Not-thingy

        Dos said, I have been reading articles by a professor who is having to camouflage herself with anonymity, in order to protect her institution from funding cuts to all departments, except the business school. She writes that the digi-kidz like her who haven’t adopted a business model on every aspect of their existence are being burnt at the stake with flames of humiliation. She claims the gig economy is rampant in academia.

        Dollcee said, isn’t that how witches were dealt with back in the really olden days?

        Dos said, first it was the monks, they were patronized by the leaders of mankind to enable them to concentrate on negotiating an understanding between heaven and earth. Heaven said, pass onto to the citizens that if they work hard, they will get rewarded for their efforts when they arrive up here in the eternal bliss of heaven. Then, the academics replaced the monks and the heavens were replaced with the flags of nationhood. The academics were seduced with a position for life in exchange for reinforcing the new belief system. Then, digitolism, the arrival of the infinite naughts, why be a millionaire, when you can be a kazillionaire. In a couple of centuries, gone are the magical monks, the mysterious academics and now, business schools, the wizards with numbers beyond comprehension.

        Dollcee said, we are digi-kidz and we are not into mega-huge-giant-humongous numbers or business modelling. In fact, we can’t even make it into the gig-economy.

        Cybo began to show signs of emerging from low energy mode and finally said, I believe that we have achieved something we should be exceptionally proud of, we are below the gig-economy and yet we somehow manage to keep breathing, hydrating and taking in enough nutrition to keep functioning as popular culture content makers.

        Dollcee said, thanks to Dos’s grandmother for her support.

        Dos said, that’s it, citizens confuse their expectations with their current existence. They do not distinguish between cultural entertainment and their own semi-autonomous bio-structures, because their reality is the cultural language generated in their own neural networks.

        Dollcee said, we are normal, ordinary citizens, who can understand what you have pointed out Dos. I doubt very much, that the exceptionalists, will be able to accept that they are not individuals and the major part of their consciousness is really only a constant stream of culturally generated language.

        Cybo said, I am a semi-autonomous bio-logical structure operated by a neural network switching system that responds to my sensors, also known as a citizen. I hope that I neither conflict with or offend other citizens and exist with them for a reasonable period before my functionality degrades and I decompose back into lots of separated tiny pulses of energy.

        Dos asked, is the biological structure more important than the intelligence stored in the neural network’s memory, or are they equal?

        Dollcee said, I would really, really, truly; like to ask several celebrities that question Dos.

        Cybo said, digi-kidz have inherited a vast array of legacy issues that are either going to be passed onto who ever or whatever comes next. The bright sparks that promised so much with the industrial revolution, passed on a potential disaster for us digi-kidz, so we better get to work and start talking instead of making more useless and dangerous things.

        Dollcee said, I think that professor has a good point, stop the business of making and consuming things and keep talking, or least make ‘not-thingy’ digital content.

        Padoke, mumbled, what does that mean?