Eventually they moved permanently into the 24-hour cafes, which have cubicles where the computer user can fall asleep as well as bathrooms where they can freshen up before heading off to work. One such refugee is 26-year-old Fumiya, who works as a security guard on a construction site in between spending the rest of his time at the internet cafe. He is spotted in the documentary chain-smoking and using the computer. He said, “I originally wanted an apartment of course but it was expensive here in the city, so I decided to just live at the Internet cafe. I spent most of my time there anyway hanging out, so it wasn't really much of a step to spend the rest of my time there. I must admit it is not that easy to sleep here, you never feel rested because there's always noises and disturbances going on around but it's got great facilities. I had hoped I'd be able to save some money but it doesn't really work out like that. It's just getting me from one day to the next.”
The Prophets of the twin modern gods Science and Technology herald the coming of the *Singularity,* the Great Day when the power of computers, nanotechnology, robotics and artificial intelligence surpass the human ability to comprehend it. Not only will the world be fundamentally changed, say the Prophets, but mankind, also. Machine intelligence will fuse with the human nervous system, nanobots will patrol the circulatory system and human beings will return to the days of Noah, when life spans reached 500+ years. And when the body eventually ceases to function, the human *soul* (our personality and memories, according to the technicians) will be granted an eternity in a software after-life. [Hell, I suppose, will consist of having your soul hacked by a bored 150 year old tween, and downloaded to serve as a sacrifice in a 23rd century update of Crazy Goat.] Robots will perform most of the work, leaving humans to live their centuries-long lives accepting government handouts. (If only this were true! Then the greatest single achievement of the *Singularity* would be the disappearance of all republicans from the face of the earth within 20 - 50 years).
But if the essence of the *Singularity* is mankind left disoriented by the scientific and technological gadgets surrounding him, and with no meaningful labor to occupy his time, then the Prophets are wrong, the Great Day of the *Singularity* is not still to come, but is already here, as evidenced in the sepulchral video above. . .
One can look at Japan's forlorn net cafe refugees as tiny seeds which shall grow into the earth-covering garden of the Kingdom of the *Singularity.* But when the garden is in full bloom, those such as the two misfits in the video will be left to wither, for the world will not be fundamentally changed. It will still be a world of gross income inequality, with the 1% wearing *Singularity's* new clothes, and the poor left out to die. Any who imagine the Kingdom of *Singularity* as a friend to the poor, with a benevolent operating system doling out a life support system to billions of useless eaters, must assume the *Singularity* will bring not only a biotechnological change to humanity, but a spiritual change, as well. Human history unambiguously shows the rich caretake the poor only to keep them tilling their soil, digging their mines and fighting their wars. With robots and artificial intelligence to maintain their existence, is it reasonable to expect the 1% to keep the poor as house pets?
The Kingdom of the *Singularity* can only mean the final harvest of the poor. . .
[But if we recall Jesus' words for ye have the poor with you always, the rich might not, after all, get to enjoy the fruit they expect from the *Singularity*. . .]
But what of the 1%? Will they be a new creation? The outcome of a New Age of *evolution?*
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. . .The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? It hath been already of old time, which was before us.
The four hundred year old homo machina with a microchip in his nose, supposing himself to have transcended the boundary between the temporal and the eternal, will be nothing more than a sci-fi Papuan boy on his first return from the bush, and awarded a bone through the nose to mark his passage from childhood to adulthood. . .
Returning to the here and now, a few remarks on the video's two net cafe refugees. The young man Fumiya, the 26 year old part-time security guard, doesn't see the hopelessness of his situation. He imagines a better job paying more money would improve his life. And of what does this *improved life* consist? An apartment to sleep in. A larger, quieter cubicle. He dreams, then, of being a poor American, who can still manage a shabby apartment on Walmart wages.
Fumiya says that prior to having to take up permanent residence in the net cafe, he spent most of his time hanging out there, anyway, so his *quality of life* has remained essentially unchanged. This tells us Fumiya's leisure hours were mainly spent in search of electronic distraction. The video shows Fumiya isolated in a dark, tiny space, staring blankly at a screen. Minus the $15-a-night black cubicle, this, of course, is the picture of the entire Western and Pacific Rim millennial generation. A generation of isolated youth, confining themselves to just enough space to sit hunched over a screen, whether it be in their bedroom, a coffee shop, or the school cafeteria.
This is the *quality of life* the *Singularity* offers the poor from here on out. . .
Not that it's any worse than any past *quality of life,* as we learn from the second net cafe refugee featured in the video, the older gentleman Tadayuki, the former credit card company *salaryman.* Tadayuki had the kind of *good job* Fumiya thinks could better his life, but, as is commonly said, experience is the best teacher. Tadayuki had a *good job* for twenty years, and it drained the life out of him, leaving him with the near-universal 21st century diagnosis: depression.
For Tadayuki, still recovering from the trauma of his twenty year *career,* the cramped, stuffy cell of the net cafe is a breath of fresh air. Is it unreasonable to say Tadayuki had been a fairly typical Western/Pacific Rim worker bee? If so, what does that tells us about modern man's *quality of life?*
For twenty long years Tadayuki died every day. A credit card bureaucrat, he performed the *free market's* most esteemed labor, making money out of thin air. I suppose some would see Tadayuki as a failure, a loser unable to *hack it* at his job. But in their hearts, don't most Western/Pacific Rim workers know their professions are meaningless? And yet they return to work day-after-day, year-after-year, decade-after-decade. Tadayuki had the courage to try to salvage his life. He tells us: my heart was singing when I quit! What a hero! The courage to quit! The courage to try to find life. . .
The Kingdom that has been, is the Kingdom that shall be. . .
The coming Kingdom of the *Singularity* claims to offer a new human creation and a new way of living, but what we can see of it in its already present form doesn't measure up. The new way of living will be just as deadening as the old way. . .
Tadayuki lives with hope at the moment, believing he may find life outside of Japan. . .but what will happen to him if he leaves Japan and finds life on earth is the same everywhere? Perhaps then he could take the leap of faith, and look for life in the Kingdom of Heaven. . .
Returning to the here and now, a few remarks on the video's two net cafe refugees. The young man Fumiya, the 26 year old part-time security guard, doesn't see the hopelessness of his situation. He imagines a better job paying more money would improve his life. And of what does this *improved life* consist? An apartment to sleep in. A larger, quieter cubicle. He dreams, then, of being a poor American, who can still manage a shabby apartment on Walmart wages.
Fumiya says that prior to having to take up permanent residence in the net cafe, he spent most of his time hanging out there, anyway, so his *quality of life* has remained essentially unchanged. This tells us Fumiya's leisure hours were mainly spent in search of electronic distraction. The video shows Fumiya isolated in a dark, tiny space, staring blankly at a screen. Minus the $15-a-night black cubicle, this, of course, is the picture of the entire Western and Pacific Rim millennial generation. A generation of isolated youth, confining themselves to just enough space to sit hunched over a screen, whether it be in their bedroom, a coffee shop, or the school cafeteria.
This is the *quality of life* the *Singularity* offers the poor from here on out. . .
Not that it's any worse than any past *quality of life,* as we learn from the second net cafe refugee featured in the video, the older gentleman Tadayuki, the former credit card company *salaryman.* Tadayuki had the kind of *good job* Fumiya thinks could better his life, but, as is commonly said, experience is the best teacher. Tadayuki had a *good job* for twenty years, and it drained the life out of him, leaving him with the near-universal 21st century diagnosis: depression.
For Tadayuki, still recovering from the trauma of his twenty year *career,* the cramped, stuffy cell of the net cafe is a breath of fresh air. Is it unreasonable to say Tadayuki had been a fairly typical Western/Pacific Rim worker bee? If so, what does that tells us about modern man's *quality of life?*
For twenty long years Tadayuki died every day. A credit card bureaucrat, he performed the *free market's* most esteemed labor, making money out of thin air. I suppose some would see Tadayuki as a failure, a loser unable to *hack it* at his job. But in their hearts, don't most Western/Pacific Rim workers know their professions are meaningless? And yet they return to work day-after-day, year-after-year, decade-after-decade. Tadayuki had the courage to try to salvage his life. He tells us: my heart was singing when I quit! What a hero! The courage to quit! The courage to try to find life. . .
The Kingdom that has been, is the Kingdom that shall be. . .
The coming Kingdom of the *Singularity* claims to offer a new human creation and a new way of living, but what we can see of it in its already present form doesn't measure up. The new way of living will be just as deadening as the old way. . .
Tadayuki lives with hope at the moment, believing he may find life outside of Japan. . .but what will happen to him if he leaves Japan and finds life on earth is the same everywhere? Perhaps then he could take the leap of faith, and look for life in the Kingdom of Heaven. . .
I know how he feels. Bravo, j.
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