In a previous post I elaborated on an art exhibition at the Venice Biennale of 2017, which thematised the bio-technologies that are in the process of colonising the biosphere on Earth today, arguably with unpredictably deleterious consequences for humans and other living beings. The 2016/17 HBO bio-science-fiction television series, Westworld, based on a similarly-titled Michael […]
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Posted inBusiness, Environment, Equality, Gender violence, General, Health, Lifestyle, Media, News/Politics, Sport, Tech
When your Wiki page reads like a rap sheet
Being myself unaccustomed to fame and fortune, and the trappings of high profile folly, I don’t have a personal reference for this, but judging from the others it must be a shame when your Wiki page reads like a rap sheet.
Posted inBusiness, Environment, Equality, Gender violence, General, Health, Lifestyle, Media, News/Politics, Sport, Tech
CR17: The “Top 5” Sickness
Dear Comrade Govender, You seem to forget the reality that:- We cannot say, “Top 8” – because then we’re broke; We cannot say, “Top 7” – because then we’re dead; We, as the ANC, are saying, “Top 6” – and we are hoping that you (Victoria Island) will carry us as we pay-off the factions […]
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CR17: Please fill in the blanks
We are not confused, we can say, “Top 8”, without referring to football and/or soccer. Therefore will CR17 please fill in the blanks publicly – because we are not afraid of “slate politics”. CR17 Candidates: President General: Cyril Ramaphosa Deputy President General: Naledi Pandor Chairperson General: Gwede Mantashe Deputy Chairperson General: Unknown Secretary General: Senzo […]
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The high cost of technologically controlling our social environment
Few people are in the position, or have the means, to be able to know just how detrimental the incremental control of our social environment – and our own feelings – by technological means really is. In a nutshell, it is a process that is gradually extinguishing the very core of our being. In his […]
Posted inEnvironment, General, Tech
Selfies, the disappearance of the natural world and nihilism
I don’t like shopping malls; they remind me of the weakness of our species when it comes to commodities that they ‘must have’, according to the spurious ethos of the prevailing economic system. Hence, when the woman in my life asked me to accompany her to that monstrosity known as the Baywest mall, outside the […]
Posted inEnvironment, General, Health, Tech
The technology that is threatening life as we know it
We are currently witnessing a pervasive and accelerating recording, modelling and processing of data pertaining to human beings as well as other living species (and even inorganic things) on a scale that surpasses what most of us can imagine. This has been made possible by bio-technologies which seem as if they are the incipient actualisation […]
Posted inGeneral, Media, Tech
The cyber-war(s) being fought right under our noses
Time magazine invariably has very clever, multi-faceted covers, the latest one being no exception. It shows the White House – the American president’s residence and workplace, all in one – being slowly but surely devoured by Saint Basil’s Cathedral, with its red brick walls and colourful onion domes, which stands on the Red Square and […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics, Tech
The early 21st century: Taking stock
We live in a society in transition – a process rooted in a technological revolution that stretches back to the middle of the previous century, with the invention of television, followed by other innovations in the media, and culminating in the invention of the internet, initially conceived as a military tool of sorts. Although the […]
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Technocratic culture: ‘Disconnect’
If you don’t like thinking for yourself, don’t read this post. If you prefer playing around on your mobile device or smartphone, don’t bother reading further. The phone is definitely smarter than you are if you have relinquished your own memory and thinking-ability to its functionality. But if you would like to know something more […]
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The automatic society
It should come as no surprise to learn that we live, and have in a sense always lived, in an “automatic society”. But – and this is a big “but” – digitalisation has not only made it more conspicuous; it has also brought us to the point where this “automatism” confronts human beings with a […]
Posted inGeneral, Media, Tech
The world has become an uncertain and ugly place
Several things I have read recently have impressed upon me that, despite developments (particularly in the field of technology) that are bound to excite some people, in some respects the world has become more uncertain and “ugly” than ever before. To be sure, it has always been uncertain in an existential sense – no one […]