I meant to go out tonight, but as there is what has been called a 'blizzard' by many Danes, I am stuck on my bed the first night in nearly three weeks that I felt like going to a crowded and noisy bar in Copenhagen.
I find all this snow to be pretty strange, mostly because it highlights something that I think I forget a lot: my in-the-world-ness. Everyday, my life is made possible by the ground, streets, bikes, and buildings that make up the setting for my life. I guess it is only when something goes wrong with it, like copious snow and wind that sounds like a pride of angry lions, that I notice that I am at the mercy of a world that has no regard for my plans.
That is how I came to post this short little blog.
In slightly related news, I had a smokey and beer stained conversation with a co-worker at the bar right next to my work before I came home tonight [to get ready to go out, mind you] about the possibilities of the technology of the future. He is interested in a certain strain of thought called trans-humanity that discusses questions about what will happen when [I would like to add 'if'] humans become fully non-biological, completing a process that began when we first picked up stones to use as tools. While I am a bit skeptical of a teleological supposition like that, I am fascinated by the idea that through technology we could begin to overcome these inconveniences of life, like snow storms and long distance relationships. We could live in a reality that had little regard for space and time limitations, or perhaps we could even manage to manage the weather. I mean, I guess it is possible.
But I wouldn't be possible. The creature that I am is a product of my attempts to manage my human limitations. I have to contemplate, to struggle to decide where to live, trying to navigate the conflicting values that are associated with different geographical life choices. Even more, I wonder at the birth of a baby [this is a new experience for me], unable to comprehend how a new human being just came into existence, and I feel sad at the death of someone who I don't even know [though I am sure that I must live in a world drastically affected by Howard Zinn]. I feel sad even though he lived a full life that touched people and did what we all hope to do--make a difference--but the end of life is just always sad.
The human that is me today merely would never exist in the world where there was no death and no blizzards or geographical separations.* Of course, the human being that is me couldn't have existed in the same way before global capitalism, so I know that to posit something like human nature is always a bit tricky. I guess that I don't want to think about a world without births and deaths because I wouldn't exist. That freaks me out that creatures like me might not be around for that much longer.
Although, it would be nice to do away with snow storms so that one could go out at his or her leisure.
*Clearly, trying to balance a long-distance relationship with the real possibilities of an academic career are largely on my mind. The limitations of space and time seem to really emerge strongly when you just want to be in the same room as someone else. Still, this whole relationship is made about 400 times easier by the communication technologies that already mitigate my situation. Perhaps skype is just the beginning.
