Of meatheads and surrogates (day 164)

bacterial update: It's been a while since I did an update.  A few things have happened.  My kefir grains were going crazy so I had to radically cull them.  I have a bunch lying dormant in the fridge.  I can't keep them there for much longer.  May have to use them to make kefir charmers or something.  I discovered that part of the issue with the overactive fermentation is that I was using the continuous fermentation method (i.e. not cleaning the container between ferments).  I guess there was enough bacteria left in there to significantly speed up the fermentation.  The lesson is that if you want to be able to increase your milk to grain ratio, use continuous fermentation.  I needed to do the opposite so I am now cleaning the container between ferments.  I'm up to 24 hour ferments again.
The next kombucha batch is going really well.  There was a bit of a hiccup last week when it overflowed because of gas accumulation between the tea and scoby.  I guess it had nowhere to go because the scoby was right against the narrowing of the container opening.  The more gas accumulated, the better the seal, until it overflowed.  As I was cleaning up the mess, I took the opportunity to test the tea.  It was still really sweet but the pH was getting lower.  The taste wasn't very good but I didn't get too worried about it.  I tested and tasted again today and I have to say it is delicious.  Slightly more acidic, and with a sweetness of something like a Gewurztraminer.  In fact it tastes a lot like it too, oddly enough.  I'll let it go a bit longer to reduce the sweetness further.  Maybe test it again on Thursday or Friday.  I think it might be true what they say about Pu-Erh tea making the champagne of kombucha.

I watched the movie Surrogates tonight.   Another movie about avatars but this time a distopic view.  Everyone has a surrogate robot that they connect to.  The rhetoric is that you can be young, beautiful and invincible until you die.  I'm not sure how they deal with the issues of muscle mass and bed sores, but I suppose that's another movie.  There were a few funny moments where some surrogates are seen 'jacking' -- overloading their circuits with electricity for a high.  Or a fight between a couple where one surrogate just disconnects when things get uncomfortable.  I actually enjoyed the movie.  I seem to have an appreciation for watching machines die.  I got the same thrill by watching Terminator.  War looks kind of ridiculous when it's machines fighting machines.  Like boys in a sandbox with toy soldiers.  There's some lesson in there somewhere.

Increasingly I find the idea of an avatar appealing.  It would reduce the need for travel which I hate.  Well I hate air travel.  I might still want to do road trips.  But as with any technology I doubt our specie's ability to moderate.  Especially when it comes to avatars, a little self-hatred could go a long way towards being addicted to not being in the flesh.   There would need to be wicked hangovers to moderate the addiction prone.  May be best to keep our avatars virtual for now.

A song for this post.

Avatar (day 116)

Color me blue.  I just saw Avatar.  We were first in line so we got the best 3D seats in the house.  The whole outing took 5 hours.  As long as a flight to Montreal.

Verdict:  Absolutely go see it, for the visuals.
Subtext: It's no Matrix but it will have a generational impact nonetheless...maybe similar to Toy Story.

Here are some observations in no particular order:

• Patriarchy in movies is getting really annoying.
• Beautiful visuals, light as a theme, networks, greens and purples.
• Headless robots as avatars for military men.
• Blue lithe bodies as avatars for peace-loving, planet-connected, people.
• The blue people never eat.
  
• Great body movements.  Wonderful choreography.
  
• Great flying scenes.
  
• Standard Hawks vs. Doves story.  Hawks attack doves, doves initially retreat, eventually become hawks.  No one really learns peace.  A sequel would be another war.
• Movie was long but not noticeably.
  
• 3D was extremely well done and for the most part, for good effect.

Getting out of the movie there was a feeling of coming out of a dream, like disconnecting from an avatar.  Christopher and I had a discussion about how long we would stay in a movie for, if there were options of say day long or week long movies.  An accelerated life, like Total Recall.  In fact, Avatar is very much in the same vein as Total Recall, Strange Days, Existenz, Matrix.  The difference is that Pandora is a world you might actually want to stay in.   And of course the possibility of fully letting go of your human body is different.  A rebirth from hawk to dove (ostensibly...though in practice the affect was not exactly that).

There are so many parallels to be drawn, it's hard to put a finger on why it misses the mark exactly.  It's a dark film with lots of suffering, lots of fighting.  You should maybe get out thinking about the earth differently but instead you wish to escape it, to go to a better place.  It seems hopeless at its core even though we are shown the protagonist finding his way 'home'.  Because the vast majority of humans are shown as vicious, and heartless, going back to earth -- no doubt preparing for another battle.

A song for this post.

A life by any other name (day 31)

I wonder about Second Life.  I feel old when I think that many others wonder why I have to wonder.  There are so many trends to keep track of and one must show discernment.   I've been in Second Life a few times and each time I feel icky and awkward.  The social rules don't apply in the same way and I've been through a few chats that left me feeling a little affronted if not assaulted.   So I decided not to invest much time into it.  The SL headlines wizzed by at dizzying speeds for a while.  The hype couldn't have been more shrill.  Now it's down to a drizzle of headlines and most people have polarized into "i like it, i don't like it".   Maybe it's the disillusionment phase of a new technology where we suddenly see the hard work it'll take to solve the inherent problems.  And the phase where we see that we are still humans fundamentally still looking for the panacea.

In the disillusionment I see realism and I feel better there.  It's like I can have some room to think about what it might mean to carve out a space for myself in that technology.   In the best possible virtual world with the most enlightened avatars, what would happen?  Actually it's the avatar part that I'm not so sure of.  Or rather the humanoid forms that pass for avatars up to now.   Playing the game 'Flower' today made me think of what it might be to navigate information as a petal rather than a human.  I know it's fanciful but it seems a lot closer to the way I feel when I traverse information in a browser for example.   I'm not exactly sure why a body needs to be added.  Sure, the body language is potentially interesting but if it can be faked at the click of a button, what's the point?

I have to sleep.  More on SL tomorrow.

A song for this post.