Full automation – has somehow entered our vocabulary recently, but what were the 1960s expectations on a TV show. In many ways, such predictions were both over-inflated and too optimistic, at the same time they have a retro-future air that is so typical for such mid-century modernity that is mostly white, suburban and manly. That being said we cannot confront the promises, fears and expectations of today’s AI revolution and robotics without actually looking back about how these things got presented, marketed, and forgotten. We should also see this embrace of robotics and naive computing in contrast with the 1970s pessimism and incipient techno-criticism that was also mirrored in some of the best SF of that era such as Shockwave Rider by John Brunner, a blueprint for the future 1980s generation of cyberpunk authors.
2227 – Total Recall and Prosthetic Memory (Cuck Philosophy 2023)
Goes witouth saying that I am a fan of Jonas Ceika (you can check his YT channel as well as his book ABOUT HOW TO PHILOSOPHIZE WITH A HAMMER AND SICKLE). Support his Patreon and his channel – his in-depth dive into various philosophers as well as historical revolutionary movements is a thing to keep posted about.
Getting across pesky copyright bots on YT is a feat in itself – and Jonas has struggled to keep this educative video online. I really wish that it will not get flagged again and again since it is such an incredible and sharp take on Total Recall, done in a way that does honor to PKD vision. I am really happy to have included this video in our Timisoara Indecis art space show dedicated to the historical xenogenesis of the SF. It is both a way to revisit a classic of mutant struggle on Mars and a way to discover theoretical contributions (Alison Landsberg). Following Landsberg, Ceika brings to bear how such widespread popular mass media products become widely available and non-exclusive memories, with a political progressive potential that was unavailable to older more exclusive forms. He also picks up on role of such memory implants in the work of PKD and Verhoeven’s 1990 classic.
Prosthetic Memory is a critical look at this Verhoeven classic as well as a good introduction to the modern/post-modern divide, without the usual misunderstandings or hate associated online with the so-called strawmen of “cultural Marxism”.
2226 – NENIS alienism (music videos 2021-2023)
I have just discovered the Nenis phenomenon. I would have missed it completely if it wasn’t for Cristian Dragan – an inveterate online digger, Tik Toker, and Romanian urban weird studies collector supreme. I am a nuub whenever the Romanian scene is concerned. I feel all that is mostly because I am missing Tik Tok and may only plunge in that cyber dungeon when I will get a new phone that will allow me to change apps. Anyway Cristian shared this minimalist reptilian-themed video by Nenis – as a novel Lorin Fortuna urban metamorphosis. It is basically an animation with the head of some US state department during some conferences morphing on some bleak trap lyrics into a reptilian leader of the world. Nenis’s videos are full with alien and UFO references. Somehow this has to do with him embracing his outcast position (that he sings about in another video).
Being the weird one out, the “alien”, the only “extraterrestrial” in the hood means embracing the atypical, non-standard celeb status. This is an important part of the Nenis online persona even if I base my conclusions on some very general lines. Of course, there is heaps of post-irony, LULZ and also a lot of parody and sarcasm about the “normie” macho standards as well as the online universe being something else – having more to do with dime shows and the origins of entertainment as a questionable activity. Tik tok has maybe more to to with a modern-day online freakshow for me, a bizarre talent show where everyone can display a huge range of behaviours, bodies and attitudes. Displaying disabilities and the act of having biological being the main attraction at the midway, “an organized for-profit exhibition of people with physical, mental or behavioral rarities during the 18th, 19th and 20th century.”
At the same time as Robin James has pointed out in numerous articles social platforms work now by extracting value out of these behaviors and alignments. In many ways Nenis stands in the tradition of the vaudeville or amusement parks, and I do not mean this in a derogatory way, but as someone interested in the history of wonder shows, of the role in making leisure an important part of life and combining science and technology with amazement and wonder.
Of course that pseudo-sciences and racist fads were part of this tradition- and at the same time great institutions, natural history museums and human oddity collections can never extricate themselves from it completely since ‘specimens’ were often collected from these very shows. It was also work, and a tough and very exploitative way to earn a living for the performers themselves. At the same time since late 1960s pop stars have been using the UFO vernacular culture and pop idiom to pimp up their act and to use the otherworldliness of the alien to make “difference” and “the alternative” as a central part of the cultural mainstream. In this sense, the Romanian trap musician Nenis is in a tradition that stretches back to Space Oddity David Bowie. The underbelly of global culture is full of conspiracies, Area 51, Cold War memories and even a sort of supernaturalism or rather sub-naturalism that has to deal with the fact that we are all alone in an indifferent universe and on a planet that is teetering under multiple crisis.
In a strange way, I also link this with the fact that standards of beauty have been questioned on all platforms and body shaming has been successfully criticized online. This also works the other way around.
2225 – terrible Steven Seagal videos (Space Ice)
I was duly impressed when I watched my first Steven Seagal (in late 1980s) in his debut Above the Law. The combination of chops, poney tail sprinkled with Oriental mystique, and the fact that he was a 7 dan black belt in aikido made him impressive to a teenage kid grown on Van Damme, Stallone, Schwartzie, Jackie Chan, Chuck Norris, and the like. Later on, it was not hard to deny that something was definitely wrong with his movies. Not only did he manage to kick and humiliate people that did not match his stature or strength but all this senseless violence combined transformed him into one of the most ridiculous action heroes ever. Also unknown to most, he is a supporter of Vladimir Putin.
Yeah, you got that right. He refers to Putin as “one of the great living world leaders” in one interview. He also has Russian and Serbian citizenship and in 2018 he was appointed special envoy to the US. In February 27, 2023, he received the Russian Order of Friendship from Vladimir Putin. He is to be seen with some of the most horrific, anti-democratic, and authoritarian strong-men around, including Duterte of the Philipines. On May 30, 2021, the pro-Kremlin systemic opposition party A Just Russia — Patriots — For Truth announced that Seagal had received an official membership card to the party. In August 2022, he visited Olenivka in Donetsk Oblast, the site of the Olenivka prison massacre with Donetsk People’s Republic leader Denis Pushilin, who claimed that Seagal was filming a documentary about the war in Donbas. Seagal also met with Leonid Slutsky. Adam Curtis has been trying to transform Russian post-spectacle politics during Putin in a sort of post-modern political laboratory, where “non-linear warfare” is being forged. One can also say that unwittingly Seagal showed that post-modernity does not really cut in, and that straight-to-DVD or bad movies have a lot more to say about the current situation.
Also, it may come as no surprise that numerous women during 1996 – 2018 accused Segal of sexual harassment and assault.
And then there came a YT (hate?) channel basically practically dedicated to bashing him, showing how atrocious the scripts to his movies are or how hateful a character he manages to be, or how incredibly stupid all the other characters and scenes are. Anyway, it is not my call to say if he is or is not the most terrible human being alive, but I guarantee some well-earned laughs.
Under Siege (1992)
timespace coordinates: 1992 battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) – (Pearl Harbor / Pacific Ocean)
Under Siege is a 1992 American action thriller film directed by Andrew Davis, written by J. F. Lawton, and starring Steven Seagal as a former Navy SEAL who must intercept a group of mercenaries, led by Tommy Lee Jones, after they commandeer the U.S. Navy battleship Missouri. (wiki)
2224 – 12 Monkeys (TV Series 2015–2018)
spacetime coordinates: Original Timeline: 1955 US > 1987 Tokyo > 2013 Baltimore, Maryland > 2015 Chechnya, NY > 2016 Manhattan on the day of the Chinese New Year > 2017 (the M5-10 virus kills 7 billion people) > 2030’s Western VII Quarantine Zone / Spearhead > 2041 – 2043 Project Splinter // Alternate 2015 / 2043 // Third Timeline: 2016 <> 2044 // Fourth Timeline: 1925 – 1944 US – 1950’s NY / 1961 East Berlin / 2044 <> 1971 – 1975 US / 2044 <> 2016 / 2020 Spearhead / 2044 // Fifth Timeline: 1852 American frontier / 1891 London / 1917 – 1922 (fr) <> 2045 <> 1940 France / 1953 Hope Valley / 1989 US / 2046, 2047 / 2163 / 1491 /// Titan (a massive time-traveling industrial facility) __detailed timeline here__
12 Monkeys is an American television series on Syfy created by Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett. It is a science fiction mystery drama with a time traveling plot loosely adapting the 1995 film of the same name, which was written by David and Janet Peoples and directed by Terry Gilliam, itself being inspired by Chris Marker’s 1962 featurette La Jetée; the series credits Marker and both Peoples for their original works.
In the series, Aaron Stanford and Amanda Schull star as James Cole and Dr. Cassandra “Cassie” Railly, two strangers destiny brought together on a mission to use time travel to stop the destructive plans of the enigmatic organization “Army of the 12 Monkeys”. Kirk Acevedo, Noah Bean, Todd Stashwick, Emily Hampshire, Tom Noonan, Scottie Thompson, Alisen Down, Brooke Williams and Barbara Sukowa also star. (wiki)
2223 – Infinity Pool (2023)
spacetime coordinates: 2020’s Second World seaside country of Li Tolqa
Infinity Pool is a 2023 (Canada-Croatia-Hungary coproduction) science fiction horror film written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg, starring Alexander Skarsgård, Mia Goth, and Cleopatra Coleman. The film follows a struggling writer and his wife on vacation who, after an accident, discover the country’s dark culture. (wiki)
2222 – Stargate (1994)
spacetime coordinates: 1994 Earth / desert planet of Abydos
Stargate is a 1994 science fiction adventure film directed and co-written by Roland Emmerich. The film is the first entry in the Stargate media franchise and stars Kurt Russell, James Spader, Jaye Davidson, Alexis Cruz, Mili Avital, and Viveca Lindfors. The plot centers on the premise of a “Stargate“, an ancient ring-shaped device that creates a wormhole, enabling travel to a similar device elsewhere in the universe. The film’s central plot explores the theory of extraterrestrial beings having an influence upon human civilization. (wiki)
imdb // Cancelled film sequels // Reboot
TimeSpace Warps 