"be right back" take 2

recently, when down in sd with friends and visiting other friends, i rewatched black mirror's "be right back" episode. my friends and i ended up arguing a bit about it, so i thought i'd write a post. as i started, i thought i'd see if i'd written a post about it before, and, me being me, it turns out that i had! that post is here.

it's interesting to see that i basically feel the same way as i did seven years ago. the only thing that's changed is that i now DO think it's disrespectful to "upgrade" your person, but i'm still not sure if it's ethically wrong to do so. i think that may depend on the consent of the original person, and probably your motives for doing so. giving something to someone they always wanted seems fine, giving them something they never cared about also seems fine. but giving them traits they never wanted, and would find insulting if changed, seems morally dubious. but i wonder sometimes if motives should affect morality as much as we want it to, but i dunno, so imma leave that part "blank."

anyway, back to now. my friends seem to think that this is terrible tech and should never be implemented because 1. people should move on and 2. relationships with real people are better than relationships with fake ones. another fear of theirs is that by 3. not moving on, one will disregard all real relationships and become a non-contributing member of society, which is bad.

i had a lot of issues with pretty much all aspects of this.

1. people should move on.
i already addressed this in my previous post so i'm not going to get into it again, but while i agree that people should move on, i don't think it's as necessary as my friends seem to think it is. i also don't think it's a moral imperative that people do move on, especially if not moving on doesn't really hurt anyone else.

2. relationships with real people are better than relationships with fake ones and
3. one will disregard all real relationships and become a non-contributing member of society, which is bad.
my friends seemed to stress that you can't have a real relationship with a non-sentient being, and especially not if you can control that being. the show seems to indicate that you can alter the personality of the android thing more to your liking, and less what the person would have really done/said/been. let's accept that premise. my friends seem to think that if you can now create a "perfect relationship," you will, and that that will negatively affect your relationship with others since, presumably, you won't have prefect relationships with others, so you'll cast aside all other real relationships and only up keep only the perfect one.

firstly. why are real relationships better than ones you create?
normally, reality matters. i'm thinking about celebrity stalkers here. but if this isn't even a real person, the relationship isn't really reciprocal, so you're not misinterpreting something to someone else's deficit.

second. would that many people want to create a "perfect relationship" if they could? let's say that yes, they do. but would that negatively affect your relationship and interactions with others? i don't really think it would. and if it did, would it so terribly affect your relationship with others that you would give up on all interactions with the real world? my friends seem to think so, but i really don't. i don't see that happening hardly ever. in the show, the main character seems ashamed of the android so she hides him away, but would people do that if this tech were mainstream? i can imagine going to a friend's house where her andriod husband is there and we all hang out as real humans do. he can't come to my place, sure (in the show, they have to remain within ~30m of their activation point), but i imagine she would have a normal life outside of her home. she still has to go to work, and grocery shop, and such. it's not like her whole life would revolve around this android. and if it did, it would no more or less a problem that if her whole home life revolved around a huma. also, many people have pets that are exclusively confined to the house and that doesn't seem to be an issue. in fact, you don't even have to feed or potty break an android, so maybe it'll less of an inconvenience than a housebound dog with no yard.

also, i don't think that being a contributing member of society is so important. we have a lot of people who don't particularity "contribute" to society but we're okay with them. (i'm thinking people in comas, people in prison for life, severely mentally or physically disabled people, the list goes on.) we don't complain about these people not giving back to society, and in fact, they may actually "take up" resources in ways that an android wouldn't.

actually, what does contributing to society mean anyway? having a job, volunteering, spending money which grows the economy and keeps people employed, being part of a community which enriches people's lives, creating something long lasting, making at least one person happy?

ultimately, i'm not saying that i'm for this kind of tech. i just don't think it's as bad as some others seem to think it is. i'm generally a "you do you, and i'll do me" person. if it makes you happy and doesn't hurt anyone else (feel free to hurt just yourself), then go right on ahead. i think A LOT about morality and i try to form my judgements based on morals, not just what feels right or wrong. i think that's why i'm a lot more accepting of things and people. ...which i think is good, lol.

flash drives collection

do you have old USB drives or SD cards? I'm collecting!

USBs over 2GB will go to Recycled USB which partnered with Sugar Labs to provide a free activity-focused, open-source software learning platform for children. USBs under 2GB and all SD cards, will go to Flash Drives for Freedom partnered with Human Rights Foundation which loads them with "content proven to inspire North Koreans to disbelieve Kim Jong-Un's propaganda" and smuggled into the country.

deadline is beginning of December so I can ship them off before the end of the year.

prefer one org over the other? lmk when and I'll ship yours to the one you prefer.

like my shit!

The New Dating Requirement: Consuming All of Your Partner’s #Content

wow. luckily for us I guess, j isn't big on social media. he has a fb and an insta; he never posts to fb and rarely to insta. I don't think he ever updates his stories. I have fb, twitter, insta, snapchat, and this blog and differently to each. he and I always (I think?) like each other's stuff on insta. and he reads my blog occasionally too but I don't think we have the expectation that the other HAS TO like our stuff. sometimes you miss things. tho I will say that insta always puts his new posts first on my feed, and also lists his likes separately than the group ones per photo. I guess Instagram knows we're together even tho we're not Instagram official? creepy. speaking to insta's stories tho; I almost never watch them. anyone's. I hate how they stole the feature from snapchat. I do post on my snapchat stories but frequently do not look to see who watched them. who cares? ugh. it's probably because I do the social media for work that I feel like having personal social media accounts can feel a bit of a chore these days. and now we're expected to monitor our significant other's stuff and take note of how often they interact with our stuff? it's too much!! and what if you honestly don't like their post? like, it's a bad photo of mediocre food or a super sexy photo of him with someone else? I don't like that and I'm not going to "like" it either your stupid little ego be damned.

ps I did notice that he likes my work instagrams sometimes and that always makes me smile, lol.

igen

Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?

"12th-graders in 2015 were going out less often than eighth-graders did as recently as 2009." they're also dating, going out, sexing, pregnant-ing, sleeping less and getting their drivers licence later. they're also more likely to be depressed, suicidal, and feel lonely.

remind me, yeah?, if i ever have kids, to take away their phones at a certain time of night, and give it back sometime after they get ready for school.

btw, "Asked by our parents, 'When will you be home?,' we replied, 'When do I have to be?'” OMG YES. tho apparently this is not kids today. oy!

"the entire history of you"

black mirror season 1, episode 3 - the entire history of you

if you could record everything, would you? there's a quotation that goes something like "memories aren't what happened. they're what you remember." that's really true. but anyway, if you could record everything then your memories would be the truth, right? lol, no, of course not.

there's a quotation from a map of the world, a novel by jane hamilton, that i used to think about a lot, but that i can't remember or find, but it was something about how the thoughts in my head are *mine* and how horrible it was that some people wanted to know them all. they're my private thoughts, and even though they may be about you, they're mine and mine alone. this was a bit of a thing with rip and me. i would think things, and he knew it, and he would ask and i would refuse to tell him, especially if they were silly non sequitur nothings, tho often times they were serious things too. anyway, it drove him (and me) nuts.

j's different. he can see me thinking things and when he asks and i say "nothing" he doesn't press. he waits for me to want to tell him. i appreciate that. tho it also means that i let a lot of things go. i see him too, thinking, and i often times won't even ask.

overthinking is poison. thankfully i don't do it very often. i'm generally able to stop thinking about what i don't want to think about. ...which is also bad because it makes procrastinating and not confronting the truth really easy, too easy. in other words, i wouldn't be liam (from black mirror). i could never be liam. but, at the same time, isn't it maybe better to be liam? he suspects something and it turns out that he was right: jonas meant more to fi than she admitted, she did cheat with him, and the child's paternity is unclear. the episode got to me because i felt like rip would totally identify with liam. he wouldn't break into jonas' house or anything crazy, but he would "make" me tell him stuff. but again, that's maybe not a bad thing. the truth may not always be pretty, but it is important. and you may not be entitled to my thoughts, but you most likely are to the truth, especially if it affects you.

"be right back"

do you watch black mirror? well, you fucking should. i watched two episodes a couple years ago. i loved the first episode and hated the second so i stopped. there's too much good tv to waste time on shows you don't love, you know? anyway, R convinced me to start watching again and damn am i glad i did.

season 2, episode 1 - be right back
my main question wasn't "would i?" (since i definitely wouldn't [and yes i am sure]) but "is it wrong?" is it so bad if you don't move on? you are still a functioning and productive member of society; you just have this... organic robot replica of your ex lover (or child, parent, best friend, whomever). that's creepy, sure, but is it wrong? i don't think so.

having a surrogate thing means you probably won't ever move on, but why do we need to move on anyway? i think it's because not doing so denies you the possibility of having something else, and hopefully, something better. unless that person is your parent. in which case, since you usually only get two anyway, why even bother moving on? and, like, so what if you deny yourself the opportunity to meet someone better? it's not like it's a guarantee you'll find someone and be happier. nothing is actually lost, you know?

something else I wondered was, like, is it disrespectful (for lack of a better word) to "improve" your person? bigger dick, kinder person, better cook, non-smoker, more athletic, less selfish, taller, cuter, smarter, blond, whatever you want because the list is literally endless. and would these upgrades / modifications be unethical? probably not either, since it's not a sentient being and they have no will. it's like upgrading a computer.

anyway, simple questions are usually easier to answer. so, would you?

bread crumbs

recently had someone online stalk me. she knew my instagram account and traced it back to my twitter. i wonder if she also found my fb. or even this blog?! anyway. weird stuff. for some reason i didn't feel terribly violated. i just accepted that, yeah, of course people can find me. it's all public. i don't privatize any of my accounts and i don't intend to either.

since then i haven't changed any of my posting habits. but i probably should, right? i mean, it is a little scary. i'm sure i've "accidentally" posted all kinds of info i shouldn't have. tho i guess the real question is, *what* kinds of info shouldn't you be posting? it's probably best not to post anything at all...

one thing i will be more careful of tho, is posting friends' names. i used to use first initials only and in the last few years have switched to first names. i won't be doing that anymore.

ps. i googled myself and found my old flickr account!!

how much?

my mom always said that i would never be rich. i completely agree. more recently i've been thinking of selling some of my crafty things on etsy. the big problem is that i have no idea how much to charge. my problem is that i really only think of how much the materials cost me, then i charge a little extra. rip reminded me to factor in how much time it took to make each necklace. but how much is that?

i'm not exactly sure how apple decides to charge per product, but 68% seems a bit excessive.

wtf google?

happy lunar new year! that being said, this was the third year in a row that american google didn't make a doodle commemorating lunar new year and i can't for the life of me guess why. they have doodles all the time for the most random shit. seriously. they had one for zamboni, as in the guy who invented the car thing that drives around ice rinks. yeah. he's cool and all, but really? lunar new year is the 2nd largest new year celebration globally and nearly every major city in the world has some sort of public celebration.

whatever. i give up. fuck google and their possible racism. i've switched all my homepages to bing. which, in addition to putting up a photo for lunar new year, is unarguably more beautiful and inspiring that the plain google homepage.

let me know if you join me in switching your homepage!

hope phones

it's summer! and you know what that means: it's time for my annual collection drive! this year i've decided to go with hope phones, which reuses and recycles old cell phones. they receive the value of each recycled phone to purchase supplies for medic mobile, a non-profit that has helped an estimated 400k+ patients in 15 countries. "This work includes needs assessment and technology strategy, designing services that leverage effective communication, developing software, installing and configuring software and training health workers."

hope phones accepts any phone in any condition, working or not. they also take all chargers and accessories, though they don't need them. "The current average value per used phone is $5, but smartphones are regularly valued at $80."

i will be collecting your old phones through august, and if you need me to come and pick them up from you, email or call me so we can arrange something. thanks in advance!

fstr

james gleick - faster: the acceleration of just about everything

     "For the sake of fairness, wen the world's fastest sprinters line up for the 100-meter dash, the sound of the gun comes up to them electronically, to protect against millisecond differences in the time of its arrival through the open breeze. Lasers shine on their backs to provide a continuous Doppler measurement of speed, acceleration, deceleration. And the finish line is monitored by filmless, computer-enhanced, digital cameras, splitting time with a precision beyond the reach of human senses.

     "Carl Lewis, at his peak, occasionally lost 100-meter races that he had run faster than his competitors. His reaction time--the time it takes for the starting signal to translate through the eardrum, brain, nerves, and muscles--was generally mediocre, on the order of 140 milliseconds, compared with 115 to 120 milliseconds for the fastest starters. That one-fiftieth of a second difference now matters. It matters so much that reaction times are now regularly monitored. Officials declare a false start not only if a runner moves before the gun but also if a runner moves within a tenth of a second after the gun--because reaction times that fast are believed to be humanly impossible." (108-109)

"depressants like alcohol slow time, because the brain receives fewer inputs per second." (279)

so rude!

we swore we'd never become one of them. yet we have anyway. who are we talking about? those rude-asses who are always on their phones, checking their email, facebook comments, newsfeeds, games... yup. the people who can't keep eye contact with you during a short conversation because what's on their phone is just so goddamn important.

honestly, i do think i'm better than a lot of the people i know. some people have to charge their phones more than once a day (i usually get two days out of a charge, tho i do turn off my phone at night [approx 7.5 hours] so i'm sure that helps). rip is forever checking his email. tho whenever i ask him if he got something from me, he says no, because he has so much other [junk] email to get through (which actually makes me mad [not just annoyed], because since when did it become the sender's responsibility to make sure you read your email?!) another one of my friends texted through most of a "concert" we were at, even though we were in the front row and within 10 feet of the performers. and to make it worse, at least some of those texts were with the person sitting right next to her (not me, the other guy!).

and no, it's not because i don't have unlimited data or texting. i never come even close to my data limit, and usually only use about half of my texting. it's just because i realize that i'd be a rude-ass hypocrite!

...which, actually, i still am! ... so i'm going to do it less. i won't check my phone during meals with you (unless you leave the table). and i'll only either check my email, twitter, games, or google+. not all of them at once cause that can take forever.

though if i do this, you got to promise me you'll supply interesting conversation topics, because if you don't, i'll kick you hard enough to leave the table so can check the news when you're gone!

booth babes

must watch video from bbc: "booth babes" stir controversy at 2012 ces

“I don’t know any women [interested in tech]. I don’t know any women that would choose the tech world over shopping or cooking or taking care of kids.”

...yes, i have zero interest in tech. in fact, you only think you're reading this blog post on the internet which i typed up on my computer for a site that i learned some html for just for fun. but in fact, a man breaks into my house twice a week and holds a gun to my head to force me to say things that he types up for a website of his making!

but seriously, i think it's incredibly stupid that sex still sells as much as it does. it's not only condescending to the women in tech (or in other 'mainstream' industries) (and to the women too damn stupid / apathetic to recognize that a booth babe is basically a whore), but it's insulting to men also. these companies are basically saying "we don't need to actually think about intelligent marketing, all we need are talking boobs for you to give us your life savings!"

ctrl

why don't we teach kids how to use ctrl f?

"...many schools don't mandate knowing how to use a computer, word processing and database software, and internet research tools. Yet those just might be the most important skills they can learn.

"...90% of people don't know that they can use CTRL or Command+F to find a word in a document or web page... And if kids don't learn how to do this type of thing in school, where will they build the skills?

"Part of the problem is that teachers don't always have their own electronic literacy skills to pass on to students... But even with an electronically literate teacher, the reality is that schools, particularly in low income areas, still lack updated technology."

it's weird cause i know many (tho definitely not all) of the basic keyboard shortcuts (ctrl z, x, c, v, f, s, p), but where did i learn these? certainly not from school! i wonder if i just picked these ones up since they're actually labeled on my keyboard. which would also explain why i don't know any of the other shortcuts (anything to do with alt).

i agree that school should teach us more useful skills, but i wonder if we place an unfair burden on our teachers. ...tho i remember being required to take several computer classes, and if they're still mandating those classes they should also spend some time on shortcuts. it shouldn't take nine months to teach home row, after all.

.xxx

"The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers authorized the creation of an .xxx suffix for pornography Web sites." [source]

i think this is a great idea! altho i think an even better idea would be to make all porn sites register for .xxx, tax them, and fine porn sites who use anything other than .xxx.

1. if all porn sites are under .xxx it would be a lot easier for schools, libraries, and offices to ban access to .xxx'es from their computers.

2. rip asked why i would want to levy a tax on all .xxx'es. ...well, why not? we tax nearly everything else don't we? also, this way i think there would be fewer free porn sites, which means that kids (well, those without access to credit or debit cards anyway) won't be able to see it. which is good, because that's illegal anyway.

3. the fine for porn sites using regular .com or .net is pretty self explanatory. more money for the govt. which means less taxes for the rest of us.

love of design

i love beautiful things. seriously. anything that i find "pretty" or whatever, i love. posters, knick-knacks, ephemera, jewelry, art, photography, fashion, music, color, packaging, typography, architecture, infographics, prints, everything. that's probably why i have so much damn stuff.

anyway, i've recently re-found cargocollective. which is a " is a web publishing CMS and community-building platform" kind of like flavors, but expanded and catering to those who have lots of photos and such.

a few of my favorites using cargo (and yes, this is a bit heavy on graphic design):

alconic,  rob clark,  joe bauldoff,  always with honor,  mark weaver,  frank chimero,  milika favre,  jungeun kim,  elr*y

for your heart!

oh that karl, he always knows exactly what a woman wants, no? the tweed helmet with handy ipod holder is just what i need. ...if i was super rich and had a vespa and there were no laws against listening to dual headphone / earpiece devices while driving around... eh, cute anyway. :)

cr-z

honda's cr-z concept unveiled as the "obvious successor" to the crx.

i think it looks weird as hell. like they tried too hard to make it futuristic looking (the inside anyway). the side view mirrors are totally whack; i don't understand how you'll be able to see anything in them at all. and maybe it's just because it's a concept, but did you notice, there are no outside door handles!

Tags: car, concept, honda, cr-z, crx

desktop

my current desktop. :)

Tags: desktop, computer, wallpaper

armani phone

i wasn't expecting to be very impressed wit this giorgio armani cell phone, but damn, it's actually quite beautiful...

Tags: tech, technology, phone, cell phone, fashion, armani, giorgio armani