Friday, June 16, 2006

Kenn Brown and Chris Wren have been blogging about the freaky subculture of "bug hunters" -- men who seek out the HIV virus (and, apparently, others) as part of a terminal erotic fix. It's sick behavior, but what makes it so interesting -- aside from the psychology of its participants -- is the way the virus itself has effectively appropriated the Internet, deftly breaching the substrate barrier. This is a revolutionarily strange concept and a grim foretaste of a future in which "alive" is merely a state of mind.

3 comments:

Mac said...

Some "experts" have theorized that obsesity is viral. Which I suppose it is, if Big Macs and venti Frappuccinos are viruses.

One idea that's been batted around is that some cases of Alzheimer's are misdiagnosed mad cow disease -- which actually sounds plausible.

razorsmile said...

what makes it so interesting -- aside from the psychology of its participants -- is the way the virus itself has effectively appropriated the Internet, deftly breaching the substrate barrier.

I remember you posting a coupla years ago about how it's possible that the memes we imbibe control us, not the other way around.

Mac said...

I remember you posting a coupla years ago about how it's possible that the memes we imbibe control us, not the other way around.

Right. The memes are pulling the strings -- and one of those strings make us think we're in control of the show.