Seq A: Phobias > Phlesh

There are so many things to imaginatively fear. Phobias (from a to z, including fear of washing [ablutophobia], fear of the wind [anemophobia], fear of infinity [apeirophobia], fear of ventriloquists' dummies [automatonophobia], fear of beautiful women [caligynephobia], fear of mirrors [catoptrophobia], fear of gaiety [cherophobia {should be cheerophobia}], fear of snow [chionophobia], fear of dancing [chorophobia], fear of colours [chromatophobia], coitophobia, fear of undressing in the presence of another [dishabillophobia], ithyphallophobia [see Min in Seq 2, phallophores and picadores], fear of empty space [or voids: kenophobia], fear of words [{not an e*sequiturs reader!} logo- or verbophobia], fear of clouds [nephophobia], fear of rain [pluviophobia], fear of wet dreams [oneirogmophobia], non-belief in the properties of sensory experiences [qualophobia; qualia evoking inverted spectra and feral children], fear of love play [sarmassaphobia {cf. sarcophagus; malaxophobia}], fear of shadows [sciaphobia], fear of clothing [vestiphobia {see*sequitur 24}], the understandable fear of razors [see Un chien andalou in e*sequitur 9: xyrophobia] and fear of god(s) [zeuso- {better godo}phobia {in anachronistically (if this is a period of benevolence) wide practice even today}]) may entertain us (as More said the mentally handicapped should in his Utopia; see*sequitur 51), but they present very real anguish for those who experience them. On the other hand, we (trogwired) instinctively know that we must be tropo- and neophobic, fearing

e*sequitur 65: change, and the new.
As noted earlier, it has been averred that there is nothing new under the sun. Not only could nothing be further from the truth (tempting as it may be to do so, veridicality/alethiology will not be addressed in e*sequiturs, but rather later), but it may emphatically be observed that newness abounds. For examples, the human race in Ga 4.570002008 is confronted by the entirely new concepts of 1) the finity of terran resources (note that this is credibly claimed to be a short-term problem soon to be technically [if not societally] solved by nanobiomiracles [or at a more mundane level using current technology as noted in the following exchange:

Interlocutor: "Agriculture today is said to produce enough food to nourish everyone on earth if distribution is optimised."

Randroid {see Seq E; 17 August Ga 4.570002008}: "And how fun would that {reducing (.05 livestock grain use efficiency compared to vegetarianism, ntm the boggling twenty percent of associated total plantetary greenhouse gas emissions) meat intake} be?"

]) and 2) industrial environmental impact (also claimed technically resolvable), whose certain future impacts in advance of soteriological resolution will be massive die-offs (welcomed, as usual, by some not-among-those-expecting-to-perish loaded-dice-rolling First Worlders [their existence the world's moral hazard, they having none]) and the annihilation of our [and undoubtedly other] species, if not the entire biosphere, respectively. For another example, the human race is now confronted by the also entirely new concept of the certain-to-be-achieved ability to render humanity obsolete through genetechnological means (aka the Technological Singularity [see*sequitur 49], ne plus ultrarian computers and computer-human hybrids), suggesting that we are at the also entirely new under the sun unprecedented fork in the road (see*sequitur 45) of Ultimate Moral Choice, which will probably be the unprecedented Final Illusion, given the unprecedented power of the genies whose bottles we (frivolous fumbling [thanx Bill S., Troilus and Cressida] fricators) continue rubbing, and the never-ending bad actions of brazen gangsters (e.g., governments, religionists and materialists [whose mercenaries, manipulators and giant bipedal anthrolocusts have proven indefatigable so far]) and social sabotage by anonymous vandals (speciocide a novel genetic strategy) (for those redeing for content, this is a major moment in e*sequiturs). When planetary extinction (see Seq F) will be achieved nanobotically (soon doable) or by genebioterrorism is unpredictable with date certainty (legal term; again, see Seq F), but that these phenomena will occur is given ("because they [including packet monkeys and script kiddies] can").

Of course, humanity can choose to take constructive action to optimise the lives of fellow humans, to optimise the operations of civilisation, to optimise resource utilisation and preservation, and to perpetuate sustainability. This will require unified and accountable global leaders and citizens based on the not new literarily (e.g., Babel and Antichrist) but nevertheless new under the sun implementation of global government. The Biblical citations bear scrutiny: In the case of the former, the bad actor G*d actively thwarted humankind's succeeding effort to coexist harmoniously (Genesis 11):

5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of Adam were building. 6 And he said: Behold, it is one people, and all have one tongue: and they have begun to do this, neither will they leave off from their designs, till they accomplish them in deed. 7 Come ye, therefore, let us go down, and there confound their tongue, that they may not understand one another's speech. 8 And so the Lord scattered them from that place into all lands, and they ceased to build the city. 9 And therefore the name thereof was called Babel [note Borges' Total Library in Anapology and La biblioeca de Babel, in which the "order and content of the books is random and apparently completely meaningless...." and "containing a book that contains the log of all the other books; the librarian who reads it is akin to G*d...."], because there the language of the whole earth was confounded: and from thence the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of all countries.

(He [and while we're on the subject, let's be plain: to be against change, i.e., to be definitively conservative, is to be against creativity, innovation and improvement] should've been tossed on the dungheap then and there); in the case of the latter, the human race has endured plenty of hysterical and fallibly flawed pre•poc•a•lyp•te•dic•tions over the last two millennia; in any event, world government will need to be a team effort. If everything (Biblically) has its season, let's give this concept its, recognising for the first time in human history that different civilisational strategies are appropriate for different times, and that our new time demands a new approach.

In re Singularitarians ([Read Me] Vinge: "... while mind and self will be vastly more labile than in the past...") (their one-dimensional axiological measure being "intelligence," expecting, in fittingly financioscientific parlance [the perfect metaphor for misanalogy to Darwinism: conflating said relational intelligence or financial success with civilisational benefit or personal genetic viability], their Omega Point Pavlovian pellet payout [Ulam {Manhattan Project partipant and delver into ergodic theory, harmonic analysis and the conjectural L-function (and note "almost everywhere" [presque partout] mathematical proof terminology)}:

"... [S]ome essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue."

] [Understand: They want this, choosing Nozick's Experience Machine {and note the neurally controlled animat} over real life.]): In the spirit of innovation (not fearing the new), let's give them their own private laboratory, sealed very tightly, with one-way windows in. That way they can implement their eugenic (credit them this: there's nothing crypto- about their agenda) program, cloning and experimenting on themselves and their own children, and "living" the post-human hybrot/bioroid lives they adulate. Based on their outcomes, the rest of us can make an informed decision as to which (if any) parts of their generobotopia (note the ambiguously pliant/mute golem ["It is said that if a golem were made able to speak, that would give it a soul, and - because a golem cannot be made perfectly - that ability could make it very dangerous"] below and see Seq 8) to implement. Although futures oddsmen will take no bets on their success, extinction date (see Seq F) wagers will be warmly accepted. May they valedictorially do what they wilt (cf. e*sequitur 82).

It may be passively noted in passing that the Singularity is not a black swan theoretical event (being fully anticipated), but that plans for managing its impact should be made. Soon, the restive mass of formerly conforming childadults (pronounce as you wish; recommend chilled' uh dults') will require reprogramming if they are not to attempt peaceable assembly (the First Amendment now neutralized by technology: no need to permit this in the present: sound cannons [LRADs {new window} {MADE IN U.S.A.}] are at the ready). The anecdotal prevalence of thanatophobia likely reflects fear of the unknown, and because it defines a kind of

e*sequitur 66: finity.
This full stop is the definitive endword for realised Endism (noting finitism, ultrafinitism and ultraintuitionism, all, thankfully, mathematical concepts [caution: one cannot understand economic politics without mathematical understanding of such fundamental concepts as TRPF]). Its opposite (> transfinity and game semantics, which are highly relevant to personal philosophies, given human strategies for survival), personal endlessness (immortality), is apparently desired both humously (altruistic extropians/transhumanists [who would be mortified to be mistaken for practitioners of fixed or nomadic transhumance! {and contrast the lifestyles of transhumous snowbirds ("dating from colonial times") and migrant workers}]) and posthumously (some religionists [noting that this ruck, unwilling to let the well enough alone, also has prehumous pretensions {claiming the preborn to be born (please don't waste your time with this); no relation to transhumousness} and makes humous presumptions {life is an ordeal preceding an ideal afterlife (see*sequitur 78)}]), depending on the persuasion of the adherent. Both groups agree that personal infinity is desirable based on antipodal perspectives, being the pleasantness (chronivores and infinivives [hela cellists?]) or unpleasantness (heavenists and paradisiacs) of life on earth (it's been said before, but they can't both be right, although, tautologically, they can both be [dead, as it were] wrong). The first group hopes to live for, say, 800 years at minimum (forever preferred); the latter optimistically hopes that members' individual souls will live forever. Some believe in soul dualism (e.g., body soul and free soul); Hungarian and Eskimo (translation: "People who speak a different language") mythologies conceive the shadow soul (and Japanese death poems [and see*sequitur 12], such as this haiku by Bokusui, are dignified:

Jisei nado
zansetsu ni ka mo
nakarikeri

). These speculations of

e*sequitur 67: futurity
(recalling Laplace's predictive if bored [omniscient] demon in Anapology) suggest that neither group has thought through the implications of these hoped-for states, seemingly accepting their desirability without question. We may ask whether, perhaps, Methuselahan longevity might not be all it's cracked up to be; and if infinite (here again we encounter Sr Borges, whose Aleph [golem activation key: truth from death] "is a point in space that contains all other points. Anyone who gazes into it can see everything in the universe from every angle simultaneously, without distortion, overlapping or confusion" and, "in a postscript... [in Cairo] there is said to be a stone pillar that contains the entire universe; although this Aleph cannot be seen, it is said that those who put their ear to the pillar can hear it" [at this point, you can skip the remainder of e*squiturs y, agradablemente, dedica sus años restantes a su trabajo]) idling in any locale might be, say, hellish (see*sequitur 29). Whatever else they may be, fleshen immortality and posterior eternal life at their cores represent abstract persistence and allayment of primordial fear, respectively. These Phobians (Phobes), of course, contrast with

e*sequitur 68: philes
(philians, philos and philiacs) (just as pessimists and optimists occupy the antipodes [confused nihilophiles vacillate]). The latter, partialists (either self-serving religious elitists or the fetishistic), are a grinning crew, eager, antic (and romantic), always on the lookout for something to befriend (it's a bit nauseating, actually), such as wisdom (-sophy; for what good it does them), fecal matter (copro-, such as by the absurd Koshare Kachina [see*sequitur 76] clown, also urobibulous [see*sequitur 31]) and even fear itself (phobophobia/phobiphilia [disclosure: I made these up]), noting that we as a species will certainly need to embrace this one, fearlessly, or otherwise shake fear's genetic shackles (a constructive use of Cornucopian transhumanists' time, as would be universal distribution of touted intelligence enhancement and nanomanufactured food and medicine).

The Phile Set includes mediocritist koinophiles (mating preference for the non-eccentric average [N.B. Fittest = Most Average {see Satire}]), agalmatophiliacs (Pygmalionists and sex doll availers-of), forniphiliacs (human furniturians: Sade, Sacher-Masoch and Bettie Page memelineal branch) and the charismatic chronophiles. Philes include exceptional allophiles (Golden Rulers [see Seneca's caste mitigating directive in Seq E] and out-of-caste(tribe)-o-philes), no doubt cryptozoic (see*sequitur 95), and Greek androphiles, symposiast rhetoricians orating

e*sequitur 69: γνοθι σεαυτον
(gnothi seauton, "Know thyself") (cf. the Socratean "I know that I am non-knowing [i.e., that I am uncertain]" and the unoptimistic Ignoramus et ignorabimus ["we don't and won't know"]), the widely attributed aphorism. (This imperative is opposite in spirit to navel gazing: its intention is critical self-awareness - an examined life. Thoreau (Walden):

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

[Self-realisation is another matter.]) These two words convene a cast of e*sequiturs' characters and concepts, including the aforementioned omphaloskepsis, arete and the Stoics, and introduce new ones, including paideia, the Golden Mean and extrospection (a close reder may connect this term to the e*sequitrean method itself).

e*sequitur 70: The hoarding of knowledge,
the simultaneous scourge and hope ("Pourquoi, M e*sequitrist," you ask, "hope?" Because, dear reder, like Anti-Progressives, hoarders slow the speed of change to a tolerable level, buying us time, which we desperately need. This is debatable, given the clock-running strategy employed by the APs with entirely different intent, and the employment of hyperchange as a one-step-ahead-of-accountability strategy most recently added to the AP playbook [i.e., globalisation].) of futurity, has its precedents. Paper was invented in China in Ga 4.570000105, and the process for its manufacture was held secure for 500 years by a civilisation that not only knew how to keep a secret, but also knew that all conflict isn't military in nature, with more sophisticated variants engaged on economic and intellectual fronts. Of course, this civilisation also produced Sun Tzu (a military theoretician who counseled his clients to avoid war and occupation in the apparently either unredd or uncomprehended or uncredited in United States State Department, intelligence or military academies Art of War) and a period of 500 years of relative stability (ca. Ga 4.570001400-900); it also has no compunctions about torture ([like the Inquisition and Americans] with putrid names which will not be included in e*sequiturs) and places no value on human life. Mark this well.

Anti-knowledgians (malexemplified by the Spanish Inquisition [we may ask, "Porque España?"] [delivered, perverting a fine word for knowledge-seeking to justify torture]) held sway in Europe during the period of the emergence of the book (like Fr. Savonarola in e*sequitur 23, they failed). Today, their descendents are petty venalians (let's pejoratively label them Pevs) in publishing and merchantalia (cf. plural voters in e*sequitur 29). These may disingenuously claim absolution given that they are merely following the order of the current transaction-based economic system. We may note well that this system accepts as given (indeed promotes) the intentional withholding of knowledge, and knowledge asymmetry, falsely inflating the value of knowledge. Most important, it inhibits the exchange of ideas and thus retards the flow of human understanding (this ought to be the Ultimate, Timeless and Unforgivable Damnation Enough). Although competition may create a frenetic consuming society (Prodigo, ergo sum[!]) (the value of which in a world of finite resources is numerically negative), it is the worst model possible for a society whose success depends on the dissemination of knowledge. In a world in which we have an overabundance of data, information and knowledge, we suffer from intentional refusal to distribute same, ntm an ironic lack of interpretation/explanation, lack of contextualisation and lack of overarching perspective. In this world, the less we know the worse off we will surely, collectively be. A recalibration of priorities and operating principles is in order. Or, we can simply accept Swift's modest proposal and engage in wholesale

e*sequitur 71: cannibalism (new window; place cursor at end of address and hit return)
under the Orwellian pretext of affinity. Anthropophagists, a special class of philes (Endocannibals eat their own from respect; exocannibals [cf. {the Wendigo possessed Jikininki opsophagos?} Ayn Rand in e*sequitur 38] partake of outsiders from perceived self-interest [and, if thrifty, note that "the skin of which artificially dressed will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen"]; "grey goo" [cf. Image, Seq 2] global ecophagists are indifferent plasmavores.), undeniably do like other people. Their actual existence, historically disputed, is common-sense credible; their real numbers include cavemen (Neanderthals) and, allegedly (colonial pretexts for expulsion, slavery and extermination compromise such claims) Caribs, and the Fore of Papua New Guinea (see*sequitur 95), who were speculated to have contracted the prion disease kuru ("laughing sickness") through mortuary cannibalism (see sky burial in e*sequitur 40). Instances of mythological and fictional meateating include the aforementioned shark brains ( Seq 1), evoking meatspace (= the real, physical world [= the universe {at least one of its inhabitants, the Milky Way (beatific in its dark matter halo), nibblingly cannibalising the Large Magellanic Cloud, which orbits our galaxy every 2.5 billion years} being a "running meatspace implementation"] [it is here that we encounter the highly entertaining anti-realists, {à la Magritte's pipe} apparently engaged in "construals" regarding other "minds {such as they are, distracted by episodes of koro (not kora from e*sequitur 59) aka genital retraction syndrome, a culture-specific phenom [this family including pibloktoq {arctic hysteria, whose symptoms include coprophagia (cf. Hexspeak's magic numbers OxDEFEC8ED and OxBADBADBADBAD [following the snake parable in Natural Born Killers, naturally unavailable unline {merci beaucoup, singes volants]), echolalia and outdoors-in-the-snow stark raving nudity}, dromomania {a transient illness indeed}, Korean fan death {and, in the ultimate insult to our canine friends, gutang or yeongyangtang} and unexplained dermopathy]), at this point in human history:

"During September 2003, mass hysteria spread through Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, which was ultimately quelled by police intervention and statements made by the health minister. The panic was caused by rumors of foreigners roaming the city and shaking men's hands, making their penises disappear. The rumors were spread rapidly by text messages on cellular phones...."

}... natural numbers... or even thought"] [and here that we again encounter the acosmists, deniers of the reality of the universe {this misleading, since acosmists advocate the Infinite Absolute, thinking Tat Tvam Asi; (the empty "You are that") cf. G*d in Exodus in Seq 5}]) and human wetware (telebiometrically defined here, but don't bother).

* * *

> Seq B

* * *

Image: Lemniscate
on cumulus humilis ("humble heap"; fair weather) clouds