 Speaking of the Middle East and Star Trek, the picture above of the late, soon-to-be-blown-away Sheik Yassin (from the New York Times, looking much like a waxwork from Madame Tussaud's) made me think of Captain Pike: 
Which reminded me to look for a cybertheory essay I read years ago, by Alan Shapiro, called "Captain Kirk Was Never the Original." Lo and behold, I found it, and commend it to your reading. In a nutshell, Shapiro contrasts Kirk's Cartesian man of action with Pike's traveler in virtual reality, suggesting that we "read Star Trek against Star Trek" rather than dismiss it, as many theorists do, as a relic of pre-digital consciousness. Here's a good excerpt: The successful media product model has as prerequisite a mythical moment of transcendent creativity which clears the way for the emergence of a new spectacle object. The spectacle object (celebrity, consumer gadget, media property) then enters the panoply of fetishes among which we shop in our efforts to find an identity "niche" and dubiously distinguish ourselves from others. The model serves as lightning rod for ambivalent collective projections, allowing each individual to feel unique at the very moment when all consumers of that same niche are imitating the same elevated pattern.
But the fully achieved simulacra of virtual reality threaten the stability and profitability of this system of differences. This is why Captain Pike, who was too far ahead of his time, had to be shunted aside in favor of the valorous Captain Kirk. And another cool passage:So Pike, the true first-born, was whisked away into virtual reality and replaced by the changeling Kirk. There was, of course, another way forward for Captain Pike, but the screenwriters of "The Menagerie" were unfortunately ignorant of the basics of writing operating systems software drivers for peripheral devices. Since Pike's bio-rehabilitation programmers had succeeded in resuscitating at least one controllable nerve impulse from his consciousness, and connecting the discrete signals of this impulse across the synaptic gap to an output device (the beeping for "yes" or "no"), further layers of software to drive more sophisticated output devices and sound cards would certainly be possible. From the single binary registering of a 0 or a 1, an entire operational language (a full digital communication) can be devised. One merely has to enumerate and combine varied sequences of 0s and 1s as discrete identifiers in an infinitely permutated system. The only drawback would be that Pike's consciousness itself would always remain at the level of the lowest machine language, forced to perpetually master and will the lengthy binary sequences in order to express himself! He would literally be the machine and its finally awakened artificial intelligence.
casting call
marty feldman is shiek yassin and david bowie is captain pike as the two team up for the first intergalactic handicapable crimefighting dramedy since men in black 2.
that elephant man experience paying off.
"made me think of Captain Pike"
Obe Wan Kenobi!
I'm thinking about starting a resistance group called TWEPC (Trivialization of World Events through Popular Culture) that actively uses the junk we grew up on to "problematize" (as the academics say) the endless stream of real world tragedies emanating from the infotainment sphere. Not really, I'm just trying to laugh to keep from crying.
yeah...the ironometer is running on high. I almost didn't post that last one due to stabs of guilt. However, as my current bed time reading is "The Politics of Cultural Despair: A Study in the Rise of the Germanic Ideology" (a not so cheerful tale about the warped desires for warped leadership by a de-politicised, despondent bourqeoisie) right now I'm thinking do whatever it takes to stay engaged.
The irony of this comparison is increased by the targeted brutality of the killing that became visible to us in the image of people standing around what was an old man in a wheelchair and what became a wheel and a pool of blood. So, the man was basically evaporated. It is a real "Star Trek" moment.
Now, I'm just trying to figure out how I can assume his title and become the Jewish American artist from Indiana known as Sheik Yassin.
I've been inspired to conduct an experiment in which I will chase elderly people in wheelchairs in order to prove how difficult it really is to capture them alive.
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Speaking of the Middle East and Star Trek, the picture above of the late, soon-to-be-blown-away Sheik Yassin (from the New York Times, looking much like a waxwork from Madame Tussaud's) made me think of Captain Pike:
Which reminded me to look for a cybertheory essay I read years ago, by Alan Shapiro, called "Captain Kirk Was Never the Original." Lo and behold, I found it, and commend it to your reading. In a nutshell, Shapiro contrasts Kirk's Cartesian man of action with Pike's traveler in virtual reality, suggesting that we "read Star Trek against Star Trek" rather than dismiss it, as many theorists do, as a relic of pre-digital consciousness. Here's a good excerpt:
And another cool passage:- tom moody 3-24-2004 10:01 am
casting call
marty feldman is shiek yassin and david bowie is captain pike as the two team up for the first intergalactic handicapable crimefighting dramedy since men in black 2.
- dave 3-24-2004 4:17 pm
that elephant man experience paying off.
- bill 3-24-2004 6:48 pm
"made me think of Captain Pike"
Obe Wan Kenobi!
- sally mckay 3-24-2004 7:56 pm
I'm thinking about starting a resistance group called TWEPC (Trivialization of World Events through Popular Culture) that actively uses the junk we grew up on to "problematize" (as the academics say) the endless stream of real world tragedies emanating from the infotainment sphere. Not really, I'm just trying to laugh to keep from crying.
- tom moody 3-24-2004 11:37 pm
yeah...the ironometer is running on high. I almost didn't post that last one due to stabs of guilt. However, as my current bed time reading is "The Politics of Cultural Despair: A Study in the Rise of the Germanic Ideology" (a not so cheerful tale about the warped desires for warped leadership by a de-politicised, despondent bourqeoisie) right now I'm thinking do whatever it takes to stay engaged.
- sally mckay 3-25-2004 12:29 am
The irony of this comparison is increased by the targeted brutality of the killing that became visible to us in the image of people standing around what was an old man in a wheelchair and what became a wheel and a pool of blood. So, the man was basically evaporated. It is a real "Star Trek" moment.
Now, I'm just trying to figure out how I can assume his title and become the Jewish American artist from Indiana known as Sheik Yassin.
- Aaron Yassin 3-28-2004 7:23 pm
I've been inspired to conduct an experiment in which I will chase elderly people in wheelchairs in order to prove how difficult it really is to capture them alive.
- LM (guest) 3-29-2004 12:36 am