Great article. Have you read Lasch? One of my favorite books of all time is his "Haven in a Heartless World", the basic premise is that society has largely abandoned personal responsibility, religion, or family as the source of expertise and authority, and everything is moving toward "experts" and managers making all personal decisions for everyone. And this is exactly what you get - It's OK to kill yourself now.
This concept of MAID is so profoundly troubling, I barely know where to place it in my psyche. I read an account of a family gathering around their "clinically-depressed" daughter to be with her as she was lethally injected; I've read about suicide "pods" engineered to make death painless and hygenic (no mess! how thoughtful!); and now, your excellent essay.
I think I've closed off some part of myself to prevent myself from utter despair and grief at this morality-free and divinity-less ideology that has hatched. There's just too much other stuff to despair about these days. When I'm ready, I'll wail.
Thank you for writing this, Yoshi. I may not seem grateful, but I am...
Galaxy Express 999 is a show about a train that can traverse space. Its final stop is a machine planet, where physical immortality in the Transhuman sense is possible. The main character, Tetsuro, seeks this immortality throughout the show but becomes profoundly sad when seeing the bodies of the humans frozen in ice that had to MAID before transferring their pseudo-consciousness onto silicon and steel.
One of the show's chief characters is even a machine maid who had to undergo this process.
The author of Galaxy Express 999? Leiji Matsumoto.
The ultimate irony is that the elites and experts responsible for this massive renunciation of human values and of human existence itself, for those they consider expendable, are themselves dedicated to only a material existence free of any other deeper concerns or context. Values for me, but not for thee.
Those dedicated to such a shallow view of life will consume themselves to devolve into nothingness, until they pass on and realize their utter folly.
Great article. Have you read Lasch? One of my favorite books of all time is his "Haven in a Heartless World", the basic premise is that society has largely abandoned personal responsibility, religion, or family as the source of expertise and authority, and everything is moving toward "experts" and managers making all personal decisions for everyone. And this is exactly what you get - It's OK to kill yourself now.
I have not, sounds like I should. I don’t read as much as I ought tbh.
Christopher Lasch is a great and human intellectual - or was - he has passed. I will order this book for sure.
Lasch recognized where our society was headed and he was correct. Here we are and the real challenge begins. Humanity is up for it - no question.
This concept of MAID is so profoundly troubling, I barely know where to place it in my psyche. I read an account of a family gathering around their "clinically-depressed" daughter to be with her as she was lethally injected; I've read about suicide "pods" engineered to make death painless and hygenic (no mess! how thoughtful!); and now, your excellent essay.
I think I've closed off some part of myself to prevent myself from utter despair and grief at this morality-free and divinity-less ideology that has hatched. There's just too much other stuff to despair about these days. When I'm ready, I'll wail.
Thank you for writing this, Yoshi. I may not seem grateful, but I am...
You’re very welcome Mary, I always love seeing your comments.
I think this may be an experiment to see if a country itself can commit suicide. Quite ghastly.
That is brilliant, sir!
Thank you.
Galaxy Express 999 is a show about a train that can traverse space. Its final stop is a machine planet, where physical immortality in the Transhuman sense is possible. The main character, Tetsuro, seeks this immortality throughout the show but becomes profoundly sad when seeing the bodies of the humans frozen in ice that had to MAID before transferring their pseudo-consciousness onto silicon and steel.
One of the show's chief characters is even a machine maid who had to undergo this process.
The author of Galaxy Express 999? Leiji Matsumoto.
Yes we are probably spirit cousins
Synchronicity is weird, eh?
The ultimate irony is that the elites and experts responsible for this massive renunciation of human values and of human existence itself, for those they consider expendable, are themselves dedicated to only a material existence free of any other deeper concerns or context. Values for me, but not for thee.
Those dedicated to such a shallow view of life will consume themselves to devolve into nothingness, until they pass on and realize their utter folly.