80′s, Metal, Hair, Glam

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I remember the 80′s music fondly, and often call it a Cambrian Explosion of music.  Oh, there are things we regret, or mock, or that didn’t age well, but there was just a lot of creative ferment.  There was also a lot of fun stuff, and last night I just went on an 80′s jam and remembered.

I was speculating on Hair Metal after going through some music, that kind of pop-metal prettyboy music that was at times mocked, and I think unfairly.  I loved Def Leppard, for instance, and they’re still making great fun jams all these years laters.  C’mon, how many of us will hear the beat and go “Gunter glieben glauchen globen” automatically?

More technically called Glam Metal, as I understand, and frankly, I think that’s a far more accurate name for it.

When I tried to describe what the typical “Hair Metal” band looks like, I ended up saying “Sex Pirates” because theres’s a mix of pretty, leather, and a bit of danger.  Really, just take a look at Ratt for instance, it’s like a critical explosion of Johnny Depp (I frankly think of Krokus as having glam elements as well).

I think really when you look at “Glam Metal” It’s a very appropriate term because you can see a lot of glam influence, and frankly a bit of boyband in it – tight pants and guys with great hair is not just there to appeal to the closeted males in the audience.  It’s also just a hell of a lot of fun.

I’m glad to hear lately there’s a revival of the style.  I like a good hard metal sound, but also like good riffs and some fun spectacle.  I still fondly remember some of the crazy videos, and like the idea of bands not taking themselves too damn seriously.

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

And Muse Hack Is Live!

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Remember Fan To Pro?  Well that was a site I and my friend Bonnie founded to speak on geeky careers and the fan/geek/otaku path to prodom.  But we found it limiting over time, so we “evolved” it with the expanded staff to  . . .

MUSEHACK

MuseHack is about people using, applying, improving, and owning their creativity, inspiration, and passion.  Jobs are a part of it, but we wanted to go further.  We call it “Geekery Applied.”

So there will be plenty of career stuff (courtesy of yours truly), our creative columns from Scott and Serdar, the return of Bonnie, more from Rob, and new guest and regular columnists.  Well be covering:

Careers – Using what you love to make money.  Also all the old Fan To Pro content is at the site!

Creativity – Getting your mind moving, improving your creativity, and odd and interesting things.

Community – Great events, conventions, and building community.

Capability – Improving your skills and abilities, and taking control of your life and career.

So be sure to job by, and subscribe to the RSS feed or newsletter!  In fact we may want you to write for us!

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

Helping Out A Friend Trying To Fill Some Positions!

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Hey gang, a friend of mine is looking to fill some positions.  If you’re interested, give me a buzz.

Principal Software Development Engineer (HIE) (518209)
Full-time San Jose, CA
http://careers.unitedhealthgroup.com/careers/data/jobs/information-technology/518209-principal-software-development-engineer-hie.aspx

Sr. Automation Engineer (520523)
Full-time San Jose, CA
http://careers.unitedhealthgroup.com/careers/data/jobs/information-technology/520523-sr-automation-engineer.aspx

-Steven

A Blunt Look at Simplistic Immortalism

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Steve Temporary Image

That Superior Feeling, Serdar Yegulalp, on the limits of Immortality and Immortalism

I see only two ways for this to be possible. The first is the one Steven and I have explored before, where the resulting life is not life at all, but a stasis that we can call life only at the great cost of pretending that nothing was ever lost in the first place. The second method is where the costs of living are abolished only by way of force and dominion over others, exercised not just once but unceasingly.

Serdar’s response to my post on “The Hell of Heaven” is based on Barrows Dunham’s Man Against Myth – a book I have not read, but clearly need to, as he explored dangerous myths left after WWII.  Some of them sound all too familiar, as he explores a world where a few men tried to sacrifice many for godhood/racial godhood.  These are just like what I see in the quest for what I call Simplistic Immortality – “me immortal,” which often fit Serdars second method of immortalism in the above paragraph.

The rest of the post subtly explores the repercussions of the quest for Simplistic Immortality, and that eventually all bills come due and all plans collide with other’s plans.  Serdar handles this with great delicacy.  I on the other hand am willing to sweep subtlety aside to state things bluntly:

The quest for Simplistic Immortality, that of “I stay I and no one can affect it” makes every person, every phenomena, and the entire universe either the Immortalist’s enemy or slave.

Continue reading →

Transhumanism: Building a Better Reincarnation

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In this blog I’ve expressed skepticism about transhumanism despite being something of a transhumanist myself. I’ve been skeptical about ideas of immortality, about the risks, and that some transhumanism is really just a hope for a kind of techno-secular heaven.

My concern roughly is that transhumanism too often becomes a race to preserve a limited sense of identity, when that limited sense of identity may actually be what we need to transcend. I take this inspiration both from observation, and my studies of oft-referred-to, little-understood thinking by Buddhists and Taoists.

Or to be blunt, a lot of deep thought about human identity is that the human identity, that is identifying with a transitory mind and ego, is the core of most of our problems, and maybe we ought to seek to deal with that first. Uploading our brains to computers and such can kind of wait because this “us” we want to preserve is part of the problem.

The ultimate question of transhumanism is one of identity – and how we deal with that. Continue reading →

Chocolate-Maple-Peanut Butter Energy Bars

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A great snack for energy that’s a mainstay of my active days.  Just be careful – one bar has 223 calories and 13% of your daily requirements of fat!

Ingredients

  • 4 cups quick-cook oats
  • 1 cup maple syrup
  • 1  cups peanut butter.
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 Tbsp cocoa powder
  1. Place oats in a large bowl.
  2. Put the maple syrup in a saucepan and add peanut butter.  Turn heat to low.
  3. Stirring regularly, melt the peanut butter into the maple syrup.  You may need to change the heat depending on your stove.
  4. When the peanut butter is melted, stir in cocoa powder and vanilla.
  5. Once mixed, immediately pour the maple-peanut butter mixture over the oats and mix thoroughly to coat.
  6. Place oats in a baking dish.  Place saran wrap over it and press down to spread it thoroughly so it fills pan evenly and is pressed down.
  7. Place in refrigerator for 2 hours.
  8. Cut into 16 bars.  Wrap and freeze them.

These need to be kept cool or they kind of fall apart.  Be sure to wrap them when transporting them around.

Taste wise these are delicious.  They’re also filling.  My way of using them is to pack one for a snack when I need a boost.  They’d also be great for really active days of exercise or hiking if properly wrapped.

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

Transhumanism And The Hell Of Heaven

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“If it came down to a choice, I would rather be mortal and decent, and thus have the chance to leave behind things of real lasting importance, than be immortal but also be an asshole.“

Serdar’s rather pithy statement is made on his observations that far too much of transhumanism is way too focused on leaving the human race behind. It becomes a race to “get up and get out” that really comes off as an attempt to coddle or deify one’s own ego.

Frankly, I have to agree with him. A lot of transhumanism I see thrown around casually (note casually) really seems to be nothing more than the idea of getting to a kind of technical heaven. Saint Peter may not be there, it may be an upload or a cyborg body, it it’s still all about “me” getting away. In a few cases getting away from all those “others.”

Some of this sounds the absolute same when I hear people talk about an afterlife of Heaven. Too often when I hear such an afterlife discussed, it’s always about pleasure and reward. Too often when I hear hell discussed, there’s a satisfaction those “others” will be in it.

I’ve discussed Buddhist concepts of the afterlife here before due to the many psychological insights they provide. One of them is that Heaven, the God Realm of Buddhist cosmology, isn’t all its cracked up to be.

The problem is with Heaven, with a realm of pleasure, you loose touch. You don’t feel compassion for others. You don’t feel empathy for others. In fact you don’t really “life” since life is far richer than whatever rewards or spoils you want to get. Heaven sounds vaguely addictive.

The problem with Heaven is that you can’t take a fall. In Buddhist cosmology even gods die, so if you’re reborn in the god realm one day you’ll die and probably will end up in another. As a god, you’ll even see it coming.  Hopefully you’ll reach the human realm, where things are well balanced enough for you to achieve enlightenment, but either way a painful fall.

In short, the desire for a real of perfect pleasure and escape makes you addicted, distant, un-empathetic, unprepared for change. It also probably risks you being kind of an ass as Serdar notes.

I’d even add the desire for a Heaven risks this as well. The desire to get away from people, from life, just deceives you and separates you. I’d say this may explain Jesus oft-forgotten note that all things done for those in need are for him in Matthew 25:31-46 – as a way to build empathy.

The transhuman desire for transcendence as a way to get away really misses what humanity is about. It’s a desire to cut ourselves off, to wrap ourselves in pleasure, to get distance, to “win.” It just makes us less human. It’s not transhumanism – it’s inhumanism.

As I noted, before we can improve who we are we better know what we are.

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

 

Transhumanism, The “Saw” Films and The Need For Testing

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I’m not a person who’s seen the “Saw” movie series, in which a psychopath sets people up in torturous death traps to teach them lessons about life. I don’t see much point when I can see horror stories in the real world.

However, there’s something that always stuck with me about the “Saw” films and most other Complex Deathtrap Themes. How the hell does your psycho, dungeon trap-a-teer, or whatever test this stuff? It’s got to be expensive to test, potentially deadly, and not testing it kind of destroys the attempts at a result.

Really, your average Complex Trap Psycho should be dead early on by one of their own creations backfiring or ending up with them found out.

This brings me, rather roundly, to Transhumanism, which I discussed awhile ago.

Though I’m all for human improvement, far too much talk I see about Transhumanism, and far too much fiction ignores how people are going to test transhuman techniques and technologies.

I mean those cybernetic limbs are going to take a lot of testing. Intelligence increase drugs could have all sorts of side effects. I rather imagine that attempts to upload our brains to computers is going to result in several people accidentally lobotomizing themselves.

I figure any attempts at Transhuman development will result in some painful, deadly, and publicly embarrassing backfires. Such activities are going to decrease enthusiasm for such endeavors, perhaps understandably.

Worse, the idea that the inventors of transhumance technologies will try it on themselves misses the fact that these geniuses who may invest such stuff would probably kill, cripple, and harm themselves terribly merely by the odds. I’d rather not have some genius who might help us upload our brains into computers fry his synapses trying.

(And I rather imagine when self-preservation kicks in, not as many will be willing to be their own test subjects).

As noted, I’m for Transhumanism. I’m just careful to be realistic and skeptical.  Transhuman technologies, poorly tested, will be like a horror movie.

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

Thoughts on Transhumanism

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I’ve been thinking about Transhumanism lately, both due to editing a friend’s novel that contains some rational thought about transuhmanism, along with some of the dismal stuff out there.

Now I’d probably be considered a Transhumanist since I’m all for human improvement. I’m just rather skeptical about a lot of the enthusiasm regarding the issue since it doesn’t seem tempered with common sense, though maybe at some point we can genetically alter ourselves to have more of that.

Most times I see transhumanism discussed it’s usually about life extension or intelligence enhancement. Both understandable goals, but goals that I think actually dodge a core issue of transhumanism. We can talk about making ourselves immortal, making ourselves smarter, making ourselves healthier.

What is missing in all of this is the talk of “ourselves.”

A transhumanist should ask ‘What is this “me” that I’m trying to preserve and enhance? What is the point of what I’m doing? Who am I doing this for?’

The ultimate question of Transhumanism is one of identity.

We want an “I” that lives longer, is healthier, smarter, etc. However, let me turn it around and ask if a goal of Transhumanism should actually be “building a better ‘I’” or perhaps better realizing that “I” is really a construct anyway and seeking something more beyond that. Maybe we may want to think about building Nirvana as opposed to a techno-biologic Rapture that’ll sweep us to a manufactured Heaven.

So let’s take Transhumanism to the core – what kind of people are we going to be, what kind of selves should we seek to be, and how can we achieve that. If we’re going to re-engineer who we are let’s forget such things as years of life or IQ, and ask how we’ll identify ourselves and each other, interact, and work together as people. Only when we figure that out can we ask what the rest of it is for.

We might be surprised at the answers.

Come to think of it, we might be surprised at “who” is asking the question.

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.