It’s interesting the kind of articles that pop up in your feed. Although the following tale won’t involve much sex it did teach me something about longevity.
My old man is in his early 70’s, has had some health problems in his 50’s/60’s and is consequently obsessed with blood tests, pills, injections, etc. It has more or less become his full time hobby (my theory is that although yes he has some underlying conditions, he still lives a normal life but his health has sort of become his obsession in lieu of a strong social network).
I had an inkling from our conversations that a lot of his extended family actually had quite long lives and I’ve tried to convince him that fate/genetics is quite in his favour.
He’s not quite convinced and related to me the cautionary tale of his grandfather (my great grandfather) who succumbed in the parlance of our small island of Ireland to ‘the smokes’ (cigarettes).
So I probed my father further… what did he do? Well he was a farmer in the west of Ireland in the early/mid 20th century.
So what was his lifestyle like? Well he drank, smoked, ate mainly pork…
At this point I’m like well all those factors probably didn’t help…
‘So Dad what age did he pass?’
96 years old…
My father recounted this with a straight face…
My theory is that in the harsh environment of the west coast of Ireland, trying to operate a farm, without our modern comforts my great grandfather simply did not have the time to die… cigarettes or not. I have similar tales for my other relatives. And to the billionaires… worrying about death will do you in a lot quicker than just simply living.
Been thinking a lot about how the denial of aging is, ironically, denial of agency… so many faces that don’t look like people, they look like products. Wonderful essay!
Yes, exactly. Regarding brain-computer interfaces, the technology is way beyond Elon's neural link. In fact many believe that story to largely be BS to hide the actual state of play: self-assembling nano technology injected into a body, making its way into the bloodstream where components self assemble to create a direct brain to computer interface. Experimentation with various different iterations of such tech is currently being widely carried out in unsuspecting people, largely without their consent. I refer you to a great presentation by an Australian academic Lissa Johnson at the Omniwar Symposium which can be found on the substack of David A Hughes (d.hughes.substack.com). Lissa Johnson and others have done a deep dive into the available literature on the technology that Darpa, Nasa, DoD ietc have been planning, working on and implementing and have written a series on what they came across. It is extremely enlightening, and frightening. I highly recommend..
Too bad all the plebes will ever see of this is ads pumped straight into the mind’s eye. There will be hacks leading to mass suicides and horrible crimes. Literal fucking dystopia. Can’t wait.
Capturing a truth that is so hard to pinpoint but is so obvious once it’s typed out, unreal.
Some of your best work fr
Insanely good.
Stupendous writing! Thank you.
incredible stuff, love this so much
So good. Thank you.
Love everything about this.
Not coincidentally, the expression ‘la petite mort’ (the little death, in French) has been used since 1882 to mean ‘(post-)orgasm’.
It’s interesting the kind of articles that pop up in your feed. Although the following tale won’t involve much sex it did teach me something about longevity.
My old man is in his early 70’s, has had some health problems in his 50’s/60’s and is consequently obsessed with blood tests, pills, injections, etc. It has more or less become his full time hobby (my theory is that although yes he has some underlying conditions, he still lives a normal life but his health has sort of become his obsession in lieu of a strong social network).
I had an inkling from our conversations that a lot of his extended family actually had quite long lives and I’ve tried to convince him that fate/genetics is quite in his favour.
He’s not quite convinced and related to me the cautionary tale of his grandfather (my great grandfather) who succumbed in the parlance of our small island of Ireland to ‘the smokes’ (cigarettes).
So I probed my father further… what did he do? Well he was a farmer in the west of Ireland in the early/mid 20th century.
So what was his lifestyle like? Well he drank, smoked, ate mainly pork…
At this point I’m like well all those factors probably didn’t help…
‘So Dad what age did he pass?’
96 years old…
My father recounted this with a straight face…
My theory is that in the harsh environment of the west coast of Ireland, trying to operate a farm, without our modern comforts my great grandfather simply did not have the time to die… cigarettes or not. I have similar tales for my other relatives. And to the billionaires… worrying about death will do you in a lot quicker than just simply living.
"Simply didn't have the time to die" is a banger of a philosophy and I couldn't agree more on the last point.
Fabulous comment.AJLG..Merry Christmas I the old world sense.**
🫡
Magnificent Essay! Magnificent! Abide!
Fantastic essay. There's a lot of slop on Substack lately, but this isn't it.
This is.. omg I have no words!
Been thinking a lot about how the denial of aging is, ironically, denial of agency… so many faces that don’t look like people, they look like products. Wonderful essay!
First world problems. The anguished cries of hypermaterialist culture disconnected from spirituality and from the great pattern.
Yes, exactly. Regarding brain-computer interfaces, the technology is way beyond Elon's neural link. In fact many believe that story to largely be BS to hide the actual state of play: self-assembling nano technology injected into a body, making its way into the bloodstream where components self assemble to create a direct brain to computer interface. Experimentation with various different iterations of such tech is currently being widely carried out in unsuspecting people, largely without their consent. I refer you to a great presentation by an Australian academic Lissa Johnson at the Omniwar Symposium which can be found on the substack of David A Hughes (d.hughes.substack.com). Lissa Johnson and others have done a deep dive into the available literature on the technology that Darpa, Nasa, DoD ietc have been planning, working on and implementing and have written a series on what they came across. It is extremely enlightening, and frightening. I highly recommend..
Too bad all the plebes will ever see of this is ads pumped straight into the mind’s eye. There will be hacks leading to mass suicides and horrible crimes. Literal fucking dystopia. Can’t wait.