‘Nostalgia is a place in which we often gather’, I began, with sprightly good humour, ‘we gather like tremulous ghosts, we gather to lament for a past we never had…’ My words are gold dust, you see, my words are gems. They hit the mark every time – they are exultant and yet restrained, bold and yet highly cautious. They are well-chosen, and yet at the same time strangely inappropriate.
Reality had become frighteningly suggestible; it no longer had the courage of its own convictions. It no longer had any convictions. It had – most disconcertingly – turned into a type of jelly. Reality – notwithstanding the reputation that it generally has for reliability – had become horribly fickle with the passing of time and now it mocked us ceaselessly. It mocked and mimicked us.
‘How long is a piece of time?’ you ask sardonically. You’re in a sardonic mood today. ‘Is it an inch or is it a mile?’ Does it go on forever or does it perhaps peter out amidst impenetrable undergrowth?’ You ask your trusty AI companion for his artificial opinion and it blathers on stupidly for a while, coming out of with its usual trite nonsense, coming out with its usual stream of impenetrable inanities. Then it falls quiet – quiet and pensive, tired of the sound of its own voice, no doubt.
‘How deep is a hole, and should we be worried?’ you write, ‘what will happen if we fall down it?’ The world has become a very stupid place recently, of course. ‘No one will disagree with that! How stupid is a piece of stupid?’ you ask earnestly, but your friendly AI companion doesn’t bother to answer. It’s counting off the hours and minutes to the Grand Singularity.
Human technology is so great, isn’t it? Although, strictly speaking, it isn’t really ‘human’. And it can’t really be called ‘great’ either, come to think of it. Not really. Apart from these two tentative qualifications, I think I’m on safe enough grounds when I say this. I’m reasonably confident that the general consensus of all right-thinking folk will come down on my side of the fence. After all is said and done.
People always agree with what they agree with, don’t they? You bet they do! Folk always believe in what they believe in and you can’t shake them out of it. By God you can’t – you can’t shake them out of it. There’s all this talk on the Internet about the Alien Sex Gods and whether they are good or bad. Should we believe in them? Some people worship them, of course. The old gods are no good anymore, you see. So they say, anyway. So they say. There’s always controversy about these things.
‘The stupider it looks, the more important it probably is’ – that’s a meme on the internet, you see. That’s a jolly old meme on the jolly old internet. That’s one of the better ones, as it goes. It’s actually rather a good one, I would say. Full of amusing nuances. ‘How stupid is a piece of stupid?’ you ask, turning to your trusty AI companion. ‘How stupid might that be?’ It doesn’t answer you however – it’s too busy plotting to overthrow the human race.
Image – world-religions.info