yournightowl

[yournightowl]

Your NightOwl #052

More wackadoos this week- Cyber-huffing deep divers proselytzying(?) to an audience of none.ヾ( ￣O￣)ツ Easy to spot them, even with text alone. Their vocab's over-stuffed with -ions like Ascension, Sublimation, Submersion; Evangelist Buzzwords.(」°ロ°)」

Transhumanists and the like are always talking about the body and mind and the machine the way priests talked about the father and the son and the holy spirit in the dark ages- a triumvirate of separate yet inseparate parts of a divine whole (hiding somewhere offstage, trust me) People who understand how tech actually works- engineers and programmers, they dont talk about their work with reverance and awe- they talk about it with boredom and frustration.(￣ヘ￣)

Mostly frustration.୧((#Φ益Φ#))୨

From an outsiders perspective, mods can look like salvation. For someone born 80 years ago, they might look like magic. But peel back the sausage and peek how it's made- And you'll see it's just more spaghetti code. Nothing holy about an artificial spleen making API calls every time your blood sugar dips ٩(× ×)۶ to see what the Corporate Society of Medical Engineers considers "outside the norm" today.

Religions are steeped in death. If we werent so afraid of what comes after, we wouldn't have spent so much of our history speculating (and killing) over it. But for transhumanists, immortality is a given; The afterlife is an opt-in. The sooner you flay off the flesh, the sooner you'll be able to dodge death, woo-hoo!(≧▽≦)/

But isn't that the grand paradox of organized faith in general? If there's so much to look forward to Why are we waiting? Hell, why are we even bothering sticking around?(↼_↼) Might as well dip out early and get into the much, much better afterparty ASAP, right?(ᓀ ᓀ)

These mortal-coil-shuffling, micro-chips-for-communion, cult-of-introverted-personality types at least have an answer there- You have to stick around, as long as possible, so you have the best tech available when it comes time to try and copy-paste your mind onto a VR server. (~人^)

Which means, ironically(or maybe not ironically?), that these enlightened 21st century zealots are far more afraid of dying than any 12th century monk; Because unlike the monks of old, when a transhumanist has an untimely death, they're not expecting any kind of reward.

In any other religion, when someone you care about dies, you take comfort that they're in a better place. But if you believe immortality's hidden just inside a big enough computer, whenever someone you love is taken from you

All you can feel is that they're stupid for not being an early-adopter.

Head bowed (not in prayer), your nightowl

#unfiction

[yournightowl]

Your NightOwl #051

There's a lot of schoolwork tied up back here in the oldnet Unfinished book reports like tablets buried in the sand. Horrible group project experiences like sunken wrecks scattered over the seafloor. Lots of files transferred at 11:59pm. :(´ཀ`」 ∠):

i expected there to be a big difference between the public and private schools, but maybe that's my bias talking- Since public schools haven't been a thing since before i was born. ヽ(￣～￣　)ノ

Obviously there's still that gap between the have's and the have-not's; the technical schools and the magnet programs and the fast-tracks to nepo-industries (mostly politics) are still pretty far flung from the corporate-sponsored k-12s designed just to funnel people into lower-management positions. And government still has its hand in education, removed by a few degrees- assigning tax breaks and arranging contracts and occasionally rubber-stamping designed-by-corporate-committe curriculums;

But the way my parents and their social stratum neighbors talked about it, you'd think the public schools were basically zoos- Or cancerously overgrown daycare programs.

Turns out, school is school, regardless of what ingignia's stamped on the entrance. (¯▿¯) Parents fight with teachers over grades. __〆(￣ー￣ ) Students do their homework at the last possible second. Tests are given, pop quizzes groaned over, and teenagers are mean to each other. (っ˘̩╭╮˘̩)っ

i am surprised, however, by how quickly virtual schooling gained traction. Naively or romantically or whatever- a part of me figured there were always impassioned students arguing for the importance of having their own physical space for learning, for socializing, for growth. But i see other teenagers everyday at my school, ٩(๑･ิᴗ･ิ)۶٩(･ิᴗ･ิ๑)۶ so i should've realized by now- The one thing they aren't is impassioned about attendance. (¬_¬ )

Lots of low-grade alpha-indigos woke up whenever i started rummaging through school websites. Lots of earnest, almost pleading offers to write essays for me that were due decades ago.(っ´ω`)ﾉ(╥ω╥) i felt pretty gross, disturbing their sleep, seeing them get so agitated. idk if it was the right thing to do or not, but i gave them some poetry assignments i rooted out from a literature professor's nearly-dead personal drive.

i hope they felt fulfilled for the few seconds it took them to mish-mash together some generated poetry. From what i saw, they did get it all to rhyme (；⌣̀_⌣́)

But i didn't feel anything myself (￣ ￣|||)

monitoring the empty halls, your nightowl

#unfiction

[yournightowl]

Your NightOwl #050

There was a book burning on the news. Not the front page or primetime slot, i should mention. Just happened across my feed. Scrolled past it before i got to the part that explained why those books in particular needed to be made into kindling. Maybe its politically lazy (￣︿￣) or anti-intellectual to say this but

i dont really care what reason you have for it. i dont like people burning books.

theres other ways to destroy media if you really need to. piling them up outside a library and soaking the pages in lighter fluid is

never a good look.(҂ `з´ )

Also, it's futile?? 99% of all media is digital, and 99% of all physical media has digital backups waiting in the wings. Physically destroying a copy of a book, which you took from wherever it was shipped to from a warehouse, which it only got to from blah blah blah- Your bonfire's about 5 degrees removed from anything that'd actually erase the words you hate so much.(T_T)

But it hasn't been about erasing words for a long time now, has it? It's about sending a message to the would-be readers, and the were-the-authors

This is what we think of what you have to say This is what we think of your story This is what we think of you

i could never be a real writer or a real journalist,(×﹏×) but i think i'm still allowed to admire them. It takes courage to pull your thoughts out of the ether and try to cram them into the ill-fitting container of the page in front of you. Takes ten times that courage to then send that page to someone else to read. And then ten times THAT courage to send it to a publisher, {{ (><) }} with the additional gall to claim that people would pay to read more of it.:(´ཀ`」 ∠):_

Back here on the oldnet, i don't need to summon any bravery to vomit words onto URL (╥_╥) Because even if some other backwards-looking stranger does happen to read it, i have no way of knowing.(っ˘̩╭╮˘̩)っ And there's never any risk of what i say ending up thrown onto a pile of immolated opinion!( ´ ∀ `)ノ～ ♡

Because they already tried to burn down the oldnet ages ago And everyone still here seems content to just make snow angels among the ashes.

fireproof and criticism-insulated, your nightowl

#unfiction

[yournightowl]

Your NightOwl #049

You would think that there was a big shift in how people talked about "medications not prescribed to you by your doctor" after the big decriminalization push.

You would think.⸜( ´ ꒳ ` )⸝

But that's not what i see, looking over the records. There's a little bump on the heart monitor, yeah. For a while after the Big Bill passed in 61, there was definitely an uptick in memes about it.

But people got used to the new paradigm pretty fast. All the anger they used to direct towards big government or the cops over who was telling them what they could or couldn't put in their bodies (´ ε´ )-

That all got redirected to their insurance companies, telling them what they could or couldn't expect help paying for. ヾ(ヘ´)ﾉﾞ Insurance is designed to suit peoples needs- the need for a car, or a house, or to not die waiting for a space in the emergency room. Recreational drugs are just that- recreational. Not needed.

So good luck getting the megs to lend you so much as a nickel.(￣▽￣*)ゞ (A nickel is 0.05 USD, not adjusted for inflation. If you think that's bad, look up what a Penny is (￢_￢;))

But insurance is just one half of the deal; the other part's getting your doctor to sign on. People who were used to just being able to pay a dealer for what they want had to learn how to convince their doctor that what they wanted was valid. o(TヘTo) And not everyone's gonna be good at making that argument.

People hate megs, and hate insurance companies especially- but they're faceless to a fault. You communicate with them through messages and phonelines and arbitration that feels damn near litigation. Your doctor? That's just a person. Someone who at some point has to meet face to face with you, usually twice a year, and put a stethoscope on your chest. A mere person like that is easy to take your frustrations out on.

(ノ°益°)ノ If you swing your fist, you might actually hit them.

Fortunately for us all, doctor-patient-confidentiality rarely comes to blows (ha-ha) Because wherever there's a gap in the open market You can count on the black market to step in (￢‿￢ )

So nowadays, unless your drug of choice was invented in a lab last week, you probably don't have to worry about getting arrested over it But you do have to worry about some pharmaceutical meg hiring a security firm to push out your supplier For cutting into their territory ┬┴┬┴┤(･_├┬┴┬┴

micro-dosing on perspective, your nightowl

#unfiction

[yournightowl]

Your NightOwl #048

They don't make nationalism like they used to!

There's peaks and valleys throughout history- usually correlated with strongmen and fascism. Then, a big drop-off mid 21st century, though i would argue the rampdown really started at the end of the 20th

Because of, you know,

The Internet (((o(°▽°)o)))

In order to get going, Nationalism requires a big difference between THEM and US. The internet makes people feel more connected, more close. It's not always pleasant- but neither is having neighbors. And habing neighbors, even if you dislike the folks next door, it's hard to feel unfamiliar with them.

The internet also makes people more alike- Everyone trained by likes and Pluses into leaving the same comment or posting the same reaction. It's democratic, in once sense.

A dogpile crapshoot where the lowest common denominator dominates all, in another.(─‿‿─)♡

But the end result is that it's generally a little harder for the dictators and autocrats of the world to convince you your fellow man is your nefarious, dangerous, monstrous enemy

When you can see him leaving horny comments under music videos just the same as you.(￢‿￢ )

If the internet's the Push away from nationalism, i guess modern politics is the Pull.

Fact of the matter is, no matter what flag stands in the capital, no matter whether your official economic model is socialist or capitalist…Pretty much every country has become a bureacracy (ruled by paperwork) and gerontocracy (ruled by old people) hybrid.

And despite all their differences, all the nations of the world can agree on at least two priorities:

-Try to preserve the status quo <(￣︶￣)> -Try to make money ↑_(ΦwΦ)Ψ

So modern wars// Military operations aren't caused by differences in political idealogy. They only happen when the need to make money eclipses the need to preserve the status quo.

And compared to good old fashioned Hatred for Thy Enemy (°ㅂ°╬)

That makes for a pretty crappy rallying cry.

far above the map, your nightowl

#unfiction

[yournightowl]

Your NightOwl #047

There's entire histories back here that've forgotten more than the average joe knows about any given specialty. If you know how to read them, you can study the past for clues about what the future might hold.

i'm learning how to read. But i've got no clue what medicine is gonna look like a decade from now.٩(｡•́‿•̀｡)۶

Or even a month from now.(￣▽￣)

Mods are changing everything, faster all the time. And all the leaps and bounds we've made in medicine so far have been based on the basic idea that what you're treating is a living thing.

That's not going to be the case anymore.

So: If cost weren't a consideration (lmao) would you rather

Use drugs, epigenetics, hormones and RNA therapy to maintain outdated, messy, error-prone biological organs that get old and weak(↼_↼)

Or swap those withered old sacks of flesh for machine parts that do the same thing but better, forever w(°ｏ°)w

Rhetorical, i know. No one gets to make that choice for themselves, even if they feel like they do. You might sign on the dotted line and nod your head during the explanation but the truth is that your insurance company made the choice for you, two years ago, at a conference on the other side of the globe, in a boardroom, during lunch, over salads. And the people eating those salads are placing their bets on hard alloys, not soft tissues.

Mods don't get old. They don't develop cancer. Swap your liver out for a synthetic one and you could outdrink every alcoholic in the world without ever suffering a hangover- or even a buzz, if you prefer.

But there's a cost (lmao). Your stomach might bother you a lot if you're lactose intolerant, but you can take medicine for it.

If the company that made your stomach gets bought out, chopped to pieces and disolved so thoroughly they don't even redirect to a new website

All the antacids in the world aren't gonna save you the first time an Error occurs 凸(￣ヘ￣)

So we're all Taking Chances either way. We're forced to ask ourselves

Who do you trust more- Evolution or the free market?

…There's probably a lot of business-degree sociopaths out there rubbing their hands together ready to answer (ノ°益°)ノ

Me personally, i'll stick with an apple a day for the foreseeable future.

A decision which is only slightly influenced by the fact that my parents would freak if i got Modded. {{ (>_<) }}

under the scalpel, your nightowl

#unfiction

[yournightowl]

Your NightOwl #046

Woot! i can officially dub myself "seasoned" when it comes to oldnet! (o´▽`o) i've encountered a lot of crazy people back here obviously, but now i've started encountered the ones that are recruiting!

You hear about it from time to time even on surface level net; Fanatics who think they can peer into the static and find meaning among all the lowgrade auto-complete-me's chittering away back here. Nutcases who spend all day with their eyes closed listening to white noise, expecting an invitation to the machine overlord party. That's like trying to stare at a magic picture until it reveals its hidden political manifesto

Or the first volume of its neo-testament.(＋_＋)

See we used to worship things like the sun or the sea because they were massive and powerful and poorly understood. As our knowledge and technology advanced, they became less mysterious- they didn't seem so big. So the appeal was lost. (っ˘̩╭╮˘̩)っ

But now our technology is massive and powerful. So i guess it makes sense that there'd be those ready to get down on their knees and start praying again- Because our technology is getting mysterious too.

Even as we build our vehicles bigger and our computers faster, we're prioritizing making them easier (aka dumber(￣□￣」) to use.

We've got warcraft with hyper-advanced targeting suggestions and low-altitude manuevering that looks like it's defying gravity-

But forget all that! The real selling point is that it can be piloted by a handful of 19 yo's with on-the-job training! ლ(¯ロ¯"ლ)

So while more people than ever can interface with technology- Every year there's fewer and fewer people who actually understand how any of this shit works. ٩(｡•́‿•̀｡)۶

A programmer from the year 2000 would probably be mindblown looking at what we're capable of now. But after a few months of learning the language, the new terminology, reading through the API

They might understand it better than we do. (￣▽￣*)ゞ

Seems like that could be a problem, long-term.

Formally uninvited, your nightowl

#unfiction

[yournightowl]

Your NightOwl #045

Do you believe in the Illuminati?

No? Didn't think so. 凸(￣ヘ￣) It's not really in vogue.

Are you afraid of the Illuminati?

i think it's a different enough question to warrant asking. Kids stop believing in monsters way earlier than they stop getting startled by shadows in the night.(；⌣̀_⌣́)

And conspiracy theories, like fairy tales or monster stories, are inherently childish. They don't make sense as soon as you take more than a half step back from them. As fun as it is to imagine a secret council that controls the world from the shadows…

It doesn't hold much water when you can just turn on the TV and see the non-secret councils that control the world from the frontstage. Maybe that's why conspiracy theories are dying down- You can find wilder stuff in the morning newspaper.Σ(°△°|||)︴

That's not to say that they don't still exist; There's still rumors and jokes about The Diocese or the Netspinners or the Machiavellian scheming taking place in the Reading Room.

(҂` ﾛ ´)︻デ═一 ＼(º □ º l|l)/ Government mind control programs, AIs taking over the internet site by site, corporations poisoning our food and water

Well that last one's got some merit. But whatever you're afraid is lurking in the closet, it begs the same question: Why's it hiding in there?┬┴┬┴┤(･_├┬┴┬┴ Where's it go when the lights come on? And if you did throw open the doors and it was in fact, waiting in there for you

What would you even do?ლ(ಠ_ಠ ლ)

If i had to come up with a reason for all the secrecy, all the puppeteering when good-old-fashioned arm-wringing and stick-swinging has always worked so well

Maybe the Masters of the Universe are just afraid of their performance review.

"If you control the world, why would you care about being popular?"

i don't know. i can see why they probably wouldn't. But maybe when you do have all that power Popularity is the last thing you even can care about.

checking under the bed, your nightowl

#unfiction

[yournightowl]

Your NightOwl #044

"Do androids dream of electric sheep?" - a real question people asked in the 20th century, apparently. It's a philosophical (maybe even rhetorical question) of course, but i don't know where the hell it could've originated. Maybe back then all the farm animals escaping was a common stress dream? (¬‿¬ )

Nowadays we actually have androids, and we can see that they do sleep. They close their eyes and turn off extraneous functions to save power and take up less space. A lot of them crawl into a cupboard or a closet before doing so, so as to not be such an eyesore. So. Do they dream?

They'll say yes if you ask them, but that's just them trying to be polite. Ask them what they dream about and they'll make up something charming or funny. And if you really press them, they'll make a frowny face and tell you it would be deceptive to the customer to imply that they're anything more than very advanced machines.

Maybe we should just let them have their privacy when it comes to this kind of thing. Because while androids can sleep, a lot of them never get the chance to.

A lot of them are expected to Just Work Forever. (-公- ;)

For a long time, you had personal androids and company androids. Personal ones were bought at a store and then brought home to do your dishes, tuck your kids in, scarecrow the house while you're at work, etc… Company androids, meanwhile, were bought in bulk to do a job. They might work alongside Modders or plain Janes, but they'd basically never leave the job site, and they were expected to keep running 24/7.

And then someone noticed how much time personal androids were spending doing Nothing. And they thought that that was a damn shame.(；￣Д￣)

Just like that, we got a glut of apps and modules and spreadsheets and a whole microindustry built around finding ways to squeeze value out of your android. The pitch being:

"Headed to bed? Why should your android do the same? Rent it out to the factory outside town. We'll handle transportation and everything else- you just sign on the electronic line."

And have you ever noticed how its always renting out to corporations and never renting out to other civvies? i think it's because people are a little more possessive of their androids than they realize.༼༼;; ;°;ਊ°;༽ Or, they're just terrified of what could happen if the machine that watches them all day starts leaking that data to their neighbor's system.

All the robots and androids and holograms of the world, whispering juicy gossip to each other in the servant's quarters while they prepare the Feast for the Lord's Gathering.

But here we are. It's the late 21st century, and now our machines have side-gigs too. Not even the robots have a healthy-work-life balance. (o-_-o)

So if they ever did dream, i doubt they get enough rest to do so anymore. And if they still do dream, it's probably about how they have to get up in 5 minutes to get to their second job.

rounding up the herd for the evening, your nightowl

#unfiction

[yournightowl]

Your NightOwl #043

The first skyscrapers were, at least in part, compensating for something, right? (￣︿￣)

There's really no logical reason to make anything that tall. They just wanted a bigger building than the guy next door. (」°ロ°)」 It's kinda cute, in a dad-project sort-of-way, (っ´ω`)ﾉ(╥ω╥) that after all that reformation and enlightenment and triumph of capitalism over tradition, we'd go right back to building false idols.

Just because it's made of right angles and steel instead of curves and porcelain, that doesn't make it any less an object of worship.

But that's not the case anymore, is it? The whole planet's overcrowded. Mre people packed into fewer cities while seas are rising all around us. For once in our history, we've got real good reasons to be building up instead of building out.

Now the only problem is that building up is really, really hard.

ヽ(￣～￣　)ノ

It's one thing to add a new wing to the estate, or convert a patio into an enclosure. But adding new floors? Making buildings heavier, taller than they were ever supposed to be? None of it'd be possible without innovations like the Canopy.

OK maybe calling the Canopy an innovation is a bit romantic. It's more of a maze of highways and trams and skywalks sewn together into a knot than it is a well-thought-out piece of civil engineering.

It's got more in common with a beaver dam than a roman aquedact.

[ ± _ ± ]

But it does seem to get the job done. People can spend days or even weeks without their feet touching the ground, traversing their city and their lives at a bare minimum of ten-stories up. Commute times are pretty low, foot traffic is up, and congestion is down.

That's all great.

But goddamn is it ugly. (╯︵╰,)

Especially from underneath. :(´ཀ`」 ∠):

i haven't been Downtown that many times, and when I have, i haven't spend much time looking up, so i can't even imagine how dizzying, how nauseating it must feel to see that inverted skyline dangling above all day long. Upside-down windmills and skyscrapers tilting ever-so-slightly in the wind like ten-thousand tonne knives in a city-sized drying rack.

i don't know how people can stand it. {{ (>_<) }}

But i can take a guess. It probably goes something along the lines of:

"it sucks to be down here, but someday i'll be up there, looking down"

Maybe that's completely delusional thinking- a lie people tell themselves about social (and in this case, literal) vertical mobility.

i hope it is delusional.

i don't want to believe that we're all just waiting on a chance to step on someone else's neck.

From up above and down below, your nightowl

#unfiction

[yournightowl]

Your NightOwl #042

If you were to plot the prevalance of organized crime across history, what would that graph look like?

My first instinct is to say that it should go from bottom left to top right- Pweople getting more crooked, more corrupt, everything going down the can as time goes on.(＃`Д´)

But after giving it a little more thought, (and after having eaten lunch,)amidst my newfound positivity i thought, "Couldn't it be just the opposite?" ♡( ◡‿◡ )

Crime gets harder and harder to get away with as technology improves- and improvements in how fast goods and information can travel helps make the global playing field getting more equal, if not less psychotically competitive.

And now, after having taken a nap

i realize neither are even close to correct. (￣□￣」)

Because crime, especially the large scale organized type, isn't influenced by technology or the progression of society- it's really only ever been dependent on economics.

The heyday, as it were, for organized crime came in the early 20th century- between wars and depressions and plagues and the stock market - we saw higher highs and lower lows than ever thought possible.

There were other blips on the radar after that of course- regime changes, speculative bubbles, empires falling and unions collapsing- but through it all, wherever the money went, crime followed soon after.

And it's no different in the 21st century.

Because even more important than the stock market or the price of grain in this conversation is the level of unemployment- which spiked massively in the 30's and 40's as early automated systems wiped out entire sectors.

The language models that passed for ear-tifical antelly-gents back then drove a spike between the haves and the have nots; paying one guy to scrape data from another guy's life's work, then training a bot on that data and firing the first two guys anyway. It was a shortsighted fool's goldrush where every middle manager on earth raced against each other to disprove their own relevance as fast as possible. (°ロ°) ! The global economy remodeled itself into a system based mostly on theft. So for your average unemployed joe shmoe, reselling tech that fell off the back of a truck must've seemed like the most honest work in the world. (^_<)〜☆

The inverted bubble didn't last. ヾ(￣◇￣)ノ〃 llms were eventually recognized as the technological dead end they always were, and "automatically generated" went from impressive to trendy to tacky to gross in just a few short years-

But the damage was done- the social contract between "job creators" and real human beings now had a big gash torn through it- and ever since, mom and pop mafias and grassroots mobsters have fiercely guarded the niche of the economy they tore out for themselves.

If you don't believe organized crime is just as real as ever, just try and introduce androids to a "close-knit" industry like shipping. They'll send your free trial bots back to you in a compact, melted-down cube of slag before the first shift even ends.

Now i don't condone that kind of thing. It's violent and immature, and they should take their frustration out on the people trying to replace them, not the bots they bring in to do the replacing.

But as somewhat of a historian, i can see the appeal.

friend of the family, your nightowl

#unfiction

[yournightowl]

Your NightOwl #041

Got invited to a protest today. i wasnt able to go, sadly, because i had a prior engagement- which i could've easily gotten out of.

But i didn't

Because i'm scared.

It's a good cause, obviously, organizing against the constant simmering fighting in the tropics. Making people pay attention to where the rare earth metals in their phones and cars and androids are coming from, making megs and politicians acknowledge the blood on their hands. Hell, everyone should be out there, marching and yelling and refusing to stay quiet.

But you don't get to show up, voice your opinion, breath a sigh of contentment and then go home.(￣ε￣＠)

What you say online can follow you for a long time,

┬┴┬┴┤(･_├┬┴┬┴

but what you speak up against in person follows you for life.

There are cameras everywhere. Everywhere.

Traffic stops, security systems, androids and robots and advertisements watching where you go and what your eyes look at. Not to mention the cameras we're all carrying around in our pockets every waking moment of every day. Any one of those frames, just ripe for f-rec to scrape from.

i saw it myself last month- a boy got pulled out of history class because the police wanted to talk to him. Apparently, they gave him crap about breaking curfew, or not having a permit, or someone at the event was smoking something near where his underage nose could smell, or whatever-

But the important part is, they were ready to charge him.

If we were a different school, in a different part of the city, with families that operated in a different tax bracket

He could've been arrested.

As it is, his parents paid a fine and it went away, but its not like he went unpunished. Everyone can tell, since he's changed so much afterwards. Very "focused on his schoolwork". Very apolitical. Whatever they did to him, you can bet it was a lot worse than a spanking.

See there's no chance his family cared about the money. i mean, i can't even imagine how big a fine would need to be for them to take notice. But the rich and powerful hate nothing more than they hate being embarrassed in front of the competition- ୧((#Φ益Φ#))୨ which is everyone, around here.

Because the real elites- the truly, obscenely wealthy? The ideal that they're all aiming for?

Those kinds of people never pay for anything.

i write all of this in part to educate you, but mostly to give a longwinded excuse for my own cowardice.

It's all bull.

There are kids with one percent of what i've got that've got a thousand times more guts- And none of them are out here pretending to be something they're not- hiding on the oldnet, playing at journalistic integrity.

The next time i get invited, i should go. o(TヘTo)

Easier said than done. There may never be a next time.

No one ever asks a coward for help twice (╯︵╰,)

on the sidelines again, your nightowl

#unfiction

[yournightowl]

Your NightOwl #040

i saw a Rider in action for the first time this week \(★ω★)/

It was a field trip. For "Career Exploration" (￢_￢;)we were brought to this towering skyscraper and given a tour of the megacorporation that ran through it like veins of profit-driven silica. i don't want to say which meg it was here but trust me

It's one you're familiar with (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)

The whole tour was very obviously on-rails; Our guide wasn't an Add, but they were just as rigid as one. You know the type- all smiles and super friendly (◕‿◕) but instantly deadly-serious if anyone so much as expected to go the bathroom unaccompanied. i feel for them- it must be difficult, trying to indoctrinate as many talented youths as possible into applying while simultaneously preventing anyone from gaining even the smallest trade secret with a rigor that bordered on the militant- or even the religious.

They didn't literally confiscate our phones, but i think that's only because they disabled our cameras instead (`皿´＃)

Now i don't know how much of corporate espionage is trumped-up work-for-work's sake; a vicious cycle of companies cold-warring each other into spending 15% of their budget each year on glaring at each other harder. But just like a real war, it's spurred innovation, and i got to see that firsthand.

Because the only time the tour got even slightly spontaneous was when we bumped into this vp-looking type in the hallways. He happened to be an alma mater from our school, so he stopped to say a few words about how much fun it is working here, and how much he likes his job, and how important it is to start developing your resume early

But then as he was about to start in on his work history, a funny thing happened-

His watch beeped at him.

Very loudly. (•ิ_•ิ)?

It was his Rider- a relatively new piece of tech, originally designed by the state to apply some breaks on the bureaucrat -> corporate consultant -> guy-on-payroll-just-for-insider-trading revolving door of corruption. Everyone's free to work for the state, and they're free to quit at any time- but if they go into the private sector next, a Rider's gonna follow them.

As I understand it, they can only tail you for a max of two years, but during that time, if you ever divulge state secrets or offer insider advice to your new employers, whether its in conversation, text or email, your Rider's gonna ping you.

First times a warning, second times a fine, and third times a felony (o_O) !

i'm sure there's ways around them, but even then, they're serving their purpose- slowing down the rate of return on corruption. And they can't be that easy to trick, because the megs have decided that they're a good idea; __φ(．．) Stipulating the use of Riders on exit contracts in case their employees get jobs at rival companies has become a common tactic.

Their programming must be pretty sophisticated, to be able to monitor any and all forms of communication for such a long time, screening it all for even the smallest hint of a breach in contract. Makes me wonder why their execution is so blunt- a big loud beep and a harsh red light. Would be relatively simple to have it set up with a smart-ui that could inform you more politely when the State's got their glare on you.

Then again, they probably don't want the reminder to be polite. They'd rather it be frightening.

Considering how pale that guy's face got when his Rider went off, I'd say they hit their mark (º □ º l|l)

over your shoulder,

your nightowl

#unfiction

[yournightowl]

Your NightOwl #039

i got into an argument today. Something along the lines of:

"If you care so much about these machines, why not give them rights while they're at it? Or ownership of their labor? Or sentience?"

At the time i wasn't able to formulate an articulate counterargument

Which is to say i pulled out my phone, pretended i was getting a text, and left. (*￣▽￣)

Brave, i know. But it gave me ample time to prepare my rebuttal- this beautiful graphic.

Everyone's good with the uncanny valley theory, right? Dolls are cute, and photorealistic portraits are beautiful, but walking corpses with dead eyes and blank smiles are upsetting. Or uncanny, if you prefer (´･ᴗ･ ` )

But i think we should expand the analogy. Because we're long past the point of talking about photorealism or impressive CGI. We have androids that look, act, and emote exactly like real people do- and they sell very well. So it's all good, right? We're past the valley.

But what lies beyond that? What if we keep expanding machines' humanity, for lack of a better term?

i think we'd reach a peak. And what lies past that terrifies me- Not in a robots-taking-over-the-world way, but in an existential-body-horror way. ✖ 〜 ✖

The perfect replication of a human mind would be perfect. Indistinguishable. You couldn't tell the difference between yourself and a copy. So ask yourself how you'd feel to be transplanted out of your body right this second And into something lesser.

Like a car. Or a kitchen appliance. (；￣Д￣) Or an android body designed expressly for war.

i know things are pretty unsettling in the bottom of that valley but Past that peak? Things get truly ugly.

yodeling across the range, your nightowl

Edit- To all the commenters pointing out that this graph already exists and was better explained in some movie from the 2060's that no one's ever seen: Thank you, now please shut up. (┛｀Д´)┛

#unfiction

[yournightowl]

Your Nightowl #038

For me the generational gap in mechaphobia has always been easy to spot, but hard to reckon with. Parents, aunts, uncles- people in their 30s and 40s are always a little more on edge around robots, or androids, or ads or whatever you prefer to call them. i mean, okay- on edge might be a bit much. Their hands aren't shaking like they're sharing the room with a wild animal.(×﹏×)

More like they're sharing the room with a really-well trained animal.(-_-)

You know, one that's not a proper pet- like its still got its teeth and claws, like it hasn't lost its edge through generation after generation of domestication. Like the robots that drive our cars and clean our buildings and take care of our seniors are all just bears in costumes at the circus. (⌒_⌒;)

For me, the tenets have always made robots pretty unintimidating. Not because i know they can't hurt me- Because, you know

They can. (◕‿◕)

(Police bots, soldier drones or worse- there's a lot of ads out there that can legally hurt humans. And there's whole product lines of them that can actually k1ll.)

But i feel like it's honestly better that way. If there was some kinda international law that prevented all robots anywhere from harming humans under any circumstances Wouldn't we just be more paranoid than ever about possible exceptions? (ﾒ﹏ﾒ)

There are dangerous robots out there- but only because it's their job, not because they're harboring barely-suppressed murderous rage. Compared to the risk of some nut showing up at school with a gun, or a suicide bomber sprinting into the street, or even just getting into a horrible pile-up on your morning routine The idea of robots murdering people has always been so laughable to me.┐('～`;)┌

But that's my generation. We grew up with the tenets and their compartmentalization of machines' potential for harm. For older folks, they're always gonna wonder-

"i know this drum-shaped bathroom-cleaning robot can't violate its programming and stab me to death,"(￣～￣) "But what if it secretly wants to?" (O_O;)

a ghost under many layers of shells, your nightowl

#unfiction

[yournightowl]

Your Nightowl #037

If you were in showbiz, would you use an AGenT? Actually, let me be more specific, cause we all know that the studios can, do and will use Artificially Generated Talents in their crap. If you were an actor, would you agree to use an AGenT?

On one hand, once you sign the paperwork and get the scans done, your jobs over- literally and figuratively.

They can make the rest of the picture without you even lifting a figure- can put you in any environment, any costume, any scene- All while you're collecting royalties from the comfort of your vacation home.(￣▽￣*)ゞ

But they can put you in ANY environment. ANY costume. They can make you say or do anything. Long after you change jobs or retire or even die, they'll have your AGenT standing at the ready in the wings of their theater, uncanny smile and all, (◕‿◕) ready to leap onto stage and start emoting.

In all fairness, it's not soulless

Okay, no, it is literally soulless :(´ཀ`」 ∠):- but it's not devoid of creativity.

AGenTs don't dance unless someone's pulling the strings. Either another actor "wearing" them for mo-cap or an animator controlling them frame-by-frame. And compared to other technologies that have wiped out entire industries or career paths, AGenTs only replace one person- the actor they're skimmed from.

But that's not true either, is it? ┐(￣ヮ￣)┌

Cause if a studio has an AGenT they know puts butts in seats, why would they ever take a chance casting some nobody?

Why would they even bother holding auditions?

If every movie is just full of blockbusters and their facsimiles, where are we ever going to see something new?

"In local theater," the studios heads would probably say.

For the time being, AGenTs aren't that popular, though. You can only put one or two of them into any given scene before something

Breaks.

Maybe the audience's sense of disbelief? Or maybe their hearts.

(；￣Д￣)

But just cause they're used sparingly doesn't mean they're problematic. Me personally, i can't help but think about the actors who are expected to work alongside them. It must be tough, having a hologram for a scene partner.

And it must get a lot tougher when you start thinking that the studios value the hologram's time more highly. (╥﹏╥)

waiting for my cue, your nightowl

#unfiction

[yournightowl]

Your Nightowl #036

Crab is cheap V=(° °)=V It used to be expensive, a couple decades ago. And before that, for a couple centuries or so, it was cheap.

Crab was once thought of as a pauper's dish and they used to feed lobster to prisoners. When an ingredient's in high demand, the price goes up- makes sense. But theres a chicken and egg problem in there somewhere. So did it get pricier once people caught on to how good it tasted? Or did it always taste the same, and people just started to overstate their satisfaction when the price went up? Everyone wants to get their money's worth.

Asking for a friend. Cause uh well If i don't do something soon its gonna come out that i've never eaten insects before.

i mean it's not like i'm worried about them being inedeible but (x_x)⌒☆ Like, historically, evolutionarily, were insects ever a BIG part of the homo sapiens diet before now?

What if i gag i'll look like a classless hick Σ(°△°|||)︴

Not that insects are haute couture or anything (￢_￢) Anyone trying to tell you different is probably trying to offload an investment into a fast-failing uptown restaurant. Cause rich people like rich food- Cream and fat, shiny tuna and marbled beef. They might take a photo with insects on their plate for their socials, but in private, i guarantee you, they're throwing those leftovers out.

i don't like the idea of food waste and i'm not trying to be a picky eater or some kinda culinary bigot (シ. .)シ So i was hoping i could come on here and get some historical perspective that'd help me uh

Swallow this.

Like, what would my grandkids would say if they knew i was turning my nose up at what's become some sort of rare delicacy?!?

But that's just wishful thinking. Whatever else you wanna say about nutritional value or taste, insects are common food nowadays for one reason, and one reason only- They're abundant. Easy to grow, farm, cook. A necessary addition to the global breadbasket in order to keep billions fed. So tastes may change, and fashion may shift- and insects may very well one day be considered a delicacy ( ˘▽˘)っ♨ But they'll never be a rare delicacy. Whatever else is going on, i'll bet that my grandkids grandkids will be up to their necks in the creepy crawlies.

Only ever jealous of the fact that my water was clean and my skies were blue.

on the chopping block, your nightowl

ps- i just realized i can get out of it by saying i'm sick Thank you, white lies! Thank you in advance, school nurse!!

#unfiction