Tuesday, July 13, 2004

Integral Naked Journals Ken Wilber invited Kenji Williams and me to start journals for the Integral Naked web site. We have been at it for a little while and this past week-end our journals/blogs/diaries went live. You can click on our faces... Some of my posts are mirrored in both journals, others are exclusively on one or the other. Is there a system to it? Not really... yet. Here is the RSS feed of my Integral Naked Journal for those civilized folks with RSS readers.   11:37:31 PM     Paolo Soleri on Saturday 2 Another groovy photo from Salma.   10:28:41 PM     Turning Torso Wired writes this: "We've learned a lot about what makes cities thrive," says Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava, whose high-rise Turning Torso is part of the show. Calatrava decries the dead zones created when workers leave the business district at 5 pm, so his Malmö, Sweden, complex provides space for shops, restaurants, and apartments. Scheduled for completion next year, it represents a growing architectural movement toward mixed-use towers that promote activity 24 hours a day. Exhibit cocurator Terry Riley observes: "There's a fantastic overlaying of public transit and retail, residential, and office space. As if tall buildings are pulling the city up into them." My man Calatrava gets it! Many modern cities suck because their center is single-use. That means that they are empty and deserted at night, and often become very dangerous. Mix up commercial and residential and create activity 24/7 and you have vital and safe city. When I walk through Rome at night I feel perfectly safe. A window above the stores on the street level is open and I hear the sound of a TV. The city is not deserted at night.   10:27:26 PM     Bag o' Bones Well we had to know that this was only a matter of time. Liposuction, collagen, botox and plastic surgery were pre-empting this future "beautification" process. Research and technology apparently have deemed it. How far is too far? I feel that for those with physical abnormalities or disfigurements the latter is a viable option. But genetic altering is just wrong and you cannot truly be the same person afterward. Morality, Sprituality, Humanity vs. Vanity - Sandra • 7/13/04; 8:32:35 PM I have to disagree with you. Your body is just the carrier of atman - why not change it to fit your dreams, desire, your mood, your fancy. It's just a bag of bones. If you like running or biking or going to the gym, you are changing your body. If you do yoga or Pilates you change your body. If you bleach your hair you are changing your body. If you eat at Micky D's every day you are changing your body. No genetic treatment can be worse than daily fastfood, wouldn't you agree? So, it is just a matter of degrees, isn't it? I think what we are uncomfortable with today, will seem rather natural one or two generations down the line. And why not. Genetic changes can't be any stranger than liposuction, wouldn't you agree. The killer gene therapy app would be if you could change your haircolor with a pill... every month a different perfect hair color of your choice. No roots! Just natural hair...   10:22:48 PM     Paolo Soleri on Saturday 1 Now that's pretty groovy! Photo by Salma   10:05:41 PM     Changing the Human Body Fortwayne.com Genetic technology, which already has altered our food supply, will soon be used to enhance our muscles and bodies, scientists say. Gene therapy can help rehabilitate patients suffering from muscle-wasting disease such as muscular dystrophy and improve muscle function for the elderly. But it also would inevitably be co-opted and abused by opportunistic athletes. Already, eager early adopters are knocking on the door of University of Pennsylvania genetic researcher H. Lee Sweeney, who has found that combining genetic manipulation with weight training can double muscle strength and speed in rats [Source: Bioethics + Human Dignity / Chicago Tribune]... [Genetic Future Weblog] I imagine where this might lead and here is what I am thinking: Athletes might be the first at the gate, but then everyone will want to alter their body. Some people might alter their kids so they grow really, really tall - and can become pro basketball players... then we will have children suing their parents for turning them into miserable freaks... but, eventually changing one's appearance and shape will be commonplace. Imagine a whole world of Kens and Barbies... or a whole new fashion/art centered not around the clothes you wear, but the body you wear underneath... the body as fashion expression... accessorizing means picking the perfect eye-brows with that nose... But seriously, it just means we are stripping another element away from our mind/soul. If literally everyone can have a beautiful body, a gorgeous face, great hair and an attractive smell just by altering some genes - it means that the physical body is stripped away and what really matters is a person's character, their mind and inner workings.   4:56:38 PM     Tour Pt. 2 Just wondering if there are more concert dates forthcoming on the second leg of the tour or is what's posted pretty much it? No dates in Texas? :-( Luz • 7/12/04; 6:56:50 PM There is a lot more coming. Of course we will come to Texas. But this time we'll try going in a different direction. Instead of going to Texas first, hitting Florida while it's still hot and ending up in Chicago when it is freezing, we will start in St.Louis, then do the East Coast, then go down to Florida and come back through Texas: Houston, San Antonio, Austin and El Paso for sure...More dates should be confirmed and on our site very soon.   12:36:24 AM

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