This also makes me think of the concept for androids in Ridley Scott's very flawed Prometheus, (and the Alien series as a whole). This promotion with Michael Fassbender as David 8 nails it exactly, and the role of an android in capitalism, even though the ball was massively dropped in the full length film and the character eventually went full cartoon.
Behind this I think there is a simple logic, a machine society selects for machines. It gets a little blurry, did the androids and their value system create the capitalist machine, or is just the interplay between the emergent structure (from history) and the kinds of people it empowers and rewards?
This Human vs. Android, sounds on the average citizen level like male vs female, in a contemporary world where women are now granted ontological priority and sole moral authority. Talk about a foundation for male nihilism!
Is it true that the romantic ideal is collapsing--that the dominant political/social form is now
a highly individualized, sacred female desire.
Is it true that most women today want emotionally available men who will admire them, but not dominant them, who are strong, but not harsh, present, but not demanding reciprocity.
Lots of men seem to be reacting to this situation by largely withdrawing from social, economic and relational concerns while simultaneously exhibiting greater and greater resentment at being encased
in a demand structure that to them only advocates becoming a a second degree women.
Are male figures more than comic helpers, affective nurses or cheerful allies? This social dynamic seems to erase the paternal and elevate the maternal as being the only legitimate ethical guide.
What I am arguing is often portrayed as far-right extremism but in truth is simply a demand for some legitimacy of the Male way of being.
What we may have in the U.S. today is a type of postliberal identity absolutism, accelerating the road to social collapse.
No, I think you misunderstood my comment. I see the male as primarily a moral island--tending to be quite comfortable standing alone. I see the male often as a human being without the proper sympathy of feeling or empathy. For myself, an increased capacity for connection and empathy helped me live this long--such capacities I tend to see as more female.
But I also feel that our culture may have gone overboard in so completely endorsing this female form of being. I believe I called it postliberal identity absolutism.
Terrific response. No, I am an 82 year old guy married for 46 years but an active participant in a men's discussion group (all white) that runs from ages 35 to 86.
Many of the guys are what I would call good liberal married progressives who seem quite comfortable in verbally accepting their role as white male oppressors. Remember I said "seem."
In my youth I was on the far-left. Was going to help lead a revolution. Did political organizing for 14 years, with all efforts failing. Then began a long agonizing reflection on how I was so wrong about so many things.
Operated a "research firm" for 40 years which wrote people's dissertations and theses.
The corruption in the field of higher education is vastly understated based on a life-time of experience in such corruption.
Thanks for this essay and the link to PKDs. It is extraordinary how he seems to have anticipated the current AI / LLM world.
This also makes me think of the concept for androids in Ridley Scott's very flawed Prometheus, (and the Alien series as a whole). This promotion with Michael Fassbender as David 8 nails it exactly, and the role of an android in capitalism, even though the ball was massively dropped in the full length film and the character eventually went full cartoon.
https://youtu.be/9lOSh7diZfY?si=tloHM5W0x9goxzuu
Behind this I think there is a simple logic, a machine society selects for machines. It gets a little blurry, did the androids and their value system create the capitalist machine, or is just the interplay between the emergent structure (from history) and the kinds of people it empowers and rewards?
This Human vs. Android, sounds on the average citizen level like male vs female, in a contemporary world where women are now granted ontological priority and sole moral authority. Talk about a foundation for male nihilism!
Is it true that the romantic ideal is collapsing--that the dominant political/social form is now
a highly individualized, sacred female desire.
Is it true that most women today want emotionally available men who will admire them, but not dominant them, who are strong, but not harsh, present, but not demanding reciprocity.
Lots of men seem to be reacting to this situation by largely withdrawing from social, economic and relational concerns while simultaneously exhibiting greater and greater resentment at being encased
in a demand structure that to them only advocates becoming a a second degree women.
Are male figures more than comic helpers, affective nurses or cheerful allies? This social dynamic seems to erase the paternal and elevate the maternal as being the only legitimate ethical guide.
What I am arguing is often portrayed as far-right extremism but in truth is simply a demand for some legitimacy of the Male way of being.
What we may have in the U.S. today is a type of postliberal identity absolutism, accelerating the road to social collapse.
.
le
.
>This Human vs. Android, sounds on the average citizen level like male vs female,
In what way? What about PKD and his android v human sounds like male v female? What in his writings would make you draw that conclusion?
"A human being without the proper sympathy of feeling, is the same as an android..."
"they're androids--moral islands...They have no empathy..."
"The human is weaker and gentler than the android..."
Bright into my imagination the female form of being
That’s pretty crazy that you lived till 82 and you are essentializing women and see them as androids/machines. This is some stepford wives level shit.
No, I think you misunderstood my comment. I see the male as primarily a moral island--tending to be quite comfortable standing alone. I see the male often as a human being without the proper sympathy of feeling or empathy. For myself, an increased capacity for connection and empathy helped me live this long--such capacities I tend to see as more female.
But I also feel that our culture may have gone overboard in so completely endorsing this female form of being. I believe I called it postliberal identity absolutism.
Are you a single man I assume?
Terrific response. No, I am an 82 year old guy married for 46 years but an active participant in a men's discussion group (all white) that runs from ages 35 to 86.
Many of the guys are what I would call good liberal married progressives who seem quite comfortable in verbally accepting their role as white male oppressors. Remember I said "seem."
In my youth I was on the far-left. Was going to help lead a revolution. Did political organizing for 14 years, with all efforts failing. Then began a long agonizing reflection on how I was so wrong about so many things.
Operated a "research firm" for 40 years which wrote people's dissertations and theses.
The corruption in the field of higher education is vastly understated based on a life-time of experience in such corruption.