In vitro semi being with a functional purpose sounds pretty stale. Not to brandish off the words chosen in some of these articles but in "Synthetic Aesthetics" the ideas of art and future progress made with design concepts fell flat to me. Where is the synergy between life and grown meat and muscle tissue? I can see the point of how wasteful it is to cultivate a complex multi cellular living organism, how does creating a "muscle" actuator compare to a design perspective. That seems like a chemistry viewpoint, breaking down substances and reconstructing simple compounds to do specific tasks. You are using living growing parts but without the brain and the guts of the rest that make up it. I think that cut and paste theory is a flaw that I keep seeing over and over again. These processes may seem simple to edit under intense magnification, but muscle tissues (lets say in the human body) are related to our ecosystem. Do we keep tampering or not?
This is where many fields overlap and my brain starts to overlap. I'm currently fighting a cold. I don't know what my body looks like on the inside but it is affecting everything, even if it's subtle. I had a conversation with a friend earlier (and this is where I digress) and she mentioned she knew people who believed that sickness was all in your mind. I think your brain is a very weak element in fighting your bodies ailments. It's more of an audience member for an immersive film... And this is where I digress farther into a rabbit hole.
I had a concussion last spring break. I woke up, went to the bathroom, walked back to my room and passed out on my face. The moments of recovery were the most confusing. My brain was jostled around much like I was in that punk show the other night. I was slow. I had a hard time concentrating, bright lights made me puke, people told me my brain can be bleeding, doctors told me I should go to the ER. But as walking towards the ER a week later trying to make logic out of everyones words, I paused outside of a brownstone and felt something say "this isn't right". And it was in this moment my body felt like...."let me debug your code man." My body's voice might be a stoner nerd.
Anyway, I booked an appointment with a Neurologist in 3 weeks.
And.
I was fine. I was healing from a concussion but everything my body was telling me was the right thing to do (which was the opposite of the popular opinion). The neurologist told me I knew my body well. Hell, I even got a couple free MRI scans for participating in a research study of first time concussion patients –where my brain looked fine. My mom also said I was fine when I spoke over the phone, but that's some mom super power that hasn't been defined in biology (yet?).
As I dive closer and closer into these ideas of synthetic biology. The more the issues of morality and human intervention, and all these counterpoints, counter arguments, and complexities emerge.
Is this a topic that is destined to increase in social complexity?
9.25.2019
Franko-Punk
The ideas of biohacking, diverging from nature, and the unknown result. It is a controversial area. It is a human topic dealing with human nature itself. But the metaphors I found most interesting was the punk rock idea of a genre. Living as outcasts from the mainstream. It is a form of expression that not everyone understands.
My teenage years were filled with a wandering sense of identity. Not truly knowing which group to belong to, what friends are really my friends, should I act "white" or "asian", and what I should be pursuing in life. I felt like I was mimicking other people's ideas and aspirations because I was not secure with what I wanted.
What I became attracted to were the punk kids in high-school. They were intimidating to others so no one bothered them, they didn't care what others thought so nobody got the satisfaction of picking on them, and they fell prey to bad habits but were honest about their issues. That honesty prevailed even with the everyday troubles they also lived though.
They welcomed you –whoever you were. You didn't have to wear the same clothes or act a certain way to be a part of the group. It felt safer than any other high school cliques. We used to hang out before homeroom at the end of the hallway, looking like a bunch of delinquents sitting on the floor against the wall. It was a casual meeting place to meet and say hi each day. One day, one of the girls came around and grabbed my butt, saying "you have such a nice butt." It became her way of saying hey what's up. The raging hormones never opposed. Another day, a guy wanted to split a couple painkillers with me (I was too scared too so he shrugged and took both then threw up a few classes later).
Anyway, where I digress is where I see this social connection between these people expressing themselves in biology. You share a bond that is positive, reassuring, and welcoming. However, sometimes people vomit during 3rd period because they don't know the limits of their bodies.
I went to a ska-punk concert last week. And ska punk is a genre that started and ended mostly in the 90's. So the band was older. The audience had kids. Hell, even I felt old. But the songs still drive the same energy, the beer is still being spilt on everyone, and the guitar riffs make you move the same way. We crowd-surfed children on a giant pizza inflatable during the concert with the upmost care and precision. Appearances can be deceiving, right? If we can open peoples eyes like that, I believe biology can flourish like the giant pizza delivering a delicate human life above the crowd of sweaty, dancing/moshing/skanking, concertgoers.
My teenage years were filled with a wandering sense of identity. Not truly knowing which group to belong to, what friends are really my friends, should I act "white" or "asian", and what I should be pursuing in life. I felt like I was mimicking other people's ideas and aspirations because I was not secure with what I wanted.
What I became attracted to were the punk kids in high-school. They were intimidating to others so no one bothered them, they didn't care what others thought so nobody got the satisfaction of picking on them, and they fell prey to bad habits but were honest about their issues. That honesty prevailed even with the everyday troubles they also lived though.
They welcomed you –whoever you were. You didn't have to wear the same clothes or act a certain way to be a part of the group. It felt safer than any other high school cliques. We used to hang out before homeroom at the end of the hallway, looking like a bunch of delinquents sitting on the floor against the wall. It was a casual meeting place to meet and say hi each day. One day, one of the girls came around and grabbed my butt, saying "you have such a nice butt." It became her way of saying hey what's up. The raging hormones never opposed. Another day, a guy wanted to split a couple painkillers with me (I was too scared too so he shrugged and took both then threw up a few classes later).
Anyway, where I digress is where I see this social connection between these people expressing themselves in biology. You share a bond that is positive, reassuring, and welcoming. However, sometimes people vomit during 3rd period because they don't know the limits of their bodies.
I went to a ska-punk concert last week. And ska punk is a genre that started and ended mostly in the 90's. So the band was older. The audience had kids. Hell, even I felt old. But the songs still drive the same energy, the beer is still being spilt on everyone, and the guitar riffs make you move the same way. We crowd-surfed children on a giant pizza inflatable during the concert with the upmost care and precision. Appearances can be deceiving, right? If we can open peoples eyes like that, I believe biology can flourish like the giant pizza delivering a delicate human life above the crowd of sweaty, dancing/moshing/skanking, concertgoers.
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