Recently a woman bragged to me about her daughter.  The daughter had been fascinated by computers since childhood.  She ended up going into internet security and the Department of Homeland Security paid for her education.  The young child who would admonish her parents for not having strong enough passwords now puts her whole life on Social Media with her omnipresent smartphone.  Wasn’t she concerned about privacy, her mother had asked.  It sounded like the daughter shared with her mother the idea of the Singularity, explaining that once the technology was possible, having as much of her personality as possible on the Web was paramount.

We will deal with the idea of the Singularity later.  For some reason, the conversation reminded me of this book, published 1993.   The premise of the books involve genetic engineering where some children of the rich are made Sleepless, genetically modified so they can go without sleep.  While the rest of us waste 8 or more hours a day, the Sleepless are learning and evolving past us.

The subject of Objectivism is a main theme in this book.  When human beings are not born equal should they be treated equally? Should the superior (Sleepless) be held back by the um, Sleepful?

Frankly Objectivism tends to be just another excuse for discrimination and false superiority.  As if class, race, wealth, language, creed, religion, gender, sexuality and, lets be honest, facial symmetry have been enough ways for humans to judge each other not-worthy.

The Sleepless and the Sleepers is an interesting concept, especially when used an analogy for the technologically advanced and the technophobic.  As usual it is important not to let the analogy collapse into Bigotry.

 

For a while I was having a problem with my Chrome Browser.  Whenever I opened it, I was told it hadn’t shut down correctly and would I like to restore.  I traced this back to the day I downloaded and installed Audible Manager to take advantage of a free audiobook offer.  Research showed I was far from the only person that this had happened to.

In order to fix this I had to uninstall Audible completely and completely uninstall Chrome before reinstalling.  Merely resetting Chrome did not work.

 

In the biography of Adam Smith written by John Rae, we learn that when the proto-economist was young, around 3 or 4, gypsies attempted to kidnap him.  They released the boy when pursued by his family.  This just seems like a fun fact to speculate on.

It wasn’t too uncommon an occurrence, so I doubt his parents harped on it too much.  One can certainly imagine that they couldn’t help but threaten to give young Adam back to the gypsies if he didn’t go to bed.

How about Time Travel?  Maybe communist time travelers went back in time disguised as gypsies to kidnap and re-educate the capitalist messiah.  Luckily (?) the Trilateral Commision became aware of this devious plot and sent a commando team to foil it.  Also disguised as gypsies, they killed off the communist team and the child.  A capitalist changeling was left for the parents.

[NOTE:  Books and other media are not discussed here as reviews and will probably contain spoilers.  For pure reviews, please consult my Goodreads profile]

The concept is intriguing, four friends off on a trip to immortality.  Only 2 will survive, and all four know that.  One may fight for and against comparisons to the writers of the four gospels. However the religions of the four: Jewish, Protestant, Atheist and Catholic, try/tend to create a different comparison.

The book is written with the chapters alternating from each of the four characters to the next.

The trip is to Arizona.  The house that the wife and I recently purchased was once owned by a Mr. Longyear who later went out to Arizona and then returned in his late 70s to start the region’s first housing development. No idea (if or) when he died.

While the subject of male homosexuality is dealt with well here, sexism is rampant and women are literally nameless vessels.

The instructions are bland to anyone who has spent a weekend researching immortality.  One leaves the book wondering if the cult involved is self-deluded.

Silverberg is a great writer.  Great afternoon read and don’t chew too much.

 

A fun little article that I saw posted by Jesse Walker over on the morothchuram Yahoo Group (yes, some of them still exist).

http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/23075/1/this-is-the-video-cnn-will-play-when-the-world-ends

The other night I was battling insomnia by watching the 1964 Hammer Film The Gorgon.   About half way through, a dying character bids farewell to his manservant with a heartfelt “Goodbye Hans”.

Around that time I had to stop watching. Bathroom break or cat fight or something.  Maybe the wife woke up and I chatted with her for a bit.  When I went back to my Nook HD to finish the movie I had lost my place.  So I watched a different movie Seven Psychopaths, a black comedy released on Crowleymas 2012.   I know of no reason for these two movies to have anything in common.  Yet at one point, maybe halfway through, a character who is about to die turns to her reflection in the window and says, “Goodbye Hans”.

Turns out Christopher Walken’s character’s first name was Hans, a fact that I never paid attention to until then.   Quite a cute little bit of coincidence but I have not run into that phrase since.