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The SecondLife Cubicle Jail Cell of The Future
(Or: “Go ‘way, batin’!”)
I realize there is a hell of a lot of posturing when it comes to tech trends and marketing of products, but if even half of this stuff is remotely true, then we’re in for it, my friends.
- Battle-Rig Pro Gaming Desk: designed to battle physical health and mental/emotional well-being…
- The Walkstation from Steelcase: allows you finally win the rat race, literally. {See also: newbicles}
- Now imagine that thing on wheels!
“Everyday, our cars are using more computing technology, primarily for safety reasons. So why not turning them into computer nodes of a mobile network? This is what UCLA engineers are working on. According to them, this would just need the relatively low-cost addition of sensors to the vehicle’s roof and bumpers. They say their mobile ad-hoc networking platform (MANET) would allow ‘moving vehicles within a range of 100 to 300 meters of each other to connect and create a network of cars.’”
{See also: The Transmodal Capsule Concept, originally foisted in the 1970’s, getting ready to come back around again - Be sure to check out the diagrams!}
{See also: Popemobile}
- And don’t forget: Brain-computer interface for SecondLife: “Keio University bioengineers have demonstrated the control of a Second Life avatar using a non-invasive brain-computer interface. The news release is in Japanese but the Neurophilosophy blog reports that the device monitors electrical activity in the motoro cortex via external electrodes on the scalp.”
{See also: eatShit&dIePod}
The confluence of all these trends - if and when they become really viable? You climb into a workstation from which you never need to climb out - ever again. The containment module provides you with exercise, entertainment (presumably sexual congress, as well), the ability to telecommute to work, access to an automated transportation network; all you need is a little slot for the jailor to slide food into your cage, and some way to dispose of or reuse your feces.
Plug this also into Garrett’s trendcasting from a few months ago about people intentionally imprisoning themselves and Ikea opening a prison {See also}.
I’m imagining huge banks of these containment units plugged into some kind of central architecture, like a modular condo high rise. There you go: there’s your trillion dollar business idea to finally enslave all of humanity for good. Go enjoy yourselves!
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:17 am
Prison fashion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbegmwBK7S0
http://vlad.tribnet.com/issue574/Arts_...rison_fashion_dresses_to_be_caught_in
http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/066763B3-571C-4CCF-9518-D29026B8269D/
http://www.reuters.com/news/video/videoStory?videoId=61809
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:26 am
Why are you thinking so much about prisons lately?
There are a few different ways to look at these trends you point to, imo. First of all, people have been working in bad conditions from the beginning of the industrial revolution. Over time its gotten better. I’ve worked in little cubicles and in dangerous factories, both. My movement was constricted and the work was monotonous. I don’t see a way around lots of types of work being boring.
Some people are content with it. They like punching the clock. No one is forced to work there. They each could all become entrepreneurs and start their own bussinesses.
But some people prefer the security of a “job” they just do what they are told they don’t have figure stuff out on their own. Then they enjoy whatever it is they want to do on their free time. So its the job of employers to improve the quality of these work stations, since people will continue to work in them.
I also got a chance to see a sheltered workshop composed of developmentally disabled people doing factory work, and deriving a lot of fulfillment from it. They did it better than non developmentally disabled people because they put more pride into it.
I don’t really see the nightmarish scenario, you see. I think life in cities will just be more like life is now Tokyo. This computer interface stuff doesn’t scare me if that’s what people want.
Personally I don’t want to interface that much with computers besides blogging and doing research on the internet but some people do. I won’t wear an ipod. I don’t play video games except once in a while.
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:58 am
I do: it’s called don’t do them.
Work is the only source of rhythm and ritual for most people because they have not been exposed to any alternatives.
What’s stopping them? Are they just lazy?
Why? What makes them “prefer” that?
What if people just refuse to work in them altogether? What if everyone everywhere started their own business?
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:03 pm
E.M. Forster wrote a short story about this very topic back in 1909, called The Machine Stops. I’ve read it before and I think you might find it of interest:
http://brighton.ncsa.uiuc.edu/prajlich/forster.html
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Everyone could start their own bussiness at any time/refuse to work/ have a general strike etc.
Most people are caught up in negative thinking paterns and are willing to settle for things just to survive.
This is why Arnold comes across as an asshole/dictator by saying things like 95% of people need to be told what to do, but in a way its true.
he says this after a lifetime of observing other people and a life time of taking continuous action to improve and perfect himself.
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Once you’ve perfected yourself, is it not then your obligation to enable others to do the same?
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Yeah, and That’s the kind of thing Arnold has spent a lot of time going around doing. Were you aware of this?
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Coming to America at the age of 21 with $20 in his pocket, Arnold’s determination allowed him to reach one goal after another: reigning over the world of bodybuilding, being a successful businessman, rocketing to the top of the movie charts as an action-hero, and, perhaps most importantly to Arnold, helping children through the Special Olympics, his Inner City Games Foundation, and leading the campaign to pass California’s Proposition 49 to increase funding for after-school programs.
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:23 pm
“But for all the hype surrounding his career in bodybuilding and in Hollywood, Arnold’s most gratifying accomplishments are much more steeped in reality. He has made countless contributions of his time and energy, not to mention his personal finances, to philanthropic organizations around the world. He was named the International Weight Training Coach of the Special Olympics in 1979, and serves as a Global Ambassador to the organization founded by his mother-in-law, Eunice Shriver, in 1967. He was appointed Chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports under the George H. W. Bush Administration from 1990 to 1993, and also served as the Chairman for the California Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports under Governor Pete Wilson.
In 1991, Arnold began a term as Executive Commissioner of the Hollenbeck Youth Center Inner-City Games in Los Angeles. He believed strongly that educating kids, giving them opportunities, encouraging them to set and reach goals, helping them to become winners and offering a sense of pride and accomplishment was the only way to break the cycle of poverty, despair and untimely death for kids in our inner-cities.
Four years later, in collaboration with Hollenbeck’s Director Danny Hernandez, Arnold established the National Inner-City Games Foundation and serves as its’ National Chairman. Arnold wanted to create alternatives for kids to violence, drugs and gangs during the critical hours after school, on weekends and during the summer. What started as summer athletic competition became so successful that ICG now provides year-round opportunities for under-privileged children to participate in educational, cultural and community enrichment programs as well as computer and sports activities. ICG offers competitions and clinics around the country, building confidence and self esteem as well as encouraging the youth of America to say “no” to gangs, drugs and violence while saying “yes” to hope, learning and life.
From humble origins in Los Angeles, the foundation now stretches to fifteen cities around the nation reaching over 250,000 kids in over 400 schools. Arnold does not merely lend his name to the Foundation but gets involved traveling the country meeting with local officials, educators, administrators and kids to ensure the programs’ continued growth and success.
The latest project of the Inner-City Games Foundation is Arnold’s All-Stars - an organization dedicated to providing specially designed after-school programs offering academic, recreational and cultural enrichment programs for every middle school in the state of California to help young people improve in school and in life.”
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:52 pm
I posted a comment here earlier but it didn’t show up. Anyway, there’s a short story by E.M. Forster, written in 1909, called “The Machine Stops,” that depicts a world much like you describe, with everyone living isolated from each other in little hexagonal shaped rooms. Every need is met by machine, and even though they spend all day in communication with each other via something very much like the Internet, they never see each other face to face or have any human contact (aside from designated “breeding”).
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:49 pm
People are amazingly adaptable. We are not all “supposed” to experience life in the same way, imo. If people want the clock and the orders to perform, and are genuinely content with that, I believe they are doing as they are supposed to in this life. We are not all at the same “stage of spirit”.
However, many more people do jobs than are actually content in their jobs. Just the other day I asked myself why so many bright, motivated, creative people choose to work in the doldrums of corporate prison. I believe it is because it is
1. Working for a corporation is more stable than working for one’s self. If you have your own business, you will experience ebbs and flows in cash flow far greater than if you work year after year at a corporate job. Working for yourself is a tremendous financial undertaking requiring more foresight and conservation of resources than working for a massive, relative stable global company. Let’s face it, not all creative and motivated types want to expend that motivation and creativity on making money. Working for a corporation allows them to diversify their activities.
2. Its a phase. It was for me, and it is for my partner. Neither of us “like” working for a corporation, but it is an easy way to accumulate capital and experience that we are now using to venture into our own business(es). Our new direction is vastly different than where we came from. We both worked for large banks…about the worse and most enduring institutions of human enslavement there is, but are starting an organic farm and will also work to assist small businesses with their fiscal management. In this sense, corporations are a trough to feed from before going out on one’s own.
3. Finally I think that everyone has their spiritual needs. We may not literally have lived past lives but, we do carry with us a backlog of unfinished urges, motivations, and drives.
I’ve met many good people who work in corporations; kind, considerate and caring people. I do think that most of them who remain for decades are in a mode of self-sacrifice. They tend to obesity, to workaholism, and self-pity. These are people who probably should move on. To do so though, requires much more than a financial motivation, they have to somehow see themselves completely differently.
I do think that most people who are living off their own business are very interesting, and tend to be more intelligent. I don’t think that they were necessarily more intelligent before they started their own business, but the process of conducting and the consequences of one’s own business decisions make one think a lot harder than simply getting up at the same time and going to same place and doing the same task for 30 years.
But really guys, we are talking about financial pursuits here. Personally I don’t like money at all. I don’t blame people for taking the easy way to a pay check. I’ve done it too. Though I am about to go into business myself, I am doing so out of resignation to the fact that money has imprisoned me. I have no choice but to participate in the money economy.
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Crystal, that sounds like it could dovetail quite closely with what some of the lower-tier Technocracy advocates were always trumpeting.
Ted, next time a simple link or shorter quote would suffice. I don’t necessarily get why you feel like you need to champion Schwarzenegger either, but feel free.
http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2005/05/13/pop-tarot-the-governator/
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:58 pm
I like that.
I don’t, for the record, think corporations are evil or that people who work for them are stupid. I’m actually about to form an LLC myself.
That’s what I’m interested in: how do we show people other possibilities, how do we teach them how to see themselves in new ways and actualize other options?
Not liking money is a waste of time. That’s like not liking rocks. It has no effect on anything but to inhibit your thinking.
I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about people consigning themselves to virtual prisons and believing themselves to be free because of it.
Money hasn’t imprisoned you. If you’re imprisoned then you’ve done it yourself.
That’s just simply not true. You always have a choice and though they may require you to live a vastly different lifestyle, you do not have to participate in the “money economy”!
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:25 pm
A long read but worth it.
http://www.dunwalke.com/
When I first encountered this story that’s all there was. Now, she has expanded her ideas so much and I found it! I knew she was the right link and it took so many word combinations on google but here it is. Thanks for bringing it up.
http://www.solari.com/
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:28 pm
I think there is a huge amount of untapped potential that everyone has. Its hard to speculate why most people choose not to tap into it.
But probably virtually anyone could be as sucessful as the most successful people in the world, but maybe not all at the same time.
But I believe in progress. I think over time the world gets better and opportunities are offered to a broader and broader range of people.
I agree with Allen about people becoming smarter after they have their own bussiness. I think the ones that stay in bussiness get smarter and stronger willed. I’ve seen it up close.
Any bee has the potential to be the queen given the right diet.
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:36 pm
I get what you’re saying but I get why most people don’t. Most people think you’re talking some kind of hippie, screw the man, get wasted type of thing. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)
If I’m hearing you you’re saying something along the lines of what I say about my Brother. “Ok, so you’ve raised your kids without parents, because you wanted that house and had to work two jobs to get it, without morals because you weren’t there to teach them so they were raised by TV and the neighbor’s parentless kids and without a real value system because they saw that they were valued slightly lower than consumer goods. Now you’re mad at how they turned out? Now you’re bragging about your possessions?”
This isn’t a value system that’s been thought out. It’s one that’s been enacted from societal programming. As long as the consumer goods keep flowing and people can be made to feel like they failed when they stop flowing nobody will wake up.
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:39 pm
LOL, Tim, talk about cherry picking the worst quotes! You make it sound as if I were depressed or pessimistic!
Money structures life. You said it yourself…you can live outside a money system but it
Just like being in a prison requires you to live a vastly different lifestyle.
But you point out errors in my writing. I don’t mean to say “I’m resigned” or “I have to live in money”, rather, I am in the process of making peace with the monetary world. I do live in a monetary world. That’s not just ok, that freaking exciting!
Just like being in a body is a “prison”. Being flesh and blood requires living in particular ways…and that is exciting and it doesn’t last!
So, I have a tendency to use “negative” sounding words but not really buying the “negative” connotations. To me a word like resign means accepting a new position within a different context. I forget that not everybody is as mindless to connotations as me.
October 24th, 2007 at 9:14 am
No, *you* make it sound that way! I’m certainly interpreting though.
Should be the other way around!
I really disagree with that!
I think Ted was trying to argue similar against me on another post: that you can’t use negative-sounding words without getting caught in their connotations.
October 24th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Lol, ok Well it seems we are not on the same wave length. Interesting Blog in parts. Look forward to stopping by in the future.
Allen.
October 24th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Mybe I should have used a “real life acting tip” and introduced you guys.
Well anyway, Tim, this is Allen. On online friend of mine. He owns some rural land and a million madly reproducing frogs, and he and his partner are soon to be permacultural organic farmers!
Allen,
This is Tim, on online friend of mine, whom I think is an inspiring person. Of course you know that because you probably followed a link I posted to him on my blog.
October 24th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
What aren’t we on the same wavelength about?
October 24th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Don’t get me wrong, I think what you’re describing about organic farming and helping other people start businesses is actually AMAZING and TOTALLY WHAT’S NEEDED.
I just don’t accept all that stuff about being slave to the money system. The two need not go together. That’s the point I’m trying to make. Unnecessary baggage.
October 24th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
There is a great deal wrong with the money system. Business is not life. I’m not much for pursuing money, or valuing items, relations and time with an arbitrary unit.
Your dismissal of problems with the monetary system doesn’t impress me, but I’m happy you are not disturbed by money. That’s a good sign that you are comfortable and pursuing other things.
What is your job anyway?
October 24th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
This is my job.
In what way am I dismissing the monetary system? Clearly you haven’t read my months of writing and research about alternative, complementary and community currency.
October 24th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Furthermore, what the fuck are we even arguing about and why? I like what you’re doing.
October 24th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
I guess this means Allen is your brother just like Ted. (Was your Dad a milkman?)
October 24th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Actually, my grandfather was!
October 24th, 2007 at 11:40 pm
Maybe that’s what you’re supposed to be gathering together, all the red headed step children in other people’s famlies.
October 25th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Yeap, another great Internet blooper I suppose.
I’ll start over…I have not read all your material about currency and so on. I was just reacting to your quoting of me in a way that I felt was “unfair”. But moreover, I was having a less than perfect day. No biggie.
As far as what I am doing, it is the culmination of many years of work, soul-searching, compromise, and facing reality.
Anyway, good to meet you, Thanks Ted for the intro.
October 25th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Yeah, that’s just what I do. Sorry! Could have handled that better myself.
September 5th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
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