The BLUGH: September 13, 2023
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Hey guys!! COUPLA things:
I forgot to give an alliterative title to September with the first BLUGH of the month last week. MY BAD. We’re gonna go with Sick September. I mean both 🤘sick🤘 because lyfe is amazing and also 🤒sick🤒 because I had COVID over the weekend and missed a dear friend’s wedding.
Technology = Magic. Magic = Real. Reality = A Simulation. SORRY, I DON’T MAKE THE RULES.
I’ve addressed AI specifically in the BLUGH but now I’m ready to share my unsolicited take on the broader topic of technology. Here’s my take:
🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁
I’m for it.
Whenever people ask that party question, “if you could go back and live in any time period, what would that be?” I’m just like…I wouldn’t? Like I like a SIMPLE life, don’t get me wrong. But I also love to be warm (central heating), to talk to my family even though I am far away (telephone), and to pretend that human waste does not exist (plumbing).
I know I made a list last BLUGH but here are some technological advances that are magic to me:
Step counters - how does it know the distance I walked? How does it know my steps are smaller than Jason’s. How does it know!?!!?
Airplanes - They fly. PERIOD.
Any of the deepfake technology - I hate that stuff. It is black magic.
Clocks - How do they know what time it is!? Also, do you guys remember The Great Mouse Detective and the evil rat that chased them through Big Ben and it was terrifying!? I do.
Ultrasounds - Picture of human inside other human? Wizardry.
Polaroid pictures that print and develop immediately - MAGIC
What is on your list of technology that is basically magic?
🦢LEARNING OF THE WEEK: Check out this mechanical swan from the 18th century. You KNOW people who saw this thought it was magic. After watching this video, I still think it is.🦢
PRODUCT RECOMMENDATION
I was a Quip queen for years but then I saw the light and bought an Oral B electric toothbrush. I think my teeth were never truly clean until I used it. I had rejected electric toothbrushes because I had it in my brain that they were $12,000,000 but they’re not so expensive. P.S. What do you guys think the B in Oral B stands for? I think Bright because you have bright teeth after using. Or maybe is B for Boca which means mouth in some languages. Probably though it’s B for Brave because that is what I have to be when I go to the dentist.
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BOOK RECOMMENDATION
If you need proof that magic is real, look no further than the Derek DelGaudio’s show, In and Of Itself. It was his live show that ran 2016-2018. It’s a magic show, yes, but it’s more of a poem and an immersive art form. I felt immersed and I just watched the filmed version which can be streamed on Hulu. But I have a point to this being in the Book Recommendation section! He also has written an engrossing book called Amoralman: A True Story and Other Lies about his experience as card dealer and magician. Basically, the Dos Equis guy has nothing on Derek who is in reality the most interesting man on earth.
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❌ NO TIKTOKS❌
None to share. I just need to do away with this feature!!!
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ETERNITY IN MY HEART
The computer is warm
À la theme of technology, if you have an iPhone you can search a word in your photos and results of that thing will come up. Search, “baby”, “forest”, “city”, and it finds those things in your camera roll which is obviously magic (and creepy). So for this technology-themed BLUGH, I searched “computer”. I have a lot of pics of computers as it turns out, but then I found this and knew I had to share! Big Mister was good at many things including sleeping. Anyone who knows anything about sleeping knows that nothing makes a cozier pillow than a warm laptop. When our dogs die, Jason gets me a stuft (correct spelling) animal of that dog and so we recreated the moment with stuft Big Mister and then I sent it to my family and we all cried. I know this is a lot to unpack and you didn’t expect this in the “Technology is Magic BLUGH” but here we are.