Cyborg Nation

Suddenly there is a huge number of news stories about people being able to operate computer chips by the power of thought. The first cyborgs are appearing, there are now chips that can be implanted in the eye to give a blind person sight, to allow an amputee to control plastic limbs etc. This is not the vision of cyborgs that we had ten years ago which was based on mechanics, these are based on micro electronics and in ten or twenty years we'll have cyborgs able to do incredible things, and they'll look completely normal.

As I've probably said before, blockbuster movies tend to reflect the fears of the world. 30 or 40 years ago, movies were all about alien invaders, nowadays they are all about robots battling humanity or taking over humanity, I Robot, The Terminator, A.I, Blade Runner, 2001, others I can't think of right now. Robot and intelligence technology is lagging behind cyborg technology at the moment but it's weird watching the future evolve in front of your eyes. People just aren't noticing. Like the internet, it wasn't something that appeared, at some point it was just there, and had been there for a while.

If artificial intelligence does evolve to the point of being conscious what will happen? It's a long long, long way off but if we play God and essentially create life, we need to realise it and have the responsibility to treat it fairly.

As for cyborgs, essentially we've opened a door to turn humans into God. People will have the ability to control mechanics and electronics using their mind alone. It's an incredible revolution. The technology is in it's infancy but already it's incredible. Lets recognise it and explore the possibilities.

Also, on the subject of science, the discovery of fossil soft dinosaur tissue. Incredible, especially if DNA is extant.

Depression

Even before yesterday I was feeling much better. I did something like 72 hours without sleep.

I was terribly depressed, but it was like a fever, built and built for weeks and then the past few days became almost unbearable. Hits a breaking point and it broke. I'm fine. Started to sort things out, even feeling confident about my show.

Depression has always seemed to affect me like that. It comes like a wave and after it breaks there is a period of calm.

I had a fever with flu last year and broke that. Literally, standing in the pharmacy waiting for antibiotics I was burning up. Pulling off my clothes, sweating buckets, about to faint. I could barely stand. And then it broke and I couldn't have felt better.

Doctors believe that some kinds of Depression are caused by viruses, certainly looking at it like this it really does seem like it. I'm not a depressive by nature. In fact when I do get depressed I force myself to beat it. It feels like an illness that I have to ride out, rather than a genuine pyschological problem.

Religious Weekend

What a wonderful weekend, A Papal Funeral yesterday, and a Royal Wedding today. It's been great fun to see the great and the good of Britain gallivanting all over the place, in the middle of an election no less.

Technically, in this election period, no one is in power. And then we get to see our entire power base run off to Rome. Prime Minister, both leaders of the opposition, The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Heir to the Throne.

One life ends but the world carries on. The wedding is the perfect antidote to the sadness surrounding John Paul's death. It reminds us that life is neverending.

I love ritual. When I did Peace Studies we looked at ritual and what it's place was in the world. I think the tutors were disdainful of it and so I became, but I think on it now and it is so wonderful. Ritual allows for great gatherings. People on their own are individuals, but in groups they become a herd, as easily corralled as sheep by a dog. The larger the gathering the easier to corral because the space around the individual whether physical or intellectual, is closed down. The person who knows this can have power beyond any other means, What ritual does, whether state, religious, ceremonial or even everyday, is sanctify the gathering, give everyone their own place and time, led by a responsible person, who leads but does not wield the mob. The ancient rituals have survived because they do this succesfully, and with either pomp and circumstance or simplicity, embody the needs of the mob without giving it it's head. Ritual only becomes dangerous when it is artificial or led by an irresponsible person.

This is perhaps the problem of new states. States such as USA and Israel among others. America is an amalgamation of many different cultures with few overall traditions. The Ku Klux Klan is a mob that takes its needs rather than embodying them. Not that embodying them would be any better in this occasion, but in America, there is no ritual, no belief, only need and want. So the mob get together and take because there is no other way for it to express itself. Israel is the same. Pakistan and Bangladesh have escaped this perhaps because Islam has it's own strong rooted traditions.

Anyway. This weekend has been a lovely show of religion as opposed to the past few years which have shown a horrible side. Part of ritual is helping people get through times of strife and this weekend has been a great success.

I'm so glad for Charlie. He and Camilla are greatly in love and finally they can be together properly. The ring he gave her was beautiful.