B. (because there's no v in Japanese)

[ish mailian]

On the business end of the attacks.

On Sunday, August 30, 2015, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:

> Cool. Just to play the advocate from down under here....was the pilot, an
> American pilot, ever in grave danger when she piloted a machine of such
> superiority? To argue that the glory in facing death is gone once the pilot
> is stationed in the chair force seems a bit of a stretch since American
> pilots in Afghanistan, rarely fly very dangerous missions, that is missions
> that involve a serious threat from the people and the equipment they bomb.
> And, we can extend this, for the most part, to Americans in any theater of
> war, in any capacity. The Americans are so well equipped, so we'll
> protected. They are not quite all sitting in chairs droning, but close to
> it when contrasted with the fighting men, women, and children on the other
> end sides.
>
> Anyways, thanks...
>
>
> On Sunday, August 30, 2015, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','sundayjb at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>
>> Have I ever mentioned the play Grounded by George Brant here? It's
>> worth reading or seeing if you get a chance. About an F16 pilot who is
>> grounded after she falls pregnant and is forced into the "chair
>> force". The way it contrasts her earthy, dirty, fecund humanity with
>> the abstract and ethereal transcendence of her new role is absolutely
>> gripping when performed right. The drone eventually takes on aspects
>> of a Rilkean angel or something that would definitely be at home in a
>> Pynchon novel, and the production I saw did things with lighting and
>> afterimages that really made credible the possibility that we were
>> witnessing a divine transfiguration.
>>
>> Highly recommend. Apparently there was a Julie Taymor NY production
>> recently with Anne Hathaway of all people:
>>
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/theater/anne-hathaways-solo-turn-as-a-fighter-pilot-in-grounded-at-the-public-theater.html?_r=0
>>
>> On Sat, Aug 29, 2015 at 3:47 AM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > We know. Ironically, the use of dummies to simulate life saving, may
>> retard
>> > our natural life instinct and advance the death instinct. Like my
>> chatting
>> > here with you as I neglect my friends and family who are sitting right
>> here.
>> >
>> >
>> > On Friday, August 28, 2015, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Took classes in childbirth and learned how to hold, feed, bathe, etc. a
>> >> new born, and yes, we were given dummies, and I took classes in CPR
>> and AED,
>> >> and, we practiced with dummies. Though we learned the skills to
>> preserve and
>> >> even save a life, we may have unlearned how fragile, vulnerable, dare
>> I say,
>> >> sacred (?) life, human life especially, is. A doll is a dummy; it is
>> so much
>> >> plastic and manufactured parts, engineering, bereft of the miracle of
>> >> nature's billions of years of unplanned generations. The toy, the
>> dummy or
>> >> doll, the I-Pad has a built in obsolescence, and we know it, and we
>> know
>> >> that a baby, a man choking on the floor, a woman suffering congestive
>> heart
>> >> failure, is not a factory good, a complex machine like Man, but is
>> only his
>> >> project, his compilation of junkyard parts, his Carl Barrington not
>> his V..
>> >>
>> >> On Friday, August 28, 2015, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>> Last night I stayed at the "robot hotel" about an hour outside of
>> >>> Nagasaki. Staff are almost all automated.
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/16/japans-robot-hotel-a-dinosaur-at-reception-a-machine-for-room-service
>> >>>
>> >>> Got me thinking how the contention in V. about humanity using whatever
>> >>> is its current level of technology as a metaphor through which to
>> >>> understand itself is such a wonderful one. The uncanny valley crap is
>> >>> 1% of it. Anyone who says with a straight face that we're hardwired to
>> >>> freak out at the sign of something close to but just a little
>> >>> different to us should be invited into a discussion of race,
>> >>> disability, transgender, and so on.
>> >>>
>> >>> But the "robots" there were just automata, not AI, and not much more
>> >>> technically advanced than the automata of Europe and Japan 200+ years
>> >>> ago. They're objects of delight, the same way.
>> >>>
>> >>> On the plane to the airport, back in Melbourne, I was sitting opposite
>> >>> two Middle Eastern kids who were cradling a robot baby. I'd heard
>> >>> about these - automaton infants that cry etc to teach youngsters what
>> >>> it would mean if they got pregnant as teens. They were as embarrassed
>> >>> as all hell to have to be carrying this thing around in public. They
>> >>> obviously came from a refugee family, too, given our neighborhood.
>> >>>
>> >>> The robots V. warned us about are none of these but, to me, are more
>> >>> like the drone pilots that carry out missions in the Middle East.
>> >>> 12-hour shifts in a dull portable in the Nevada desert, disconnected
>> >>> from the acts they're carrying out on a muted screen, and forbidden
>> >>> from discussing any of this when they get back home each day. That's
>> >>> humanity driving itself into the deathkingdom.
>> >>> -
>> >>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>
>
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