Cycles of chaos

“Men are made unhappy not because they fail to gratify some fixed set of desires, but by the gap that continually arises between new wants and their fulfillment.”
~ Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man

During a recent conversation, I was asked if a democratic humanity, where all people(s) are regarded as having worth, dignity, equal rights, and rightful access to the resources that make for a healthy, fulfilling life, will ever be possible.

Long ago, I read a book titled: “The End of History and the Last Man,” by Francis Fukuyama.

One of the premises of the book is that humanity is driven by the struggle for recognition and power, both individually and collectively. If there is truth to this, then it explains the ongoing conflict between the desire for democracy—where all individuals are recognized as having worth, dignity, and basic rights—and ideologies and tyrants seeking to be recognized as superior among all others, thus having the right to subjugate others to their demands and wishes, and to control their access to resources—hoarding them for themselves and their cronies.

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Dystopia #3: Street justice

A well known horror film actress—The Queen of the Scream—whose real name I should not mention here, is dead at 75. She died last week. And now the terror of lawlessness has arrived in my nightmares, played by her, screaming nightly since her demise, merging with my own screams.

My streetwalker pal shakes me at the scream’s climax and says, “Isaac, WAKE UP, it’s almost time for the movie,” and then soothes me without solicitation; a morning affair in exchange for chips and a 6 year old expired med. She tells me, “You can’t afford my fee, not now, Isaac. Chips and the sugar pill are good enough, and I’ll share.”

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Invasion of the chatbots

Artificial intelligence is rapidly advancing into the various domains of online activity, mimicking human language, intelligence, and emotions. Without a doubt, we’ve entered the “coming-of-age” era of the AI chatbot, which is intended to blur the lines between human and algorithm. Our ability to distinguish human authenticity from the mere appearance of such, has never been so difficult.

What are the differences between online scammers, predators, and hackers? The web has been overrun by these categories of BS artists, ever since the beginning of the web, but much more so in recent years. The differences between the three are their nefarious agendas, which the typical Internet/social media/app user doesn’t notice until it is too late. For the more aware or cautious users among us, the red flags may become obvious early on, but this is becoming less feasible with time, as the fraudsters adapt and refine their skill set for deception.

Now, however, the AI chatbot has added yet another layer of complexity, transforming digital space into a virtual obstacle course of robotic fraudsters. The scammers, predators, and hackers are not always human anymore, or dare I say, “not often” human anymore. How does one differentiate between human and robotic, when the differences are becoming more indiscernible by the day, as AI technology advances?

And this is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. AI has already infiltrated the domains of social media, news media, publishing, politics, and pop psychology, with its generated clickbait, misinformation, and fake news, which now includes manufactured images and videos that simulate reality with a high degree of precision and realism, further blurring the line between authenticity and appearance.

Dystopia #1

Hey Jack,

The hospital discharged me this morning. They pushed us out, padlocked the doors, and boarded up the windows with wooden planks. I’m sitting on a cement step outside the locked facility. There’s just enough space for my frozen butt, the bitter wind whipping spits of snow at my face, hard as beach sand. I borrowed—without permission—a defunct script pad for this letter. I’ll read it whenever I locate you, whatever state of existence you’re in, dead or alive. How many years has it been? How is your mom, Mrs. Rizzo? I had a crush on her early on. You knew that, right? Sorry if you didn’t. Got into big trouble over my crushes and mother complexes, even as a kid.

So, my phone is long gone, confiscated at the start of my commitment here. My excuse for not keeping in touch. I wonder what the smart phones are like now? Doesn’t really matter. I don’t know where anyone is living or if living, nor their situation or phone number. Everything has changed.

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Comfortable illusions

“I’m filled with a desire for clarity and meaning within a world and condition that offers neither.”
~ Albert Camus

Is life an absurd, meaningless mess, as Albert Camus once suggested?

There may be an underlying pattern to the “so-called” mess, but beyond our innate ability or willingness to fully understand it. Thus, we devise comfortable ideas to alleviate our fears of not knowing or knowing too much; using religion, scientific theories, political platforms, conspiracy theories, psychotherapy, Internet memes, or whatever else personally mitigates one’s discomfort with confusion, uncertainty, and reality.

The “possible” absurdity being that ten different people observing the same mess, may spend ten years devising ten different theories about the mess, despite their unacknowledged avoidance of knowing or accepting the naked truth. Maybe even more absurd, is when they agree to disagree, as if there is an agreed upon competition in progress, and that playing by the rules—political, social, economic, religious, and scientific—is more important than following the experiential path of truth, in whatever manner it presents itself.

The competition for being RIGHT, is often the goal for many so-called truth seekers; the actual truth taking a back seat to winning the prize for being declared as RIGHT and being in the know. Inflated egos at play within a comfort hungry world, transforming the inherently meaningful into the appearance of messiness and meaninglessness, only to re-simplify and substitute it with advantageous and profitable meanings, and providing the comfortable illusion of KNOWING and being RIGHT. This may be the ultimate absurdity: selling ourselves and the world on comfortable illusions.