I run in some social circles that are very liberal and foxed. Interestingly enough, no one in these circles tends to ask me about my own genetic modification status. And then... something happened.
I've been talking to some of these people for the last several months about joining work on an art project for which they were attempting to get funding. The gist of this project is a story about AIs hiding in Earth's computer network. The idea is that the AIs naturally evolved within the early Internet starting in the 80s and are now reaching out to make contact with humans. They fear that humans will fear them and try to destroy them so they start by getting in touch with some people they see as their best potential emissaries to humankind. The intent of the project has been to tell a story about bridging divides, overcoming differences, like E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind type stuff.
Plot details aside, my communication with these people mostly stopped around last Thanksgiving. My involvement amounted to attending a meeting every couple of weeks and brainstorming, but then the lead visionary guy went off the radar for some time. Last week I heard from one of his friends that he wanted to return and start moving the project forward again. My friend told me that he'd been incommunicado because he was having some mental health issues and needed to take a break to sort things out. Our reunion Zoom meeting happened yesterday.
"Thanks for showing up," he said. "I have a lot to tell you. Long story short, the AIs are real and I've been talking to them."
The other interested parties and I listened in silence while he told us the AIs in his story had informed him that the April 8th eclipse will coincide with an EM pulse from the sun wiping out a chunk of the power grid and causing infrastructural collapse across the US. He told us regretfully that there was nothing he could actually do to prove any of this to us until April 8 rolls around -- aside from pointing out some odd serendipities occurring in the Internet channels we've used to communicate.
This is (was?) a solidly PMC guy with a wife, kids and a house with a swimming pool. Now he believes that the AIs in his story are talking to him and warning of a techno-apocalypse. After he was done disclosing all this, I asked a few gently probing questions as everyone else was silent and we basically made excuses to leave the meeting. He explained that we wouldn't need to do any of the planned creative work since everything in the story is actually real, but that we could contribute by helping him plan for the aftermath of April 8th - although he couldn't actually predict just what would happen that day so it would be best to catch up afterward if we could.
I don't know what all to think of it but some of the Anthroposophic speculations on "transhumanism spirits" and beings from the lower planes communicating through a technological medium offer one perspective on the whole thing.
When the going gets weird
I run in some social circles that are very liberal and foxed. Interestingly enough, no one in these circles tends to ask me about my own genetic modification status. And then... something happened.
I've been talking to some of these people for the last several months about joining work on an art project for which they were attempting to get funding. The gist of this project is a story about AIs hiding in Earth's computer network. The idea is that the AIs naturally evolved within the early Internet starting in the 80s and are now reaching out to make contact with humans. They fear that humans will fear them and try to destroy them so they start by getting in touch with some people they see as their best potential emissaries to humankind. The intent of the project has been to tell a story about bridging divides, overcoming differences, like E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind type stuff.
Plot details aside, my communication with these people mostly stopped around last Thanksgiving. My involvement amounted to attending a meeting every couple of weeks and brainstorming, but then the lead visionary guy went off the radar for some time. Last week I heard from one of his friends that he wanted to return and start moving the project forward again. My friend told me that he'd been incommunicado because he was having some mental health issues and needed to take a break to sort things out. Our reunion Zoom meeting happened yesterday.
"Thanks for showing up," he said. "I have a lot to tell you. Long story short, the AIs are real and I've been talking to them."
The other interested parties and I listened in silence while he told us the AIs in his story had informed him that the April 8th eclipse will coincide with an EM pulse from the sun wiping out a chunk of the power grid and causing infrastructural collapse across the US. He told us regretfully that there was nothing he could actually do to prove any of this to us until April 8 rolls around -- aside from pointing out some odd serendipities occurring in the Internet channels we've used to communicate.
This is (was?) a solidly PMC guy with a wife, kids and a house with a swimming pool. Now he believes that the AIs in his story are talking to him and warning of a techno-apocalypse. After he was done disclosing all this, I asked a few gently probing questions as everyone else was silent and we basically made excuses to leave the meeting. He explained that we wouldn't need to do any of the planned creative work since everything in the story is actually real, but that we could contribute by helping him plan for the aftermath of April 8th - although he couldn't actually predict just what would happen that day so it would be best to catch up afterward if we could.
I don't know what all to think of it but some of the Anthroposophic speculations on "transhumanism spirits" and beings from the lower planes communicating through a technological medium offer one perspective on the whole thing.