Wednesday, October 31, 2007

mIe

Folks have been asking who "mIe" is. For those of you not tuned in on a regular basis (ie no one), this is My Ego's abbreviated name at the end of each post. But who is My Ego?

mIe is not m"L"e, that is an "I" (as in i, but really I, as in i, but, really, I)(or 1), pronounced "eye" or otherwise-spelled-as "eIe" (as in i, but really I, as in i, but really, I)(or 1).

mIe = I through me. Lowercase "m," Capital "I", lowercase "e."

I = You = mIe = You = I


~mIe

Monday, October 29, 2007

The Green Suicide Bomber

Finally! A suicide bomber who actually cares about the future of the planet! Most suicide bombers could care less about being green, but this selfless being has finally woken up to see the plight of our Mother Earth!

"A suicide bomber riding a bicycle Monday killed at least 28 Iraqi police at an Iraqi police base in Baquba, the U.S. military said."

Gone, my friends, are the days of the gas-guzzling 'car-bomber' style suicide explosion attacks on our humble troops and sensitive environment; this next-generation, consciously-evolved trend of the bike-bomber can only mean good things for the future of sustainable warfare.

It seems both sides of the war seem to agree, from green nuclear waste to the army going green, its easy to say our future will be as bright as the flash a mushroom cloud...

mIe

Saturday, October 27, 2007

The Mnemotechnosphere

Warning: this post is philosophical. If you're not into thinking (if you want to see a stark example of the sad state of our country, read the comments below the video), please spare yourself the effort. Like all philosophy, much of this exploration has already been said, but My Ego has the ability to make up new words to describe phenomenological nuances thereof, so its new enough to share. Maybe.

***

The Mnemotechnosphere

My Ego sure is surrounded by technology. Digi cams, DVD turntables, videocameras, and My Ego's soon-to-be iPhone (once v2 is released, of course) surround My Ego like thoughts surround the mind, dancing hither and thither, sometimes alone, often in unison. It increasingly seems as though this mind-dance is literally manifesting itself into the world; the subject slowly mutates into an object (Nurture becomes Nature, but more on that later...), blurring the line between the meta and the physical.

What is all this tech doing to My Ego? How is My Ego affected (therefore effected) by the endless sea of pixels and mountains of iRacks? It seems to My Ego that memory is becoming externalized; our thoughts, memories, and desires are being exported from our minds, hearts, and souls, and downloaded into our various devices for the world to see.

My Ego sees a new sphere of memory evolving as Moore's Law unfolds. Lets call it the Mnemotechnosphere. The Mnemotechnosphere is the realm within which our memories become digitally externalized, the newly-emerging and ever-expanding network of externalized memory systems. The Mnemotechnosphere is the in-the-world Tango parter of the Noosphere. In other words, our collective memory is literally becoming objectified and revealed for the world to see and share as the Mnemotechnosphere. The Mnemotechnosphere is the realm of the subjective-objective; the Sobjective.

For instance, My Ego snaps a photo with the iPhone. My Ego is there, perceiving the moment, and downloading it into My Ego's subjective memory system. This system is mine and mine only; not even words can come close to describing what these memories are to me. The exterior reality the photo is taken "of" is the object, in this context. My Ego shows you the photo on the iPhone a few minutes later. This phenomenological experience takes place within the Mnemotechnosphere, between two subjects viewing a Sobject. The Web 2.0 is of course the best example of the Mnemotechnosphere in action, the blogosphere being a finger on the hand of the Mnemotechnosphere.

The more we externalize and meta-tag our memories into the Mnemotechnosphere, the more the Noosphere becomes a 'viewable' presence in our every-day life. Another great example of the Mnemotechnosphere is the Virtual Earth project, that pieces together photographic images to form shared objects in computerized space.

The question returns back to the a/effect this is having on us. It is easy to fear that the more we externalize our collective memory into the Mnemotechnosphere, the less we'll be able to remember. Therefore, like any other technology, the reliance on the Mnemotechnosphere is the greatest danger.

More to come on this...

mIe


***UPDATE: David Brooks wrote about the Mnemotechnosphere the DAY BEFORE My Ego posted about it. While his prose smokes My Ego's, he didn't come up with a pseudo-philo-scien-psycho-term to describe the realm within which it develops.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

"Necessity"

I'm told now that I have a blog, I need to link to other blogs to spread the e-love far and wide. Surfed around for a bit, and was "impressed" with the "sensibility" of The Blog of Unnecessary Quotation Marks.

That's all. My Ego is ready for "bed."

mIe

Out of Rainbows

Presumably to make them feel better about themselves, folks have been asking for My Ego's opinion of the new Radiohead record, In Rainbows. First, lets address the nearly impossible set and setting with which to judge this record. While the 'out-of-nowhere' drop of the record earlier this month helped reduce some of the expected zeitgeist build-up of the ten-track mp3 download, there is little doubt that getting an unbiased listen is next to impossible. Besides, it seems any criticism of Radiohead is looked upon with utter disdain, scorn, and disbelief within the (lets call it "music-savvy") community. Open-minded, Radiohead fans are not.

Lets face it; Radiohead is without-a-doubt the most important band in the world--if the world you live in is one of constant fear of the Not-Yet, the "inevitable" End of Time as we know it. Of course, if your limited (unlike My Ego) construct of reality is so reductionist and limited as to think we're living the End. Wild fires in Malibu, Tsunamis, Katrina... the only difference between these calamities and those throughout history is the ability to capture them digitally, and cut them up into little tragic loops of despair and destruction that we can YouTube day and night. Not a generation goes by that doesn't believe they are seeing the End, and this truth will never change. Thinking we're the first and only is where the mistake lies. But more on the End in another post...

Or, if you're of the conscious-construct of Robert Nesta Marley, you may think something along the lines of "Have no fear for atomic energy/none of them can stop Time." My Ego akins this sentiment as a universal Truth, while "The infrastructure will collapse/Voltage spikes/Throw your keys in the bowl," is getting all a bit boring, don't you think? Whether we're here or not, Time will Ing. More on Ing in a future post...

Of course we have all sorts of references to love, desire, and even sexuality on In Rainbows, yet (and finally, a thesis?) there seems to be one (most) essential element lacking from the record: Melody.

Throughout musical history, from the East to the West, melody is the sign of Spirit in music; and what, after all, is Mus-ic, without Spirit/Melody. Really, how many of the In Rainbows tracks do you find yourself humming? Whistling while walking down the street?

Some tell My Ego this is because In Rainbows is a very 'complex' record, and it takes time to understand the rich layers and blah blah blah. Nothing, folks, is more complex than the simple. And Nothing more Beautiful than the Simplex. Woa wait a second, Ego. What's this about Spirit? What are you, some sort of religious fanatic? Yep. That's right. Religion and Spirituality are the same thing.

In fact, it seems that Thom has lost God. WHOA EGO, take it easy. God is a four letter word! For the faint of heart (meant quite literally), I'll use My Ego's alternate spelling, _0_.

Go ahead, I dare you to throw The Bends into your iPod, and have a good walk. In My Ego's never-humble opinion, The Bends is the Ultimate Radiohead record. Listen to those melodies; feel the attainment of the 'Simplex' and the cohesion of _0_ throughout. OK Computer, certainly one of the most incredible records ever recorded, certainly attains near _0_ levels, yet begins to strive for the complexity that eventually weaves its way through Kid A, Amnesiac, Theif, to the _0_-less experience that is In Rainbows.

Umm... Ego... isn't that entire paragraph just a subjective, opinionated rambling on what you enjoy, and therefore consider to be 'of' _0_.

I'm sorry, have you forgotten that this is My Ego?

mIe.

Monday, October 22, 2007

The Real Punk Rockers

**UPDATE 10.23.07: To add some more relevance/context to this post, read this BBC article

Wikipedia says:

"Punk rock
is an anti-establishment rock music genre and movement that emerged in the mid-1970s. Preceded by a variety of protopunk music of the 1960s and early 1970s, punk rock developed between 1974 and 1977 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, where groups such as the Ramones, Sex Pistols, and The Clash were recognized as the vanguard of a new musical movement."

Like any other movement, eventually Punk Rock became a caricature of itself, with sheep-like droves of 'post-punk-hipsters' slurring about town with what often times can be confused as a uniform, less style of dress... especially a style of dressed based upon 'freedom,' 'originality,' and 'counter-culture.' Seems like most of these folks are nothing more than robots, seemingly programmed to cover their bot-limbs with tight black jeans, a tattoo sleeve, and ironic t-shirt.

With such a sad state of Punk affairs, where is the true spirit of Punk? Where is the true revolt, and what are these Punk-rockers revolting against?

Eclectic Method, the UK's audio-video mash-up masterminds, fit the bill more than any other talent in the world. Yet their revolt is one of the intellectual variety, specifically that of intellectual property. Purposefully doing so or not, Eclectic Method continue to break through barriers of intellectual property the likes of which have never been seen, and will in no doubt re-shape the way video property is used and distributed throughout the world.



Video by video--be it a Britney video or the hottest HBO program--the Method take the last vestige of massive media property, and mash it to beat-driven, danceable shreds. One can't help but feel the undercurrents of a big fuck you to the Man when watching the Method perfor live, with a healthy dose of humor, scratch chops, and psychedelic wizardry for added measure. Using Pioneer's DVJ DVD turntables, Ececltic Method scratch and mix video/audio samples as a DJ would audio tracks, creating improvised, play-to-the-crowd experiences like nothing else in the world.



Ladies and Gentlemen, the next true Punk Movement--lets call it Meta-Punk--is upon us. All hail the video Sex Pistols...

mIe


Yep, It's Definitely Mercury's Fault

Hey did you hear? Mercury is in retrograde. Ohhhh. So that explains why I can't get any work done today. Or why my computer is acting slowly. Or why I have time to even write this. Clearly, any problem I have is due to Mercury being in retrograde.

So... When the fuck isn't Mercury in retrograde, anyway? For a week in the Spring when the flowers start to bloom? Then it gets hot and muggy... must be Mercury!

Here's a tip to ward off people who give more importance to planets then to humans:

When you see a Astriopath sizing you up, judging your every-last attribute, lips trembling in eager anticipation for asking you, "What is your sign?" Clearly this person already has you pegged into one sign or another, and man are they sure.

When this happens, simply tell the Astriopath this:

"If you can tell me what sign I am in three guesses, we'll keep talking. If you don't guess in three tries, you have to give up on Astrology altogether."

No better way to get an Astriopath to shrivel into a tiny, scared, submissive fool than this.

Man does MY EGO just love making people feel like that!!

mIe

Your Ego??

Folks have been asking me:

"Is this your ego" I am reading?

The answer is yes, this is your ego.

Best,

mIe

Drowning in Easy Green

If I see one more advert, commercial, magazine, newsletter, or blog dedicated to "Going Green", I'm going to vomit... and it will certainly be more colors than green, although that spinach was tasty last night. Last I checked, there were more colors in nature besides green--the number might even be infinite.

Why are we so fixated on Going Green, anyhow? (Reductionist alert!) The same reason we Americans do anything else: because we are promised it is "easy" to do so. And what more could we ever want out of life than the 'easy' way out? Nothing rewards MY EGO quite like the quick and easy; after all my ego is a series of the quick and easy all balled up into one gluttonous, ever-expanding glob of misinformation. We live in The Culture of Easy (a theme I'll be coming back to more in the future), where speed is the ultimate means to an end... and End which may come sooner than we all think. Or perhaps has already come?

Just buy some carbon credits to offset that massive rock tour! Plant a tree, save a life! Switch to LED bulbs and viola! You're green!

Clearly, use of "Green" seems to hearken back to an older usage of 'green', a synonym of 'naive' or 'new to a way of thinking.' To think that the task at hand, if there is even any point to said task, will be easy... well... You may want to do a bit more research before painting the world one color...

Then again, its just MY EGO talking...

mIe

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Don't Read This

Warned you, no?

So My Ego decided to create a blog. Suppose you are wondering why, so My Ego shall reward you with an answer. As soon as you stop talking to yourself. Stop it, now, seriously. Ok world, My Ego awaits. Be prepared to read all about it.

- mIe