Never mind the quality ............... feel the length.
There are times when I do think that Jakartass would be better named Boggle Blog. There's a nice alliterative symmetry and synergy in that title.
Two articles in the Guardian today have nothing to do with Indonesia, the UK or Charlton Athletic yet cannot be left uncommented upon. I am truly boggled.
First off, I read that such are
the 'advances' in neuroscience, biotechnology such as genetics, computing and nanoscience - that many envisage dramatic breakthroughs in how we can modify ourselves, our physical and mental capabilities. We could live much longer and be much stronger and cleverer - even be much happier. A whole new meaning to "Be all you can be".
To the real enthusiasts - they call themselves transhumanists - humanity is on the point of being liberated from its biology. In their advocacy of our "technological rights", they believe that human beings are on the brink of a huge leap in development, leaving behind the sick, quarrelsome, weak, fallible creatures we have been up to now. We will be, as their slogan goes, "better than well".
For example, if you can have Viagra for an enhanced sexual life, why not a Viagra for the mind? Is there a meaningful difference? If we show such enthusiasm for "improving" our noses and breasts with cosmetic surgery, why not also improve our brains? As computers continue to increase in power and shrink in size, why shouldn't we come to use them as prostheses, a kind of artificial limb for the brain? If we have successfully lengthened life expectancy with good sanitation and diet, why can't we lengthen it with new drugs?
The mere thought is scary. Read the first part of that last sentence again. Is that reality for the majority of the world's citizens? What is being proposed here is not a sci-fi fantasy. The technology is being developed and pharmaceutical industries are already well down the path which could lead to super-consumers of their products.
This is the prospect that horrifies the so-called "bio-conservatives" such as Francis Fukuyama, who argues that transhumanism is the most dangerous ideology of our time. There are plenty who share his concerns.
Count Jakartass among their number, but not because I'm a conservative. Change is to be encouraged, but such that all can live in a sharing, caring world which values differences rather than competing for ever scarcer resources, thereby denying others their share. More than enough is too much.
The other, related, story I found disturbing, but not, I must emphasis, from a sense of prurience or inadequacy, concerns penis envy. This apparently is a male phenomenon.
In today's "supersize-me" consumer society, here is the paradox. Men need bigger cocks, and a penis of any size is now physically possible. Consequently, no size is ever going to be big enough.Apparently, penis enlargement is big business, if you'll excuse the expression.
And
Mike Salvini should know for he is
an evangelist for natural penis enlargement, a weird and scientifically unproven way of upsizing the male member. And thousands of men are going to great lengths to follow him.But not Jakartass. You know where I stand. I support the under-
sized dogs, and the have-nots.
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