{"id":37,"date":"2006-06-22T10:50:46","date_gmt":"2006-06-22T10:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scientopia.org\/blogs\/goodmath\/2006\/06\/22\/fact-or-fiction-incredible-gullubility-of-the-clueless\/"},"modified":"2006-06-22T10:50:46","modified_gmt":"2006-06-22T10:50:46","slug":"fact-or-fiction-incredible-gullubility-of-the-clueless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.goodmath.org\/blog\/2006\/06\/22\/fact-or-fiction-incredible-gullubility-of-the-clueless\/","title":{"rendered":"Fact or Fiction? Incredible Gullubility of the Clueless"},"content":{"rendered":"

Off topic, but can’t resist commenting, for reasons that will become clear.
\nOver at Sadly No<\/a>, Brad discusses a review of Glenn Reynold’s latest book, which includes some babble about “Transhumanism”.
\nThe very first comment?<\/p>\n

\nI was watching a show on the History Channel on Star Trek’s influence on scientific research- there’s a guy in Britain, as I recall, who is trying to connect everyone to the Internet, and engage in cyborging, etc.
\nThis is, actually, rather more widespread an ideal than one would think, particularly among both neo-libs and communistic types; theoretically, a non-intrusive connection would “benefit everyone” and allow complete connection without the need of a government to work together… theoretically.
\nI think it’s a pile of horseshit, naturally- and will happily proclaim my reactionaryness about keeping my bits and pieces together as God intended them (flesh, unless they fail first).\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, who do you suppose the British scientist he’s talking about might be?
\nI’ll give you a hint. Look at this<\/a>.
\nYes indeed, it’s that great visionary of modern Britain, John Lumic, CEO of Cybus Industries.
\nA fictional character.
\nA fictional character from a goofy, but terrific TV show, which has put together some really silly tie-in websites.
\nLumic is the villain in a Dr. Who storyline that was recently broadcast in the UK. He’s the inventor of that old Dr. Who staple enemy, the Cybermen. The upgrades to connect people to the internet and give them cybernetic limbs are the first steps, in the storyline, to turn people into Cybermen.
\nFrom the “Thoughts from our CEO” of the Cybus Industries website:<\/p>\n

\nPeople often ask me: “John Lumic, you’re the richest man on the planet, you control the media, the arms trade, computing, medical research, the Cybusnet\u2122, the telecommunications industry and the space programme. Some even say you control governments. What is there left to do?” To which I reply: “The hardest job of all.”
\nEvery one of us, great or small, rich or poor, important or unimportant, me or you, will wither and die whether we like it or not. Mortality is the universal enemy, and until mortality itself is beaten and subjugated, until I discover the cure for death, then my work on this world is incomplete.
\nI am developing, as we speak, a series of cybernetic Upgrades\u2122 for the human body. A skin of flesh and a heart of metal that does not age and does not die. These will be offered to the Great British public for free, whether you like it or not. They are both beautiful and compulsory. To those who ask me if I regret not having children, I say: “These Upgrades\u2122 are my children.”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yeah, there are actually people who take that website seriously.
\nPersonally, I just can’t wait to actually see the damned storyline that it ties into. It’s been a long time since we got to see a new cyberman episode of Dr. Who. The very first Dr. Who episode that I ever saw was a Cybermen story, and it hooked me but good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Off topic, but can’t resist commenting, for reasons that will become clear. Over at Sadly No, Brad discusses a review of Glenn Reynold’s latest book, which includes some babble about “Transhumanism”. The very first comment? I was watching a show on the History Channel on Star Trek’s influence on scientific research- there’s a guy in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chatter"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4lzZS-B","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.goodmath.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.goodmath.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.goodmath.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.goodmath.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.goodmath.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.goodmath.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.goodmath.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.goodmath.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.goodmath.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}