Skyhigh 20 For the march of progress?
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For the march of progress? Let me introduce you into a different chapter, if you are just out for the fun of it or some meaningless exagurrated scene-talk, then better stick to a- nother chapter, as this one here will deal with much deeper thoughts, than just scratching on the sur- face of all this, somehow in the same vein KF's chap- ter ran last time... Progress, it's something that we surely cherish, it's common practice, that the newer thing is automati- cally the better one... When watching it from a simple, scientific point of view,us 64 users are the same nerds like people putting a lot of work into oldtimers, our machine is outdated by the ever so improving Computers of today... Generations and generations of computers will follow, and, mabybe one day man will realise,that, following the strict addiction to progress, he creat- ted a monster, that will extinct it's creator. This may sound exagurrated, it may sound like the plot of an old Sci-Fi movie from the 60's, but just hold on for a second, and imagine there will be no computer at all, what will there still be working in today's society? We march on, producing more and more advanced computers, and blindly obeying the rules of the media, not realising, that meanwhile our very own environment, a thing that should get class-A prio- rity, as it is vital for us, is going down... The world inside the computer is antiseptic, there is no dirt, there is now sweat, no tears, no blood, and everything follows simple, arithmetic rules. Life, however, is a lot more complicated, that's why hi- ding in the brave new world of Zeros and Nones is that much of a temptation, so that a lot of people just submit to it without any further thought spent on it... Hey, you may say, this is my life, I am totally in- dependent from computers, well you are not! Just look inside your wallet and pick out your identity card,now there we are... It's really scary, when you walk into any office and say your name, and with a little snap of the finger, the guy on the other side of the table knows next to anything from your pri- vate life... The Internet is another example. Big hype of these days, everybody talks about it, everybody tells you how cool it is to surf and chat on it. Well, maybe, but how about safety? Every connection from your home to the outside using digital ways is not safe from being followed by another. What if the state smells the coffee in there? In Germany, they are currently discussing, wether the state should be allowed to intercept peoples homes, if there is any vital rea- son for it for the health of the state. Well, to in- vent such a reason is not that much of a big task, and, without you even having the time to reconsider what your doing, George Orwells 1984 will be our 199?... The tracks have already been laid. As some real perverted and sick people use the net to spread their illegal children-porns, the german cops formed a special department of legalized hackers and pro- fessionals scanning the net. I admit,that this is Ok, as smudge like that should never be produced and bought, it's just another sign of our society con- stantly slipping into a perversion and violence, but how far is the step from this legalized hacking to the click in your phoneline, when saying something against the state? By the way, I will not go into more details of the german state here, but it's really fascinating, that immediate response of the state is possible here, while half a year ago, they said, that they couldn't do anything against the german right- ist having some kind of voicemailbox where they spread their bombrecipes, meeting-informations and blacklist of socalled "Zecken", leftists who get too much political power and insight into their organisa- tions... Manipulating institutions, however already did find out what is going on, warehouses start thinking about releasing their catalogues on CD and others advertise their products on the net. But this manipulation is that much of a big cornuco- pia of debate and consideration, that it may act as an extra chapter, as sequal of this, if you want to. How about the VIRTUAL REALITY. What a hoax! Just think about this: everything is virtual reality! The things your senses get and transport to your brain, are always subjectively filtered. So there is no real reality, as one's reality could be a totally different one for another. Every day, every hour, every sec- ond, we create our own little world, we think that the other person next to us respects and likes us, while he may consider you as a total asshole the same second. Every vision we have gets filtered by our mind, a beautiful girl for example can be an in- teresting thing for one guy, while the next one con- siders her dull... Now what's the real thing? Who is there to define? But back to the facts, Virtual Reality is a computer aided creation of a not-existing or immaterialistic world. The only restriction there is is the capacity and the speed of the computer you attached your suit to. This is again nothing but mere convenience, a world we created ourselves is easily controlable, shy from any real threats and to be switched off whenever we are likely to. Something new? No,just take little children and their role-play. Whenever a child is confronted with burdens it can't bear, it will escape into a fantasy-world and play the same sit- uation through in it once again. That is what Virtual Reality is about, we do escape into another world, without our physical rules and measurements. This gives us total satisfaction, it gives us a feel- ing of immortality, an idea of what eternity may be about (while eternity is an irreal term however,as our small little mind is that limited, that it will al- ways search for a border...)... And where does total satisfaction inevitably lead to? Right, addiction! Once a world free of the press- ure we have to face constantly will be introduced and accepted as a convenient alternative, people will more and more loose the understanding of their biological surroudings and restrictions... Too exagurrated? How about maths? Can you still multiplicate and divide with pen and paper? Now, there it starts... This convenience, the computers give us, even leads some people to mingle with their emotions, how about those internet-date-cafes and cybersex? The fear of failing in real life, the fear of the un- expectable, that is what leads to that. It's oh so easy, it's that clean and perfect within the digital world, why change it with the bloody outside? We will continue jumping that train of progress, we will continue obeying the drug media, we will con- stantly accept everything, that keeps our mind off the vital problems around, until, one day in the fu- ture, we will realise, that progress also means pol- lution and our planet will clean itself from that parasites called the homo sapiens... Thank you for pressing the self-destruct button... Christian Heilmann a.k.a. Cupid/Avantgarde ?