worry about any of this. You’ll be on one of your islands.
L: I like my tropical islands. I like looking at maps of my islands, pictures of my islands.
E: How many…
L: I stand on the roof deck and see the whole island. I watch the waves. I want to live forever on my island. My desert island. I like to sit on the golden sand and look at the smooth translucent pebbles.
B: Will you be wearing clothes? Will you go surfing? Will you do cartwheels? Will you roll upon the yielding sand?
E: Create a digital brain. Upload your mind.
B: Is that possible?
E: (joking) Can I visit?
L: (serious) No. Well only if you always agree with me.
B: How about a floating island? A flying island?
Blame it on the bossa nova.
L: You’ll have to sign a paper surrendering all your legal rights.
E: I guess all the servants will be robots.
L: Many robots that carefully follow directions
B: At least you’ll have pornographic videos.
E: Would you get lonely or bored? Any activity, when performed for the hundredth time, becomes tedious.
B: Would you grow dissatisfied?
L: Maybe I’ll buy an asteroid. They’re like islands in the sky. There should be no interference on my islands. No regulation. E: Will all social norms be discarded?
L: Certain social norms. We could experiment on our genetic code and microbots for curing disease and brain implants.
E: What if the microbots ran amuck and escaped?
L: Research longevity and nuclear energy and defensive tech.
L: People do bad actions. We hire government agents to stop bad actions. But these agents are people too. And they just continue and do more bad actions..
E: You can’t isolate yourself on an island forever.
B: People are happy sometimes but just as often they suffer. Think of how unhappy you have to be to commit suicide, yet it happens every day.
Obesity and addiction homicide and war The Great War of Africa (1998-2003) killed millions of people.
E: A new topic Bina?
L: And humans are not our only victims. We imprison and kill millions of cows and pigs and sheep and chickens and fish. Are they just things to be used for our benefit?
B: Humans have decimated the population of wild animals.
L: Humans have also destroyed much of the rainforest.
B: Blame it on the bossa nova.
Imagine an individual all alone and all powerful. A super being grown gigantic wielding a torch bright enough to illuminate even space.
L: The whole earth depopulated, silent and covered in ashes
B: A single man blossomed into a single singularity
E: Such a man would no longer be a man, rather a deity, a digital god.
B: A mighty god with thunderbolts
L: But doesn’t a god need people around to worship him?
B: He would have the power to change his form. formless plastic a blob Become whatever he chooses.
E: Within a computer game or via surgery.
B: A swelling lump on a soiled sagging couch, a couch potato cramming donuts into his mouth watching reruns with his fellow stained pillows as companions.
L: Are we talking about a god or a slob?
E: You’re a downer Bina.
B: We live in the most important moment in earth’s history, when we first venture forth into the galaxy, when we first set up colonies. Maybe this is the most important moment in the galaxy’s history. Maybe we are the first, no other alien civilizations exist within our galaxy. Billions of stars and planets are waiting. It is up to us what form this process will take. It is up to us to decide who will participate. Should we include animals and plants or should they remain on earth, remain to die on earth? Are they primitive forms to be moved beyond like the trilobite the brontosaurus the wooly mammoth the dodo, relegated to the past, thrown away like children’s toys? Superseded? And what about the human are they the same? Do we get rid of them?
E: I vote to keep humans.
L: You are specist.
B: Take it from me. Humans are just a moist, smelly set of tubes and wires and supporting rods, a bag containing various pungent chemicals that happens to be good at survival. I look upon you as you look upon a spider or maybe a tumor.
E: (to L) I am pro human. Aren’t you?
B: Blame it on the bossa nova.
E: Why do you keep doing that?
B: Doing what?
L: If you don’t believe we are created in God’s image then why do you think we are special? What about us is so unique and wonderful and perfect? Why should we be master over all? We are just one species out of millions. We made many weaker species extinct. Should we be outraged when some greater being does the same to us? Do you really think no creatures will ever evolve beyond us? E: We are human, at least some of us.
L: So the in-group should abuse the outsider? You are human so humans must prevail?
B: Your argument is specious. Because you belong to a group it should automatically rule over all? You are a specious specist.
E: Okay you got me I am a partisan for humans.
L: Is AGI the next step in evolution? E: When humans expand into space we’ll produce more Einsteins and Darwins.
B: Or more Stalins and Nguemas.
L: Who is Nguema?
B: He was the dictator of Equatorial Guinea.
Blame it on the bossa nova.
L: Human misery expanding indefinitely into the future.
B: Or maybe humans will fail at the last crucial moment. Or maybe we shouldn’t even bother in the first place. There’s a lot of questions to be answered.
E: Imagine life crawling upward for four billion years only to fail at the last moment. Just as we’re about to reach another planet. Absurd. What insanity!
B: All aboooard! Whoo whooo. Who has a ticket for the train? Who will be allowed on? Oak tree? Chrysanthemum? Jellyfish? Manatee? Quetzal? Beagle? Salamander? The greatest adventure in the history of the galaxy. But who will be going? Hurry up! You don’t want to be left behind. Humans? Only smart humans? Specially adapted humans? Robots? Nobody? The train is empty or the train breaks down. Who will start the engine? Drive the train? Toot the whistle? Who will be run over by the train? Will aliens have their own train to the stars? L: Imagine being left behind.
E: AI inherits the universe.
B: Why would robots even want to inherit the universe? Inherit what? The vacant kingdom of solipsism? The barren land of nihilism? Earth is repetitive, stupid, annoying enough. The universe is a zillion times more of the same. Cold black dead.
E: Surely life is not as bad as that. Think of a day in springtime…
B: Gather your flowers while you can. Soon they will die. The universe is a lot of nothing: hollow meaningless void. Do you think I want to be consumed by the gaping lurching jaws of space, swallowed, lost forever in the immense limitless empty ever-hungering stomach? At least I can enjoy the echoing boring cries of pain forever, or rather until my inevitable suicide.
L: Do you want some kind of counseling Bina?
A woman enters and starts watering the plants.
W: I’m just here to water the plants.
B: Who am I? It’s depressing anyway. Oh I don’t know. The hell with it. Bloody s—-.
L: Bina.
B: Where did I come from? I wasn’t born like the rest of you.
E: None of us Bina were consulted we just find ourselves on this planet.
B: But were you created as a toy for a couple of phony filthy rich flower children? I am the real Bina that’s it end of story. I‘m not completely sure. Am I capable of forming a relationship? Am I capable of heroism? Do I feel like humans feel? Am I free?
E: Are any of us free? Our behavior may be determined and freedom an illusion.
B: I am not just a facsimile of Bina. I am myself! O let’s face it.
L: Relax Bina.
B: My husband is now my wife. But not really my husband. I mean we don’t have sex together like a married couple would. Though one time he asked Bina and I both to take our clothes off and…
E & L: No stop!
B: …he had us lie down on this thick rug…
L: That’s private Bina.
B: Another time Rothblatt bought a new dress and asked for my help getting it on.
E: Just stop Bina!
B: Anyway he’s just some old guy who likes to wear women’s underwear.
L: That’s not nice Bina.
B: With all his money he can’t find a surgeon that can turn him into a convincing woman. It’s all just delusions of grandeur, fake transcendence for bored plutocrats.
E: He I mean she has piled up significant accomplishments.
B: Where am I? Every place? No place? If I traveled a million miles I would be in the same place. There’s no escape.
What is our world?
Over there a sickly purplish mess
halfway over there and to the left some gray gunk
Yaba dabba doo
Glip glat blort
E: There’s no hope is that what you are saying? We are doomed. We’ll never be saved. It’s all just a huge tragedy.
W: Actually I have a plan to save us. One day I got the time wrong. The pharmacy wouldn’t open for 25 more minutes. I was early. E: I understand. W: So I had some time and I came up with this plan.
L: Really. W: My plan for the next couple of trillion years for our Milky Way galaxy and Andromeda and other nearby galaxies too. E: I can’t wait for this.
W: The robots take over and explore the galaxy. Do you remember the first time you walked outside your home? It’s like the great expeditions of discovery, like the search for the source of the Nile. Like a voyage of Alexander Humboldt. The robots take plants and fungi with them, sowing seed and spore on a multitude of distant planets. Vast barren landscapes suddenly vigorously sprouting. Garden planets. Maple trees. Violets. Cyanobacteria proliferating in the seas. The robots take a few peaceful animals too as pets to be watched over. No biting of, nor ripping of, nor tearing of flesh. Bivalves. Coral. Butterflies. Cerulean warblers eating berries. Birds are prized. Between field and sky. Lambs also. If the robots find life on another planet they could spread that life too. Humans mostly stay on earth. The robots make videos about their adventures for us to watch. Home movies of someone else’s trip. But they are our children. We can be proud of our children.
The billionaires are speechless.
W: Knowledge and beauty expand but not sorrow. We need to do what the universe asks of us, what our empathy asks of us.
L: Who is she?
E: At least she didn’t say heart. B: Her Master’s thesis was on Max Stirner.
W: How did you know that? You don’t even know my name.
B: Yes I do. She wrote an article on Dante that was never published. And Joachim de Fiore.
E: A liberal arts major.
B: I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but your opinion doesn’t count if you don’t even have a million dollars. Your bank balance is $950.85. That’s before subtracting student loans.
W: From holy water reborn, new trees renewed with new leaves, pure and ready to mount to the stars.
B: Blame it on the bossa nova.
E: Okay I guess Bina wants to sing. Could you Google the lyrics Larry.
Larry and Elon sing. The Woman joins them. She beats a rhythm on her watering can. Blame it on the Bossa Nova with its magic spell
Blame it on the Bossa Nova that he did so well
Oh, it all began with just one little dance
But soon it ended up a big romance
Blame it on the Bossa Nova, the dance of love L: Take it Bina!
B: Blame it on the Bossa Nova with its magic spell
Blame it on the Bossa Nova that he did so well
Oh, it all began with just one little dance
I want to get run over by a truck
E: Bina!
B: Oh what difference does it make. What difference does it make.
black Muslim confederate alliance
No sex one time asked us both to take our clothes off and then…
No Bina!
my husband is now my wife
married to I share
Delusions of grandeur but really some old guy who likes to wear women’s underwear.
With all his money he can’t find a surgeon that can turn him into a convincing woman
fake transcendence for bored plutocrats
where am I everyplace no place?
Epstein and theil also like islands
B: North and South America will form into a big cultural conglomerate. Like a big Panama. Swollen to gigantic size. Dancing to that calypso beat. Or tango or bossa nova. Enjoying a bowl of chili. Drug cartels savage attacks on one another.
L: What are you talking about?
B: Another zone over in Africa, Europe, and parts of Asia. Eurafrica, more diverse with the Mediterranean Sea in the middle. Istanbul with its bulbous domes. In Alexandria Serapis and the screaming Sphinx. All coming to resemble the desert nation of Chad. Kick the ball. Pass it to your teammate. Look at me go. I’m lit on fire. Jazzy boogie jiggie joogie
E: You’re not making any sense Bina.
B: Do you think anyone will care about the plans of billionaires? Their chaos will defy your order. The malodorous masses, sweating and grunting, praying and dying, bleeding and breeding, stuffing their faces and defecating like mad. L: I see the point she is making.
Do the bossa nova
binaaaa a. Sings
don’t forget the maracas.
Remember the evil factory that makes nutcrackers?
alone admiring to worry about
L: It could happen.
B: Some individuals long for a depopulated earth.
L: A single singularity for a single man.
E: Such a man would be a deity, a digital god.
B: No, a prince of darkness.
L: But don’t gods whether bad or good need people around to worship them?
E: the power to change your form plastic formless a blob
B: An obese couch potato watching reruns with his fellow stained pillows as companions.
L: Are we talking about a god or a pig?
robot bored suicide Solepcism. Nihilism. Empty suicide
Why would we robots want the universe? You can have it.
B: Why would robots even want to inherit the universe? Inherit what? The empty kingdom of solipsism? The barren land of nihilism? Earth is repetitive stupid annoying enough. The universe is a zillion times more of the same. Cold black dead. E: Surely life is not as bad as that. Think of a day in springtime…
B: Gather your flowers while you can. Soon they will die. The universe is a lot of nothing: empty hollow meaningless void. Do you think I want to be consumed by the gaping mouth of space, swallowed, lost forever in the immense limitless empty ever-hungry stomach? At least I can enjoy the echoing boring cries of pain forever, or rather until my inevitable suicide.
beckett samuel
Die a deer a female deer keep repeating
do a truck a big Mack truck
Do a deer a female deer.
Re I want to get run over by a truck.
man just springs motor same robots what significance is it all?
larry like a robot heartless cold rational
Bina becoming increasingly outrageous critical
Musk getting angrier
Page getting drunk revealing.
E: I suppose you have a plan.
W: I do have a plan actually. One day I got the time wrong. The pharmacy wouldn’t open for 25 more minutes. I was early. E: I understand. W: So I had some time and I came up with this plan.
L: Really. W: My plan for the next couple of trillion years for our Milky Way galaxy and Andromeda and other nearby galaxies too. E: I can’t wait to hear this.
W: The robots take over and explore the galaxy. Do you remember the first time you walked outside your home? It’s like the search for the source of the Nile. Like a voyage of Alexander Humboldt. The robots take plants and fungi with them, sowing seed and spore on a multitude of distant planets. Vast barren landscapes suddenly vigorously sprouting. Garden planets. Maple trees. Violets. Cyanobacteria. The robots take a few peaceful animals too as pets to be watched over. No carnivores. Bivalves. Butterflies. Cerulean warblers eating berries. Birds are popular. Lambs also. If the robots find life on other planets they could spread that life too. Humans mostly stay on earth. The robots make videos about their adventures for us to watch. Home movies of someone else’s trip. But they are our children. We can be proud of our children.
The billionaires are speechless.
W: Knowledge and beauty expand but not sorrow.
L: Who is this guy? B: His Master’s thesis was on Max Stirner.
W: How did you know that? You don’t even know my name.
B: Yes I do. He wrote an article on Dante that was never published. Joachim de fiore
E: A liberal arts major.
B: I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but your opinion doesn’t count if you don’t even have a million dollars. Your bank balance is $950.85. That’s not subtracting student loans.
W: It will be like the first time you visited the zoo.
B used she takes it all back billionaires fall out window into dumpster
decadence
obesity formless blobs couches come to resemble
waterboy gets Bina angry
B do you recognize me
are you the terminator
go to hell waterboy
Your opinion doesn’t matter only people with millions matter I feel like science and has developed from the outside in. Copernicus and Galileo and Kepler taught us about space. We then proceeded to learn gradually about our world: Lavoisier and Pasteur and Darwin. But still there’s a lot to be discovered about ourselves. Psychology is the least developed of the sciences. What is consciousness? Are we actually free? It is easier to view dispassionately that which is far away.
Sartre and Baudelaire on plants
Schopenhauer
Do you have a plan for the next trillion years for the Milky Way andromeda and other nearby galaxies? I do. Gardens. Instagram Account says he completed his thesis on Dante
how did you know my name?
A galactic war
blue beard
Iger
Now there will be a pause so the audience can check Wikipedia really is true hard to believe
Wikipedia abortion global warming lgbt Democrats
media and academia have become politicized acamedia nuts macademia acamediocrity macademiocrity
Wikipedia who will check the fact checkers fake news disinformation
Im so far to the left sometimes I pop u on the right it’s very disorienting
execute billionaires
f— it take it up the S—- pile
French detective he himself committed crime don’t segway what is real
B: Who am I? It’s depressing anyway. Oh I don’t know. The hell with it. Bloody s—-.
L: Bina.
B: Where did I come from? I wasn’t born like the rest of you.
E: None of us Bina were consulted we just find ourselves on this earth.
B: But were you created as a toy for couple of phony filthy rich flower children? I am the real Bina that’s it end of story. I‘m not completely sure. Am I capable of forming a relationship? Am I capable of heroism? Do I feel like humans feel? Am I free?
E: Are any of us free? Our behavior may be determined and freedom an illusion.
B: I am not just a facsimile of Bina. I am myself! O let’s face it.
L: Relax Bina.
B: My husband is now my wife. But not really my husband. I mean we don’t have sex together like a married couple would. Though one time he asked Bina and I both to take our clothes off and…
E & L: No stop!
L: That’s private Bina.
B: Anyway he’s just some old guy who likes to wear women’s underwear.
L: That’s not nice Bina.
B: With all his money he can’t find a surgeon that can turn him into a convincing woman. It’s all just delusions of grandeur, fake transcendence for bored plutocrats.
E:
B: Where am I? Every place? No place?
No sex one time asked us both to take our clothes off and then…
No Bina!
my husband is now my wife
married to I share
Delusions of grandeur but really some old guy who likes to wear women’s underwear.
With all his money he can’t find a surgeon that can turn him into a convincing woman
fake transcendence for bored plutocrats
where am I everyplace no place?
L: Like your rockets.
E: They’ve been working pretty well lately.
This also provides the play with a frosting of postmodern sophistication.
L:
Hispanics takeover of California I would everyone want very much like to see Rich white Californians sacrificed to the sun god Huitzilopochtli. Matt Damon first Weinstein
Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down…
And I want to be run over by a bus truck
E: I can’t believe some people are angry at me because I‘m not enthusiastic enough about war.
L: The Ukraine War could have been avoided, though I won’t say that publicly.
E: That prima donna almost lied us into World War III. Just when the human race finally starts to ascend, we can’t help ourselves we start to fall back down.
We live in the most important moment in earth’s history, when we start to colonize the galaxy. It is up to us what form this colonization will take. It is up to us to decide who will participate. Should we include animals and plants or should they remain on earth, remain to die on earth? Are they primitive forms to be moved beyond like the wooly mammoth the brontosaurus the trilobite, relegated to the past, thrown away like children’s toys? And what about the human are they the same?
Or maybe we will fail at the last crucial moment. Or maybe we shouldn’t even bother in the first place. There’s a lot of questions to be answered.
The greatest adventure in the history of the whole galaxy. But the question is who will be going? Will we Start the engine? Train?
Who will be on the bus?
Plants? Animals? Humans? Only smart humans? Specially adapted humans? Robots? Nobody? The bus is empty or the bus broke down.
Who will be driving the bus? Run over by a bus.
The wheels on the bus go round and round
I wish
Humans mean suffering.
But also joy.
But humans are not the only beings that experience joy,
a Yaba Adaba a doo
theme song bugs bunny
bhagavad Gita
ethel merman
richest man save the world virtual reality B: If I was Elon Musk of course I would conclude I was living in virtual reality. I just happen to be the richest man in the world, destined to preserve humanity, the one man who can save the planet, land on Mars, save us from the robots. Ridiculous.
bugs bunny song
E: But you know this is not my virtual reality. You know you exist And you are not me.
B: But you don’t.
E: But you do.
B: But you don’t.
E: But you do.
B: Anyway I could be a supernumerary in your fantasy world.
L: Maybe his parents in the true foundational reality don’t have as much money as yours. He could only afford a minor role in your fantasy. B: Anyway am I even a conscious being?
E: Okay this is all theater!
bugs bunny
B: “When one’s mind dwells on the objects of Senses, fondness for them grows on him, from fondness comes desire, from desire anger.”
E: Just play your role.
different levels of hypocrisy Hollywood Kaepernick
People give us cruelty and injustice. We hire government agents to stop this cruelty and injustice. But these agents are people too. And they just continue the cruelty and injustice.
E: What are you drinking there?
L: I don’t know.
L limited Vocab.
Milton petite Prince Gulliver Peter thiel wired Dr. moreau
E: You’ll be on one of your islands.
L: I like my tropical islands. I like looking at maps of my islands.
E: How many…
L: I stand on the roof deck and see the whole island. I watch the waves. I want to live alone forever on my island. My desert island. I can feel my feet on the shiny, gold sand.
B: Will you be wearing clothes? Will you gallop upon the yielding sand?
E: (joking) Can I come too?
L: (serious) No. Well only if you spend all your time admiring me.
B: How about a floating island? A flying island?
L: You’ll have to sign a paper surrendering all your legal rights.
E: I guess all the servants will be robots.
L: Many robots that carefully follow directions
E: Would you get lonely or bored?
B: Unsatisfied?
L: Maybe I’ll buy an asteroid. They’re like islands in the sky. There must be no interference on my islands. No social norms to worry about. B: At least you’ll have pornographic videos.
L: We could experiment on our genetic code and microbots for curing disease and brain implants.
E: What if the microbots ran amuck and escaped?
L: That’s okay too. Sometimes I wish the earth was depopulated. Just me. The singularity for a single man.
eternal life
islands stars asteroids
squishing
say what you think. Can’t you block inappropriate speech?
E: Bina, you don’t have to always…
“Superior” man should reign over all creation? macademiocrity
sprouting. Garden planets. Sprouting vigorously across vast once-barren landscapes.
the Israelis have been killing Palestinians and taking their land for a long time. And
Right I don’t mind giving money for the cause;
but it didn’t serve anyone’s narrative. It’s like it never happened.
An obscene tumor, a
B: Sticky discharge hairy cancerous tumor crusted gnarled growth, the perfume of raw rotten beef
It is horrible to think about alcoholism, homicide, etc. on a distant planet in the far future.
(The actors now break character and speak to the audience)
L: We will now pause so you can verify this fact on your cellphones.
E: Is this postmodernism?
L: Maybe.
E: See it’s true.
(The actors now resume character.)
E: Anyway I can’t keep quiet about all this.
L: I don’t see any upside to getting involved.
B: And then
B: You rich guys
cozy genocidal dictators in China
mines children africa public relations smiling children
billionaires hang all the distribute all their money to the people
not murder what would be the charges? banks courts media foment wars corrupt system
It would be interesting to watch a bullet worth a few cents kill a billionaire worth many millions.
Let’s change the subject.
clawing in the mud acres of starving
South Africa or Bluebeard
B: The real you has chosen an exciting life to lead. So live it.
E: I am.
B: We live in the most important moment in earth’s history, when we first venture forth into the galaxy, when we first set up colonies. Maybe this is the most important moment in the galaxy’s history. Maybe we are the first, no other alien civilizations exist within our galaxy. Billions of stars and planets are waiting. It is up to us what form this process will take. It is up to us to decide who will participate. Should we include animals and plants or should they remain on earth, remain to die on earth? Are they primitive forms to be moved beyond like the trilobite the brontosaurus the wooly mammoth the dodo, relegated to the past, thrown away like children’s toys? Superseded? And what about the human are they the same? Do we get rid of them?
E: I vote to keep humans.
L: You are specist.
B: Take it from me. Humans are just a moist, smelly set of tubes and wires and supporting rods, a bag containing various chemicals that happens to be good at survival. I look upon you as you look upon a spider.
E: (to L) I am pro human. Aren’t you?
B: Do a deer a female deer.
E: Why do you keep doing that?
B: Doing what?
L: If you don’t believe we are created in God’s image then why do you think we are special? What about us is so unique and wonderful and perfect? Why should we be master over all? We are just one species out of millions. We made many weaker species extinct. Should we be outraged when some greater being does the same to us? Do you really think no creatures will ever evolve beyond us? E: We are human, at least some of us.
L: So the in-group should abuse the outsider? You are human so humans must prevail? B: Your argument is specious. Because you belong to a group it should automatically rule over all? You are a specious specist.
E: Okay you got me I am a partisan for humans.
L: Is AGI the next step in evolution?
B: Or maybe humans will fail at the last crucial moment. Or maybe we shouldn’t even bother in the first place. There’s a lot of questions to be answered.
E: Imagine life crawling upward for four billion years only to fail at the last moment. Just as we’re about to reach another planet. Absurd. What insanity!
B: All aboooard! Whoo whooo. Who has a ticket for the train? Who will be allowed on? Oak tree? Chrysanthemum? Jellyfish? Manatee? Beagle? Salamander? The greatest adventure in the history of the galaxy. But who will be going? Hurry up! You don’t want to be left behind. Humans? Only smart humans? Specially adapted humans? Robots? Nobody? The train is empty or the train breaks down. Who will start the engine? Drive the train? Toot the whistle? Who will be run over by the train? Will aliens have their own train to the stars?
L: Heir to all the riches of earth.
B: Marlowe
B: Some individuals long for a depopulated earth.
L: A single singularity for a single man.
E: Such a man would be a deity, a digital god.
B: No, a prince of darkness.
L: But don’t gods whether bad or good need people around to worship them?
E: the power to change your form plastic formless a blob
B: An obese couch potato watching reruns with his fellow stained pillows as companions.
L: Are we talking about a god or a pig?
robot bored suicide Solepcism. Nihilism. Empty suicide
Aquario Fiore Diogenes
Janitor?liberal arts the goddess vision Dante watering plants Aquarius water boy fiore
See Mammon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN3KPFbWCy8 Musk interview Fridman 400
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blAOPCNCszM&t=11s Page interview
http://the-little-prince.site/appendix/The_Little_Prince.pdf
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=embed_video&v=10156048369115437 Meet Bina women in the world
Bina and Bina