Creation and Mortality

We are born, we live and we die. We bring forth knowledge and build a lineage that we leave behind.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein creates and reanimates a corpse- defying the laws of nature and sealing his own kharmic fate. Showing that no man can cheat death, and if they do... they will have severe consequences. It is know to every human being that death is inescapable. Immortality is almost a perverted dream... a living nightmare where all that you love would slip through your fingers and ones will to live would soon slip as well.

Logan's Run comes to mind when thinking of mortality... its a movie made in 1976 where the government states that peoples lives must end at 30. This is a very sophisticated society but they have mass sacrifices... they believe the outside world to be polluted and they have never seen someone over 30. Population control... and secluded communities, make for some really off the wall opinions and beliefs.

Minsky in "Will Robots Inherit the Earth?" was talking about the possibility of future technology making it so that almost all of our parts could be replaced and us almost avoiding death. Sure there are many people that would still be in my life if this was possible now. Repomen is the movie I turn to this time. Artificial organs for purchase... people buying them to prevent death but also for personal enhancement. Sure I have poor vision and hearing but I don't think in a society such as the one painted in the movie that I would risk having my enhancements being repossessed. 

Seeing science fictions views on life... makes me fear for the future... I'm hopeful though

On Beauty and Perfection

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, not to sound cliché. Every person has something about them that makes him or her beautiful, be it a physical attribute or a personality trait. There is something that makes everyone special, unique, beautiful, and perfect to someone out there in this vast world. Beauty and perfection are two of the hardest things to define in this world, and maybe they are just man-made constructs that we have clung on to and perpetuated.

In the U.S. we as a society have let celebrity and media define what “everyone” as a whole should view as attractive… but photoshop and the latest diet craze only go so far, or too far. Our life experiences also judge what we deem to be perfection and beauty; it cultural, societal, and regional. The perspective of beauty is vastly different between Hollywood and Kenya.

When it comes to our own idea of whether we think we are beautiful, we can decide to change what we don’t like about ourselves. It is when we let other people make us feel insecure, ugly, and imperfect then that decision isn’t for our own piece of mind but to appease others. People have the right to physically augment their appearance; be it through diet, change of wardrobe, piercings, tattoos, or surgery. There is nothing wrong with people wanting to improve their self worth, self image, and quality of life.