Próxima estación: Soledad

Yuri Endo 2004

Over the past 10 years, my life has become particularly productive and pleasant due to the advance of technology. I write academic papers better and faster, speak with my loved ones spread all over the world more frequently and watch the most rare movies that I have longing for the longest time. Owing mostly to that, I thought I had become more resistant to loneliness. In fact, I do not cry as much as I used to. However since I started writing my last posts of the semester, I realized that I was partially wrong. Of course, our body water progressively decreases as we grow older is a fact, but that is not the only reasoning for the amount of tears we shed actually does not always go in hand with the quality of solitude we feel.

A gazillion years of solitude

Shawn Yu 2008 "The Hunger Artist"

Today, the purpose of simulation seems to have shifted more toward entertainment use. As technology advanced, we have come to desire more edgy and stimulating experiences in less physical yet intimate ways. As a result, we started to use simulation as our personal playgrounds. In these final posts of the semester, assuming that we are just about to leave our world for a synthetic one, I would like to try envisioning how the value of solitude might or might not change once computer simulations become real.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are simulating

http://www.publicacions.ub.es
A scene from the film, Abre los ojos, directed by Alejandro Amenábar

Some may argue, notably Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom, it is highly likely that we are in fact living in a simulation, which makes a possibility of each individual already being someone’s avatar not entirely unfeasible.

The unbearable redness of being

http://www.gamespot.com

While many Asian nations embrace color red as a sign of prosperity, take Chinese and Japanese use of the color for example, it is said that there was once a syndrome called “Red Complex” spread throughout Korea in which people expressed the feeling of fear and deep disapproval toward the color red.

There will be blood substitute

http://pauseliveaction.wordpress.com

According to a report last year, the UK scientists were actually planning to become the first in the world to produce unlimited amounts of synthetic human blood from embryonic stem cells for emergency infection-free transfusions.