Will Thiel wait for us in the future as Dr Eldon Tyrell?

Peter Thiel: PayPal founder and libertarian futurist

Dr. Eldon Tyrell: a corporate figure in Blade Runner, presented almost as a a kind of deity who has the power of creating life

I think probably not because Thiel isn't really a visionary. He instead seems to spend most of his time playing in other people's sandboxes. Where there's public debate, he's simply a gadfly. The Tyrrell character at least had bioengineering credentials which gave his company a monopoly in the replicant industry, whereas here's Thiel again merely jumping on the bandwagon, as befitting sui generis futurism, by investing in 3D printed meat; the man who publicly decries democracy for humans apparently wants to be remembered as helping to spare animals from becoming our food. Thiel is notorious for wildly throwing money around at any technology he thinks will stick, which to him means capable of facilitating libertarian autonomy by eluding government regulation (and therefore unsubsidised by governments, so if individual consumers can't afford them, in Thiel's world you won't get to reap any of their benefits). His type is probably a dime a dozen on the futures market; the only difference is Thiel gets brand name recognition and therefore publicly because of his association with PayPal. He's clearly not original enough to patent any ideas worth investing in, and this will mean he will have a hell of a lot of ground to make up before he could seriously compete with established players, not least Monsanto, who already have a huge vested interest in biotech and the meat industry.

I have no doubt though that, in principle, Thiel's mindset would amount to a licence to create a future as dystopian as anything in Blade Runner (click on the link underneath his picture in this post for a further taste of what I mean). This goes all the way to Thiel's narcissistic plan to clone himself: here I am reminded of the scene written for Blade Runner that was never filmed. Batty appears to have killed Tyrell, but it later emerges that another section of the pyramidal (signifying plutocracy) corporate headquarters houses a shark swimming around in an enormous tank. Tyrell's brain, apparently for his personal protection and befitting the lack of sleep required for calibration to the rhythms of the market***, had been transplanted into the shark. Simply an incredible image of the parallels between the savage predators of the ocean and the predators of the corporate world. My speculations in this post (partly with tongue firmly planted in cheek) therefore suggest that although Thiel may be only low-hanging fruit, figuratively speaking, when compared to Tyrell in terms of an overall future social impact, he might at least achieve a comparable level of sentient immortality once he decides to use technologies to blur the species boundaries.

I should also point out that Thiel obviously doesn't appreciate how capitalism is actually incompatible with meritocracy. He blames political correctness (see link under Thiel's pic in this post) for fueling the education bubble, claiming that it prevents the articulation of "certain truths about the inequality of abilities". But consider how the poor would be less likely  to tolerate Thiel's ilk if they had to accept the (fallacious) idea that wealth is commensurate with the amount of effort and ability invested. Zizek offers a pithy assessment of the  proposal that:

a viable and orderly social democracy could be based on a deal whereby we give total power and status to a super rich knowledge elite in exchange for all citizens – regardless of merit or effort – being guaranteed a basic income. He dismissed this, in part because he said it took no account of envy. Zizek quoted Frederich Von Hayek who argued – against advocates of social justice – that the poor find it easier to accept the wealthy if they think their fortune is unmerited. For the masses to accept that those at the top deserve their success means the majority have to accept not only that they are poorer but they are less virtuous.

*** which would make sense (LOL!) as an alternative to cocaine, which has long been the drug of choice on Wall Street

(CREDIT TO my fellow blogger Derridata for first offering a comparison of Tyrell and Thiel, and for discussing meritocracy with me)

Community Without Propinquity?

Remember all those breathless predictions about how the aerotropolis (such as South Korea's New Songdo) will become the dominant organizing principle of urban living?:

"There will never be enough time in the day, but space is fungible; it can be overcome with speed. Karl Marx called it the “annihilation of space by time. Distance is less of an obstacle to daily life than it is a resriction on our ability to get things done, which we can measure by the time and effort involved in commuting from Point A to Point B. The sociologist Melvin Webber dubbed this idea “the elastic mile,” because our perception of just how far a mile is shrinks as we move faster, leading Amos Hawley to note that we tend to live our lives within a sixty minute radius from home. While that once meant a life maybe six miles wide,today it means a commute between Barcelona and London. And e-mail bound for customer service or colleagues in India is returned instantly".

From there, it is only a few short steps to J.G. Ballard's claim that "the airport will be the true city of the 21st century", which some might like to supplement with Virilio quotations. However, I'm more inclined to the view that much of this is hyperbole. The problem with a lot of futurists then, it seems, is that they have scant regard for human factors, including, as Rowan Moore's critical review points out,

"...the fear of planes falling on your head, or attachment to a place, or political manoeuvring, or the persistence of non-aeronautic networks, counteract that other human factor, the desire for eye-contact, which seems to drive the immense machinery of air travel".

As I've said in previous posts, another problem is that futurists are often funded by private consultancy firms eager to push their agendas onto the public. Keep this in mind next time you hear someone switch from extolling the virtues of the aerotropolis to an explanation of how universal replicators will eliminate food shortages, classism, and world poverty. As for biotech and nanotech, we are led to believe they will cause speciesism to disappear because we will be able to grow fur on our bodies. Similar claims have been made about how racism will become a thing of the past when we can change our skin colour at will, as supposedly will sexism and homophobia, once we have all become hermaphrodites.

Everyone knows or can easily guess what effect transhumanists think these technologies will have on ageism, so I won't go over that well-worn ground. So here's another, even more bizarre example instead. There are people such as David Levy who have naively suggested that the availability of artificial companions will relieve the suffering of millions of lonely people who cannot compete on the marriage/relationships market. This raises an obvious question: do they honestly believe, aside from the dubious sexual politics their position entails (as it seems to be predominantly males who are interested in this), that the purchase and maintenance of such a companion will enable them to escape from the market criteria that contributed to their dropping out of the "organic" relationships market in the first place? I remember watching a documentary on this subculture in which one guy attempted to justify his obsession with sexbots by saying, "they can't leave you because you do not have enough money". As well as acquainting himself with feminism, I recommend that he and those of a similar ilk take another look at Blade Runner's Tyrell Corporation for an instructive account of how and why we can expect cold, hard cash to remain a central determinant of relationships- irrespective of whether they are synthetic or human. If anything, all the availability of synthetic companions would mean, I suspect, for the average wage slave at least (i.e. most people), is sexual experiences that are only affordable on an episodic basis, as per the services that have been offered by ("organic", read: human) sex workers since time immemorial. Again, Blade Runner offers a more plausible glimpse of what the future is likely to hold in this respect, in the form of the character Pris (described in the film as "your basic pleasure model").

Things just aren't as simple then as, "can't find a friend? Well, go ahead and (literally!) make one". As the film also makes clear, once synthetics develop sentience, it is reasonable to expect them to demand more reciprocal relationships. You can already find some examples of where this might be leading. Just google "davecat" and then savor the irony of a self-proclaimed "sythetiks advocate" and sex-doll owner having to defend himself against historical comparisons with slave owners (davecat himself is African American). Remember that it was a slave revolt in Blade Runner, notwithstanding the fact that the replicants were all white, which brought them to Earth. Other than prostitutes then, the only means left for future Davecats to avoid negotiating intimacy on a more equitable basis would be to settle for cheaper, non-sentient alternatives, which have already been around for a long time. But it is hard to believe these would be acceptable either, given the frequent complaints about the lack of versimulitude associated with blow-up dolls and the like. 

I've said too much here about this prurient topic--partly prompted by the fact that a couple of earlier postings on RealDolls continue to draw the most web traffic to this site and I'd like to dissuade any return visits by criticising the folly of this pastime-- so to avoid losing sight of the bigger picture, I'll try to sum things up with this salutary thought: any decent stakeholder driven society (as opposed to a shareholder driven society) has sufficient grounds for questioning the wisdom of investing in these dreams. One cannot opt out of propinquity simply by investing more in technoscience. And why would we want to do that anyway? Afterall, it appears highly unlikely that there could ever be universal access to such benefits (ahem!) because the state would surely have great difficulty footing the research and development bills. Corporations will therefore do their utmost to patent their discoveries to prevent cheaper generic alternatives from competing with their products.Like I said, the interests of shareholders are always their first priority.

Well, you can plainly see I'm sceptical about what the technophiles have to offer. But I'm no Luddite either. I'll keep an eye on this Wikipedia timeline to see how things pan out, and will fire the odd critical salvo into cyberspace whenever I feel the situation demands it:

List of future events (structured by topic)

Artificial intelligence and robotics

• Robots capable of manual labour tasks--
  • 2015–2020 – every South Korean household will have a robot and many European, The Ministry of Information and Communication (South Korea), 2007^[2]
  • 2018 – robots will routinely carry out surgery, South Korea government 2007^[2]
  • 2022 – intelligent robots that sense their environment, make decisions, and learn are used in 30% of households and organizations – TechCast^[3]
  • 2030 – robots capable of performing at human level at most manual jobs Marshall Brain^[4]
  • 2034 – robots (home automation systems) performing most household tasks, Helen Greiner, Chairman of iRobot, 2004^[5]
• Military robots
  • 2015 – one third of US fighting strength will be composed of robots – US Department of Defense, 2006^[6]
  • 2035 – first completely autonomous robot soldiers in operation – US Department of Defense, 2006^[6]

• Developments related to robotics from the Japan NISTEP^[7] 2030 report:
  • 2013–2014 – agricultural robots (AgRobots^[8][9]).
  • 2013–2017 – robots that care for the elderly
  • 2017 – medical robots performing low-invasive surgery
  • 2017–2019 – household robots with full use.
  • 2019–2021 – Nanorobots
  • 2021–2022 – Transhumanism

• Artificial intelligence
  • 2019 – $1,000 computer will match the processing power of the human brain – Ray Kurzweil^[10]
  • 2020 – Artificial Intelligence reaches human levels – Arthur C. Clarke^[11]
  • 2045 – The Singularity (creation of the first ultraintelligent machine) occurs – Ray Kurzweil^[12]
  • 2050 – computer costing a few hundred pounds will have the capacity of the human mind – Hans Moravec^[13]
  • 2055 – $1,000 computer will match the processing power of all human brains on Earth – Ray Kurzweil^[10]

[edit] Biology and medicine

• Visual prosthetics
  • 2011 – digital devices with implantable parts (Joseph Reger, Fujitsu-Siemens Technology Director, 2007,^[14])
• Use of animal organs for transplantation (xenotransplantation)
  • 2010 – practical use of such animal donors in surgery (same source)
• Regenerative medicine
  • Widespread use for most tissues and organs – 2020 (Federal Initiative for Regenerative Medicine)^[15]
  • 2014–2024 – (International Association of Biomedical Gerontology, 2004) – comprehensive functional rejuvenation of middle-aged mice^[16]
• Cloning of dinosaurs
  • 2023 – Arthur C. Clarke^[11]
• Reverse engineering of human brain
  • 2025 – Ray Kurzweil, 2005^[17]

[edit] Communications

• All communications are IP-based
  • 2014 – Paul Mockapetris, inventor of the DNS system, 2004^[18]

[edit] Computing

• 10 petaFLOPS supercomputer (the amount required to simulate the human brain according to Kurzweil)
  • 2010 – NEC, Tokyo Institute of Technology^[19]
  • 2012 – Riken^[20]
• 1 zettaFLOPS supercomputer
  • 2032 – University of Notre Dame^[21]
• User interface
  • 2013 – voice control replace keyboard/mouse interface for 30% of routine tasks – TechCast^[3]
• Video game graphics
  • 2019-2024 - Photo-realism in video games - Epic Games' Founder, Technical Director, and CEO Tim Sweeney^[22]

[edit] Culture and leisure

• Entertainment channels
  • 2010 – 30% by value of U.S. music, movies, games, and other entertainment is sold online – TechCast^[3]
• Virtual reality
  • 2025 – full immersion virtual reality using direct input to the brain becomes available – Arthur C. Clarke^[11]
  • 2030 – virtual reality allows any type of interaction with anyone, regardless of physical proximity – Ray Kurzweil^[10]
• Sport
  • 2050 – a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots can win against the human world soccer champion team – RoboCup, 1997^[23]

[edit] Demographics

• World population exceeds 7 billion
  • 2013 – U.S. Census Bureau^[24]
  • 2013 – United Nations^[25]
• World population exceeds 8 billion
  • 2026 – U.S. Census Bureau^[24]
  • 2028 – United Nations^[25]
• World population exceeds 9 billion
  • 2043 – U.S. Census Bureau^[24]
  • 2054 – United Nations^[25]
• World population exceeds 10 billion
  • 2183 – United Nations^[25]
• Other demographic milestones
  • 2020 – world average life expectancy of new-born child exceeds 70 years – World Resources Institute^[26]
  • 2030 – number of people aged 65 or older exceeds 1 billion – Ray Hammond^[27]
  • 2030 – new-born child in developed country has life expectancy of 130 years – Ray Hammond^[27]
  • 2045 – world average life expectancy of new-born child exceeds 75 years – World Resources Institute^[26]

[edit] Energy

• Peak oil – global oil production peaks
  • 2010 – Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas^[28]
  • 2011 – Colin Campbell, Oil Depletion Analysis Centre^[29]
  • 2013 – French government report^[30]
• Other energy milestones
  • 2020 – U.S. carbon emission market exceeds $1 trillion – New Carbon Finance^[31]
  • 2023 – alternatives to carbon-based fuels provide 30% of all energy used worldwide – TechCast^[3]

[edit] Environment

• Arctic shrinkage – arctic ice-free in summer
  • 2013 – Professor Wieslaw Maslowski, U. S. Naval Postgraduate School^[32]
  • 2040 – National Center for Atmospheric Research^[33]
• Arctic shrinkage – arctic ice-free all year
  • 2020 – Ted Scambos, National Snow and Ice Center^[34]
• Other environmental milestones
  • 2098 – coral cover on Great Barrier Reef drops below 10% – Dr Eric Wolanski, James Cook University^[35]

[edit] Nanotechnology

• Nanomachines in commercial use
  • 2019 – nanotechnology is used in 30% of commercial products – TechCast^[3]
  • 2020 – nanomachines in soldier armor controlled by an on-board computer can change the properties of fabric from flexible to bullet-proof, treat wounds and filter out chemical and biological weapons, nanomuscle fibers can provide an exoskeleton. US Army, estimates from The Vision 2020 Future Warrior project, 2004
• Universal replicator is developed
  • 2040 – Arthur C. Clarke^[11]

[edit] Politics and economics

• International Politics
  • 2012-onward - The United States of America lose the superpower status - Peter Dale Scott and Emmanuel Todd - After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order
  • 2012-onward - The United States of America come defeated in the New Great Game thus marking a "New New World Order" - Idriss Aberkane ^[36]

• World economic growth
  • 2015 - Brazil becomes the world's fifth largest economy, surpassing France, UK and Italy - Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ^[37]
  • 2025 – one billion dollar-millionaires worldwide – James Canton, The Extreme Future^[38]
  • 2027 – China's GDP exceeds that of United States – Goldman Sachs,^[39] Price Waterhouse Coopers^[40]
  • 2032 – India's GDP exceeds that of Japan – National Intelligence Council^[41]

[edit] Transportation

• Hybrid vehicles
  • 2013 – hybrid powered cars make up 30% of the new car market – TechCast^[3]
• Self-driving cars
  • 2018 - Self-driving cars are commercially available - General Motors^[42]
  • 2030 – all cars travelling on major roads under control of satellite and roadside control systems – Ray Hammond^[27]

[edit] Space

• Asteroid mining
  • 2024 – Peter Diamandis, founder of Ansari X Prize, 2004^[43]
• Human landing on Mars
  • 2020 – MIT's Aeronautics and Astronautics department, 2005^[44][45]
  • 2021 – Arthur C. Clarke^[11]
  • 2025 – a permanent Mars colony, 4Frontiers, 2005^[46]
  • 2030 – TechCast^[3]
• Near light speed travel
  • 2095 – Arthur C. Clarke^[11]
• Return to the Moon
  • 2015 – Russian plans – Energia Corporation (2006)^[47]
  • 2020 – NASA plans first return to the Moon and moon colony no later than 2020 (2006)^[48]
  • 2024 – Chinese plans (2006)^[49]
• Space elevator
  • 2020 – Bradley C. Edwards (head of Institute for Scientific Research), 2004^[50]
• Space tourism and private spaceflight
  • 2011 – space flights become available to the public – Arthur C. Clarke^[11]
  • 2013 – "space cruiser” takes a group of tourists outside of the Earth’s atmosphere – TechCast^[3]
  • 2024 – "many thousands of people being able to afford" visiting orbital hotels, Burt Rutan, 2004^[51]
• Unmanned mission returns samples from Mars
  • 2020 – NASA^[52]

Top 12 areas for innovation through 2025

This list is part of research and consulting firm Social Technologies technology foresight project, published as an press release in 2007.^[53]

• Personalized medicine
  • creation of an individual’s genome map for a retail price of less than $1,000
  • correlation of specific genes and proteins with specific cancers, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and diabetes, which will allow both ** physicians and patients to anticipate, plan for, and mitigate, if not cure, DNA-based health challenges development of pharmaceuticals that treat gene-based diseases, replacing surgeries and chemotherapy

• Distributed energy
  • advanced electric storage devices and batteries at all scales
  • new power systems with source-switching flexibility

• Pervasive computing
  • very simple and inexpensive computing devices with integrated wireless telephone and Internet capabilities (the worldwide $100 computer)
  • the Semantic Web, enabled by Web data that automatically self-organizes based on its content, allowing search tools or software agents to identify the actual relevance of Web pages—not just find keywords on them
  • intelligent interfaces, in some cases enabled by virtual reality

• Nanomaterials
  • the function of nanomaterials will move from “passive” to “active” with the integration of nanoscale valves, switches, pumps, motors, and other components.

• Biomarkers for health
  • individualized, private, and self-administered diagnostics for multiple physical parameters such as blood sugar, urine, C-reactive proteins, HDL, and LDL, as well as home diagnostic kits that detect early signs of diabetes, heart disease, and types of cancers
  • personalized exercise equipment and regimens that deliver customized benefits (for weight control, blood pressure, blood sugar, etc.)
  • advanced CAT scans, MRIs, and brain scans to identify disorders earlier and more accurately at less cost

• Biofuels
  • high-energy (as measured in British thermal units, or Btu) blends of gasoline and diesel with biofuels (beyond the ethanol blends known today)
  • biomass production of a methanol that can be used as a fuel for fuel cells
  • new discoveries in plant genetics and biotechnologies specifically for energy content

• Advanced manufacturing
  • advanced computer-aided design and control
  • multiple variable and inexpensive sensors linked with computers
  • expert systems and advanced pattern-recognition software for very tight quality control

• Universal water
  • ultra-fine filters (probably from nanotechnology)
  • new energy sources for desalination and purification, including hybrid systems that combine conventional and alternative power—especially solar power
  • smart water-use technologies for agriculture and industry

• Carbon management
  • effective “measure, monitor, and verify” systems
  • affordable and effective carbon capture and storage technologies and systems for coal-burning power plants
  • low to zero emission controls for transportation

• Engineered agriculture
  • identification of specific genomes for desired growing and use qualities
  • crop-produced pharmaceuticals and chemical feedstocks
  • crops designed specifically for energy content and conversion

• Security and tracking
  • completely autonomous security-camera systems with algorithms able to correctly interpret and identify all manner of human behavior
  • multiple integrated sensors (including remote sensing)
  • radio frequency (RF) tags for people and valuables

• Advanced transportation
  • organized and coordinated personal transportation through wireless computer networks, information systems, and Internet access
  • onboard sensors and computers for smart vehicles

Blade Runner franchise on the way?

We are honored and excited to be in business with Bud Yorkin. This is a major acquisition for our company, and a personal favorite film for both of us. We recognize the responsibility we have to do justice to the memory of the original with any prequel or sequel we produce. We have long-term goals for the franchise, and are exploring multi-platform concepts, not just limiting ourselves to one medium only.

"Don't be an asshole, Deckard. I've got four skin-jobs walking the streets".

Well ok, not quite yet. But everytime I read something about the military sponsorship of regenerative medicine, I start to imagine the Tyrell Corporation doing subcontracting work for Weyland Yutani. Remember though, the thesis of the cyborganisation of the human is not just about the militarisation of our hearts and minds, but rather a more general commodification. According to this logic, capitalism will solve its accumulation crisis by colonising the inner frontier (our bodies), in tandem with the colonisation of outer space (spearheaded by the colonial marines, who may be private mercenaries, in contrast to the armies of nation states we are more familiar with). I'm very eager then to follow up Carl Abbott and William H Katerberg's work concerning sci fi's envisioning of capitalism's "spatial fix" (to use Marxist geographer David Harvey's term).

I realise there is an air of familiarity to these musings, not only because I've alluded to these issues before, but rather because they basically rework the familiar frontier thesis. But if this just sounds like "back to the future" syndrome (i.e. the more things change, the more they stay the same), this is true only up to a point. Privatisation will probably be of a different economy of scale than the mass conscript armies that were once mobilised by nation states. Its logic dictates instead that individual entrepreneurs' sense of entitlement, risk and adventure, will be the most likely means of realising Manifest Destiny- sorry, ahem- benefitting "all humanity".



The representation of heads of state in such a light can appear antiquated by comparison. Growing awareness of this cultural shift might explain the choice of the "steam punk" style in this series to convey an alternative "nostalgia for the future" (where allies can transcend narrow self interest in a war against fascism):




I referred earlier to the "colonial marines", and it reminds me of Ziauddin Sardar's point in his introduction to Aliens R Us about how the genre of sci fi has served the western, imperial imagination. Hence I'm always on the lookout for anything that can show in a critical light the developmental logics I've tried to highlight in this post. I'd recommend anything from Iranian philosopher Reza Negarestani's Cyclonopedia to, say, Ian MacDonald's River of Gods. Even if someone reads such works and takes issue with them for whatever reason, the fact remains that they are clear evidence of how sci fi is a much broader church than it's sometimes given credit for by critics.

In this spirit then, looking ahead, I'm hoping to catch up with the Kenyan sci fi film, Pumzi. The movie takes place 35 years after World War III, the "Water War":

Nature is extinct. The outside is dead. Asha lives and works as a museum curator in one of the indoor communities set up by the Maitu Council [in East Africa]. When she receives a box in the mail containing soil, she plants an old seed in it and the seed starts to germinate instantly. Asha appeals to the Council to grant her permission to investigate the possibility of life on the outside but the Council denies her exit visa. Asha breaks out of the inside community to go into the dead and derelict outside to plant the growing seedling and possibly find life on the outside.

It's certainly worth reading the filmmaker's response to the question of whether science fiction is new to Africa, in addition to watching the trailer:

Machines Making Gods

Back in 2007 I posted something about how, ironically, someone had made a Philip K Dick android. The android subsequently went AWOL, with the most likely explanation behind this unfortunate incident been that someone nabbed it as a souvenir during the publicity tour. I've just watched some video footage, which made me chuckle in light of the highly stilted interaction patterns with the [human] hosts.

By happy coincidence I've since come across an article which crystallises a lot of the interests on this blog. Here then is a fascinating excerpt from James Burton's "Machines Making Gods: Philip K. Dick, Henri Bergson and Saint Paul", as featured in Theory Culture & Society, 2008, 25 pp262-284. Particularly intriguing is the identification of fabulative transcendence as a means of challenging the "sacral economy" of the biopolitical. This leaves me pondering the compatibility of the article's closing quotation from Bergson, with the closing 2 paragraphs in another piece concerning the role of Intelligent Design in recent science fiction. I'm starting to think that Dick himself may have recognised a degree of concordance, if one accepts that his own opposition to "mechanization" was not premised on a rejection tout court of the technoscience he envisioned playing an increasingly central future role.

Note to self: commence literature search for comparative analysis of Dick and Charles Stross (along with Walter Jon Williams et al).

"A crucial difference between Dick’s Black Iron Prison and Weber’s iron cage is that the former bears within it a necessarily irreducible metaphysical aspect, whereas Weber addresses questions of the metaphysical or religious from a sociological and historical perspective; likewise,

fetishism for Marx is an aspect of capitalism’s mystification of the commodity, which his analysis aims to penetrate and understand in material terms.

As Milbank argues, modern capitalism is doubly religious, not only in its dependence on the belief in fetishes and the worship of the commodity, but in its apparent need ‘to buttress itself with the approval and connivance of actual religion’ (2007: 1).8 While Dick’s vision likewise points towards Empire or capitalism’s ability to draw on a quasi-religious power of deception – in maintaining the illusion of its own non-existence – the vision also attributes to the Black Iron Prison a genuine metaphysical reality.

If contemporary capitalism, paralleling the Roman Empire, maintains its biopolitical control partially in an apparently transcendent mode (with the help of what Milbank calls a ‘sacral economy’), then any hope of resisting or transforming this control must also make use of some aspect of transcendence. I noted above that, for Milbank, ‘there can only be an authentically religious route out of the biopolitical’ (2007: 25). My argument here converges with Milbank on the necessity of this transcendent element, yet differs in seeing this possible escape-route as opened up by fabulative transcendence, that is, a thought or fictionalizing of transcendence that may have effects on the immanent world. Since fabulation indicates a saving power of fiction, it may indeed take a religious form, but the use of fabulation as a means of challenging the dominance of mechanization and the hegemony of Empire need not be restricted to such a form.

Bergson concludes Two Sources thus:

Men do not sufficiently realize that their future is in their own hands. Theirs is the task of determining first of all whether they want to go on living or not. Theirs the responsibility, then, for deciding if they want merely to live, or intend to make just the extra effort required for fulfilling, even on this refractory planet, the essential function of the universe, which is a machine

for making gods. (MR: 317)19"

Milbank, J. (2007) ‘Paul Against Biopolitics’, Centre of Theology and Philosophy,
University of Nottingham, online papers, URL (consulted January 2008):
http://www.theologyphilosophycentre.co.uk/papers/Milbank_PaulAgainstBiopolitics.
doc

replicant uprisingwe are the only ones right now that are suffocating we are the dying ones right now

time is like a bullet from behind
I run for cover just like you
time is like a liquid in my hands
I swim for dry land just like you

time is like a blanket on my face
I try to be here just like you
time is just a fiction of our minds
I will survive and so will you

we are the only ones right now that are celebrating
and we are joining hands right now
we are the only ones right now that are suffocating
we are the dying ones right now

as the water grinds the stone
we rise and fall
as our ashes turn to dust
we shine like stars

"Bullet" - Covenant



a billion words ago
the sailors disappeared
a story for the children
to rock them back to sleep

a million burning books
like torches in our hands
a fabric of ideals
to decorate our homes

a thousand generations
the soil on which we walk
a mountain of mistakes
for us to climb for pleasure

a hundred clocks are ticking
the line becomes a circle
spin the wheel of fortune
or learn to navigate

a choir full of longing
will call our ships to port
the countless lonely voices
like whispers in the dark

"Call the ships to port" - Covenant



go to the empire state and watch the city lights
hear the noise of millions struggle in the sprawl
stare into the sky we're few and far between
black eyes full of stars wide with memories

[...]

lie down in the park and watch the satellites
hear the children sing just a breath away
dance in the heavy air along the interstate
black lung full of fumes choke on memories

"Like tears in rain" - Covenant



lights blur shifting slightly, always the rain
he's there hunting nightly, driven by pain
burns fast shining brightly, dies in vain
he's there, speaking lightly of life in pain

bionic killer the spider in his net
comes to his maker as close as he can get

weak little creatures speaking with god
their cries so insane, their prayers just in vain
'cause I am the replicant, to hell with the gods

too late to escape, too late to regret
no time to hide, no time to forget
lights blur shifting slightly, always the rain
he's there hunting nightly, driven by pain

the rain, always the rain
your pain sustained

"The replicant" - Covenant (from Dreams of a Cryotank)



we wish so hard to be seen
and pray at night to be heard
and yet we have nothing to show
but false words and broken dreams

I'm the figurehead on the ship of fools
a beacon for the liars in the dark
I'm the first and the last
I claim this land
I'm the lost and the hungry
I need this land

"Figurehead" - Covenant



We are the men
Silent and cold
Beautiful eyes
Sheep among wolves
We are the men
Silent and strong
Beautiful eyes
Sheep among wolves

"The men" - Covenant

Blade Runner Trilogy: 25th Anniversary 3 CD Soundtrack release on UMTV

Speaking of biosociality and electronic music, I previously had no idea there was so much new music in preparation for the Blade Runner anniversary. Unsurprisingly, the bootlegs I've heard haven't contained all this material, including a cameo by, of all people, Roman Polanski!!:

"Universal Music TV is set to release a stunning 3CD collection to mark the 25th Anniversary of Blade Runner on December 10th, 2007. Featuring previously unreleased music from the film, bonus tracks and a brand new album of Vangelis material inspired by the film with sleeve notes written by Ridley Scott.
Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, with its apocalyptic depiction of LA in 2019, has become one of the most celebrated sci-fi releases of the 20th century. It’s one of those films where all of the constituent parts - the set, the lighting, the characters, the sparse dialogue and of course the music - work uniquely together to produce a cult masterpiece.
The music has always been a key element of Blade Runner and there have been various versions of the soundtrack over the years, some ‘official’ and some bootlegs. But they have all either been incomplete or have suffered from poor sound quality, until now. Blade Runner Trilogy: 25th Anniversary is a 3CD set which - for the first time - puts all the pieces together, providing the complete music from the film and a lot more besides.
CD 1 features the original and remastered soundtrack as it first appeared in 1994, twelve years after the film was released. The second CD contains all the remaining music from the film that did not appear on the original 1994 soundtrack, plus two bonus tracks ("One Alone" and "Desolation Path"). None of this material has been released before.
The third and final disc will be of real interest to Vangelis fans - as it contains an entire album of newly written material composed by Vangelis to mark the 25th anniversary of Blade Runner. The music is strong and flowing, and retains the dark, atmospheric sense of the original score. There are some intriguing spoken word contributions too, from Ridley Scott, Roman Polanski, Oliver Stone and a host of distinguished actors, personalities and world dignitaries.
Full track listing details:
CD 1: Blade Runner Original Soundtrack Album Track 1: Main Titles (3': 42")
Track 2: Blush Response (5': 47")
Track 3: Wait For Me (5': 27")
Track 4: Rachel’s Song (4': 46")
Track 5: Love Theme (4': 56")
Track 6: One More Kiss, Dear (3': 58")
Track 7: Blade Runner Blues (8': 53")
Track 8: Memories Of Green (5': 05")
Track 9: Tales Of The Future (4': 46")
Track 10: Damask Rose (2': 32")
Track 11: Blade Runner (End Titles) (4': 40")
Track 12: Tears In Rain (3': 00")
CD 2: Blade Runner Previously Unreleased and Bonus Material Track 1: Longing (1': 58")
Track 2: Unveiled Twinkling Space (1': 59")
Track 3: Dr. Tyrell’s Owl (2': 40")
Track 4: At Mr. Chew’s (4': 47")
Track 5: Leo’s Room (2': 21")
Track 6: One Alone (bonus track) (2': 23")
Track 7: Deckard And Roy’s Duel (6': 16")
Track 8: Dr. Tyrell’s Death (3': 11")
Track 9: Desolation Path (bonus track) (5': 45")
Track 10: Empty Streets (6': 16")
Track 11: Mechanical Dolls (2': 52")
Track 12: Fading Away (3': 32")
CD 3: BR 25
This is the album with the new music, composed by Vangelis for Blade Runner’s 25th anniversary.
Track 1: Launch Approval (1': 54")Spoken word: Scott Bolton, Bryce Bolton
Track 2: Up and Running (3': 09")Spoken word: Sir Ridley Scott
Track 3: Mail From India (3': 27")Ney: C. Lambrakis
Track 4: BR Downtown (2': 27?)Spoken word: Oliver Stone, Akiko Ebi, Cherry Vanilla
Track 5: Dimitri’s Bar (3': 52")Spoken word: Akiko Ebi, Oliver Stone, Saxophone: Dimitris Tsakas
Track 6: Sweet Solitude (6': 56")Saxophone: Dimitris Tsakas
Track 7: No Expectation Boulevard (6': 44")Spoken word: Rutger Hauer, Wes Studi, Bhaskar Balakrishnan (Executive Director of the Asian Heritage Foundation), Shobhana Balakrishnan, Laura Metaxa, Sir Ridley Scott, Zhao Yali (Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Cyprus)
Track 8: Vadavarot (4': 14")Spoken word: Irina Valentinova, Florencia Suayan Tacod
Track 9: Perfume Exotico (5': 19")Spoken word: Edward James Olmos
Track 10: Spotkanie Z Matka (5': 09")Spoken word: Roman Polanski reciting excerpts from the poem "Spotkanie z Matka" by Konstanty Ildefons Gaczynski
Track 11: Piano In An Empty Room (3': 37")
Track 12: Keep Asking (1': 29")Spoken word: Bryce Bolton
All music composed, arranged, produced and performed by Vangelis.
"One of the great experiences of my directing career was working on the music for Blade Runner with Vangelis at his Marble Arch studio in London where he would perform rough demo film cues for me on the fly, obsessing over every detail and capturing every moment with exceptional beauty...the final result took us far beyond my expectations." - Ridley Scott, sleeve notes
This CD release ties in with some significant DVD products launched to coincide with the 25th anniversary. On December 3rd, 2007 a 5 DVD set ‘Final Cut: Ultimate Collectors Edition’ is released, which contains all 5 versions of the film, plus interviews, a documentary on the making of the film and a letter from Ridley Scott".

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