paradise

Wellp, our household is having the case of the blahutisms today, as our eldest's condition decided to be a shit in that regard.

But that ain't the energy we wanna bring to the world, innit?

I love the ability to touch these keys and conjure up (with you lot) the world underneath our fingertips.

Plus, I have very good bathroom reading.

Wanna hear what I was reading while making my intestinal rounds today?

Computers cannot deal with such levels of improbability, and it is just as well. Otherwise we might be tempted to take over the control of ourselves in order to make long range plans, and that would surely be the end of us. It would mean that some group or other, marvelously intelligent and superbly informed, undoubtedly guided by a computer, would begin deciding what human csociety ought to be like, say, over the next five hundred years or so, and the rest of us would be persuaded, one way or another, to go along . The process od social evolution would then brind to a standing still, and we'd be stuck in today's rut for a millennium.” (<– I typed this without looking at the keyboard, and I am keeping all the typos because typos in a personal blawg are adorable.)

Lewis Thomas, “Computers”, The Secret Lives of a Cell 1974

This is from a guy who croaked in the 90s.

Still visionary today.

These Lewis Thomas books are super nourishing. You don't know it til you read it.

When you're able to pick the minds of people who have spent their lifetimes reading through other brilliant lifetimes in a lineage of brilliant lifetimes,

Filtered into a coherent syntax that we're all freely able to read, even 35 years into the future.

Or 350.

Take your pick, though I'm sure 350 year future Anglais is going to be crazy different than it is now.

Just consult Ben Franklin and Samuel Clemens.

35 months from now English will be more obscured than it is now.

I mean

Where the fuck did “fleek” come from? Came from a wild blue marketer who had the ability to edit urban dictionary, didn't it? And a cluster of ground zero hot girls in thonglike yoga pants to hash and instagram it.

I mean

Lots of wow packed into one simple idea.

Lewis Thomas woulda written amazing essays about this current future.

Dead science poets.

Anyway. Um. was I saying something coherent here? Idk. I would have never even found this book unless I stumbled into a dusty used book store in North Park San Diego and it literally dropped off the shelf as I was going somewhere else. Serendipity. I read a few middle pages and decided to get everything the shop had. If only I received this book when I was 9. I think I would have really enjoyed it.

(At 9 I read Jurassic Park and Stranger in a Strange Land (just before the sex cult part lol – I didn't read THAT part til I was 20) and I loved how Michael Crichton had that way of instawledging you concepts that would otherwise seem SEEM difficult.

I love science writers who also are poets and also can covert high concepts to baby words. Are there any dudes like that nowadays?

Maybe I'll find it at Terraform.

Ummm. What else.

Hi dude.

Have you figured out what you're supposed to be doing on American Mom's day tomorrow? I feel smug 'cause I wrote a newsletter about it — pretty much as fluidly and easily as I'm writing you this letter today. That's a score for me, because a lot of the time, I can't deal with commercial speech. Heh, but I started it with a bunch of batting practice throwaway grafs to get the fingers moving, and once they did, the texture texted itself to life.

But y'all know that about me.

I'm thinking I should convert all these Lewis Thomas books to PDF and upload them into Mavis Beacon, so my kid can sharpen her typing skills by reading/writing/typing THIS.

Mavis Beacon. You do remember Mavis Beacon, right?

Greatest game ever made.

Mavis is how I learned how to type. Glory be!!!!!!! Apple 2GS!!!!!! Mavis turned a doe eyed 6 year old to a 160 WPM doe eyed 36 year old (or however old I am now, who knows) within the confines of a school semester. While all the other beasts of my grade were getting dysentary in Oregon Trail, I was honing my autistic skills on hitting. every. letter. with. perfection. in Mavis Beacon. PRAISE.

Okay, and some friendly neighborhood shoutouts to the Write.as universe.

Deacon, keep writing, this journey is amazing. I love bike campers, and I am so heartwarmed to know that Write.as is nurturing a person living out a fantasy of mine. Thank you for your slice!

Mia, bipolar is hard, boyfriends with separate families is hard, and you deserve a trophy for just writing the fuck through it. I hope you get your fantasy fulfillment in your Siargao tent with your surfboard I hope you name Paradise.

And we all know CJ is saying something cool, while inquiry is saying something sober, so let's keep those animals in their mental wildnerness and wait with bated breathlessness at what the next installment will be.

I lol'ed at hereisdistant's airport parking obsession, as I too can get obsessed with minute details like this as well. I can relate so hard!

And someone starting a narrative about a magic backpack? Ooh, I'm intrigued.

(Aside: wouldn't it be really friggin cool if we all just pitched in a chapter. It can be like the... the... fuck I can't remember my friend's production, I think it's called The Exquisite Corpse Project. All the authors only read the last few lines of the chapter before, and the whole story twisted into some wild mess. We as a write.as community should do one of those sometime. Just for funsies.)

Gotta get back to work now. Good seeing you!

Another day in, Paradise

— .:~:..:~:..:~:..:~:..:~:..:~:..:~:..:~:..:~:..:~:. published not proofread. #NeverLookBackspace! Words, Ideas, Magic copyrighted by Zem in Paradise. this is confidential communication. Protected by US and International law.