Re: The Spike

Damien Broderick (damien@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au)
Fri, 15 Aug 1997 11:02:01 +0000


At 05:47 AM 8/14/97 -0500, Eli wrote in response to:

>> `Hmm. And Damien, tell me, what will people be wearing in 2050?'

> when someone asks such a question, it
>indicates they have Failed To Get The Point. Shock treatment is indicated
<snip>

> "Well, fashions come in cycles. Around 2050, I'd expect a Back-To-Nature
>movement to get started. <nifty delirium snipped> ... fashion may make
people look like idiots, but
>frontal lobotomies will never become popular. <more good stuff snipped>

I like it! Actually, that's pretty much what I *did* say - quick gestures
at multiple optional limbs, easy sex change, uploading into VRs morphed by
the imagination; all this did, of course, was halt the flow, alas, because
I was dealing with bizzy, glitzy, secondhand-car-ad-mouthers here on
jittery drive-time radio.

However, as Greg Egan's terrific novel DISTRESS suggests, while lobotomies
might not ever be a fashion statement, elective autism might be.

But as the old saying puts it so wisely: `I'd rather have a free bottle in
front of me than a pre-frontal lobotomy.'

Damien Broderick