Computers are an envelope, a metaphysical one! Techno-jargon distracts one from the fact that computers create a certain kind of human being, just as book reading creates a certain kind!

I wonder what you are thinking, Antlion.
I'm a bit long in the tooth now, and I don't think my use of computers has changed my behavior, if that is what you are getting at.
Rather, I believe I use the computer to stretch my capabilities - especially on joined-up-words!

By the way, welcome to mind brain!

I can well imagine that younger folk may develop differently since they are growing up with computers. For a start they will use more than one finger to type; I'm on my third one now!

Rhymer, you post of capabilities, sure enough, my friend. Hitherto, how does one come to speak of a 'capabilitity?' We have been given a state of mind handed down from antiquity-a manner of learning it rather. Everything around us educates. For Antlion it is about the media surrounding us, shaping us, making us. We are media; they are us! This website is a mind/brain undertaking, well, Antlion propounds that the mind only exists by what it brings in by the way of the senses, the brain also being a sensible organ solely formed and informed by media. You mention the keyboard in your post. This artifact, as an extension of ourselves, is one, while one is under its spell! The ground Antlion analyzes is right in front of our faces. Your finger on the keyboard turns you into a seraph with a set of wings, me too! Do you care to analyze the water your drinking? Living in the southern United States there are quite a few quaintisms around; however, new ones are always good to learn-what is the meaning of "joined-up" words? There is also a heavy connection between British cantor and southernisms, although that is changing; seems we are all becoming a suburb of Los Angeles, what an impoverishment!

Hi Antlion,

'joined up words' [or letters] [I don't know how localised the use of this quantism is], signify the advance from writing one letter at a time [as a child may write] to the flowing words of letters which are 'joined up', as in handwriting fonts. [I think what was on my mind was one fingered typing which is analogous to writing to one letter at a time]!

You talk of media and I would use 'information'.

Genes are information and without information life would be most boring!
But what is the purpose of this information?
What purpose does man serve on this planet?

"What purpose does man serve on this planet?" Does a man serve his own will to live as openly as possible? The most significant question is 'how one comes to ask such a question in the first place,' which leads back to a study of media, and once one has the answer, what does one do with the "information?" Does the information free one to act, emblematically, is the information useless? Are we free, as human beings, while discoursing on the internet? Are we free to live real-rightly? Its all catharsis now, so is praxis relevant, at all? If one asks a question is he not searching for freedom, for lack of a better concept. One could ask of Plato his definition of what it means to be free, but his answer is tied to the time period he lived in , for instance. Taking his example, however, he was railing against the poets of his day. We have all become petty Platonists, in all the questions we ask! Accordingly, why not ask a question about what is so close to the heart, that it is hard to comprehend in its taken-for-grantedness. In a battle can Antlion serve those around him, in fear or not, as an example. Battles take many forms in the serving. The purpose served may be the paradox of serving others, thereby exalting one's own will to live in fellowship!

I asked the question simply because I don't know the answer(s).
I subsequently wrote this poem.

Purpose Of Life

There is no purpose to life,
intended for all human beings.
It's for you to choose a direction;
according to your feelings.

Many hours can be spent on the motive, bent;
seeking a radical solution. There is no motive.
Just as you were not meant to be born
no predetermined role is set;; do not get emotive.

Spend your energy where you can achieve
what you make your lifelong ambition.
That will have been your purpose in life;
an opportunity changed to fruition.

Yet, does one seek an answer by the very touch of the keyboard, the light-through the computer screen, by asking technological questions, hiding the despair on the inside, like a trojan horse. The computer is a virtual hike into the wilderness. One never knows what awaits just around the next hollow, gap, or hill! "Do not get emotive" one says. Why does one say this? Is the emotion drained by wandering in too much open space? Detachment is such a blissful state-a legacy, given to us via Descartes. The computer is the terminus of what our friend Descartes started so many years back; it is the head detached from the senses/sensibilities, less human perhaps in its lack of totalness. Homer gave us the saga/drama in a complete narrative and living involvement. The philosophers then replaced it with an individual ego, Socrates to William James creating a split man, a man not needing emotion, a quest for heaven, instead of being in heaven, right now in the present. And, although the computer gives the illusion of being extremely simultaneous [this is why an ordinarily composed man can stay awake all night long surfing on the internet] what is it simultaneous with? It may be as simple as a moth being attracted to a burning light bulb. Our nervous systems are pulled by the light of the computer screen to stay put in a chair for hours, passively, non-emotively, real-rightly doing nothing! The balance of our senses is altered by the computer, whether one wants it or not. One really seeks a reactivation of interest on the internet-one wants to live in a vicarious way at best, but one cannot get blood from an angel! Rhymer lives by his objects not his mind. His objects are an extension of his being, of who he is-why should the computer be any different? Edward T. Hall: " Today man has developed extensions for practically everything he used to do with his body. The evolution of weapons begins with the teeth and the fist and ends with the atom bomb. Clothes and houses are extentions of man's biological temperature-control mechanisms. Furniture takes the place of squatting and sitting on the ground. Power-tools, glasses, TV, telephones, and books which carry the voice across both time and space are examples of material extensions. Money is a way of extending and storing labor. Our transportation networks now do what we used to do with our feet and backs. In fact, all man-made material things can be treated as extensions of what man once did with his body or some specialized part of his body."

The previous guest post was Antlion, forgetting to log in. Additionally, Technological layering produces many clients for the therapist's couch!

Hi Antlion,

You speak a lot of sense but may lack knowledge of the frailties of the human body.

I have little or no emotion - full stop.
I do not choose to so exist!
I cope with the lack of emotion!
I do not live 'by objects'; I expect them to disappear simultaneously, and don't bother when they so do!

I use my computer to occupy my mind, when I am not making or repairing 'things'.
It is an extension of information sources, and greater than all other sources added together, as long as one can employ sensible filters.
My tinnitus, I cannot disregard, I do at least not notice it whilst my mind is sufficiently occupied with anything which appears to interest it. Getting to sleep requires deep thought on complicated issues to 'hide' the 6.5khz constant whistle that is capable of initiating suicide in less fortunate individuals. I have to press lightly on my eyelids to stop what I call 'thunder', aptly named and occurring whenever it so chooses [usually as I try to fall asleep].
Without 'material extensions' I would have been dead several years ago!

Take care, Bill.

I'm sorry your tinnitus is so overwelming. Try some herbal remedies possibly ,which you have already done , surely. It is hard to know that the computer screen is really a mirror one looks into, only seeing oneself in a thousand different forms, thinking it is something else he is looking at! Just remember that whatever one says about someone else he is really saying about himself; hence, Antlion points the seraph-finger at himself as well, so please do not take offense at his musings! Do whatever it takes to fall asleep at night my friend! Take care, Ennis.

HI Ennis,

I take no offense at all!

Your earlier musing about 'fellowship' indicates a recognition in the value of being concerned for others being as equally important as for oneself.

Most people are either optimistic or pessimistic for most of the time.
I attempt to be an optipest; ie., making the best out of bad situations!

I must admit that I had never thought of seeking answers to questions as a search for freedom. It obviously is.
However, freedom is not my objective. Answers are the objective, ie., knowledge.
The freedom aspect is merely a 'classification of the action' issue, I suspect.

Bye for now, Bill.

Hi Bill,

The Ennis factor is now exposed ! (private joke here Ennis no pun intended upon your name)

My only question to this amusing thread is why Antlion cannot use the letter/word I when referring to himself ?

Or is my question really just -J- asking himself why -J- doesnt refer to himself in this manner ?

Ah, well back to the drawing board for me, btw I got the joined up writing bit but this joined up typing bit isnt going according to -J- s wishes

goodnight gentlemen

-J- or should I say -J-?

First person or third person one can still get the drift! We are all a passel of candy stealers, reckon? Lets make a connection between a medium and Denmark, specifically, Soren Kierkegaard-who was a medium in himself in constantly pushing the 'concept' of 'that individual.' Why would he so desire to have this maxim put on his gravestone, as he actully did desire, although Antlion is not sure whether or not it is actually on his headstone? He was trapped in deference to the 'concept' outside of himself. In other words, he was trapped in the library until the day he died [his main technological overlay]. This was an escape from his physical frailties and the intimacy he felt toward his girlfriend, Regina! He ate the bible, and the ink from the pages ran down his chin, and dripped onto the page, creating his books. So, what influenced what here? Gutenberg created Kiekegaard, reflected in his constant cantor regarding rotation and repetition. In the same year that he published 'Concept of Dread' the telegraph began hurling words, metaphysically, across great distances. The telegraph was one precusor to the computer, which has angelized man-his nervous system being drawn to it as a moth is drawn to a light bulb! But, is not the moth destroyed when he touches the bulb itself? The loss he felt, as a sign, his sense of powerlessness, stuck him to the medium of books, as a touchstone, in trying to 'feel.' He wanted to live. Live rightly he might not have been able to do, because of Plato's definitional legacy. It is the same aim, when -J-'s only real question concern's the 'person' one post's in! -J-, ask why one even has the wherewithal to ask the question in the first place, and why grammer?? Hence, we big dogs ask the big questions on the ever-expanding landscape of the computer. No more face-to-face discourse for us. No more breath and nuance. No more fear in the exchange. No more satisfaction calming one down in a plain-old horsey conversation! Are we less than human on the internet ? Have we taken flight from our sensorium! What did Kiekegaard dread in the form of the telegraph? A computer is an extension of the clock. Does one truly alive live his life solely by the clock? The computer clock, however, creates its own context, as opposed to an analog clock, which is based on the revolution of the earth around the sun! Just as Kierkegaard groped for an answer in his metaphysical detached box, so -J- and Antlion grope/fly, vicariously, in the background, really wondering where each other are hiding! The internet is a beautiful MUSE-the MUSE of anarchy!

Hi Antlion,

I have to agree with you on the point of computer use being impersonal.
It is not truly impersonal, but just seeing the written word, without having the benefit of tone and emphasis, so often causes confusion and sometimes anger (usually quite needlessly).

It was because of this that I bought a cheap headset, ie., headphones with a boom mike, and tried some 'Voip' (voice over internet protocol) software.
It works very well indeed. The program 'Skype' is freely available for this purpose at the moment.
Two users armed with such headset (typically £15) and a computer apiece can talk for free (apart from cost of getting onto the web) from any two points on the globe.
I think the only other requirement is that your internet address needs to be known, in order to set up the link.
This can change each time you log on to the web, but there are several programmes which will make your true address available if you have a website space on which to place a web page containing the address.

I am ready to go, but have no-one to talk to!

I am not computer literate, rightly, and will check into the 'skype' program for possible use; additionally, a program to mask the internet address seems complicated, but necessary. Computer use has always seemed a thought experiment, something transitory just so its sub-nature might be gleaned. Why does everyone do something that everyone else is doing? How does the machine pull one into it so completely, and so forth? A rather simple basis for the rants one can launch into, reckon?



It would be fun, if Antlion can pull off the tehnical aspects of the programs! There is a deep connection between the southern United States and the United Kingdom. The only real-right thingness left, though, is a common match on the words that are used between the both. Most people in the south do not even realize the nexus! Antlion would like to make some comparisons on slang and words used now between both areas. Talk at you later, young son! Think maybe your druthers might be my ruthers?