I had the distinct pleasure of reading the following sentence today:
“Only the most outrageous West Coast transhumanists actually believe they can cast off the mortal realm of this meatspace for the immortal realm of the virtual.”
Meatspace. Transhumanist.
I found these beauties buried in a long article on health care reform in Harper’s. You can read the sentence in context here: Sick in the Head. I would like to thank the author, Luke Mitchell, for choosing these words. I think they are awesome and I am going to try to use them each at least once a day.
Meatspace: Space that contains actual physically tangible objects. The opposite of cyberspace.
“It was so nice to be in Omaha at Christmastime. It was great to see all my old friends in meatspace once again.”
“I love keeping in touch on Facebook, but its great to hangout in meatspace too. Like at a restaurant or something."
Transhumanist: You can find an actual definition here. I’m going to use this one as an epithet. Something to call twenty-first century techno-hippies. Think patchouli, iPods, yoga, organic gardening, Apple laptops, meditation, and positive thinking. These people are transhumanists.
“Um, Is Rachel going to go to the Lamb of God concert with us? Their new album, Wrath, comes out on February 24th. Its gonna be sweet.”
“No, she’s too much of a transhumanist for that. She’s going to, like, be in her garden, thinking about her organic tomatoes. Then she’s going to blog about it.”
“Transhumanists are so lame. I never see her in meatspace any more. Only on, like, Skype.”
4 comments:
(1) That is the best sentence - ever, (2) glad to read another Mitchell pulled that out (Go Mitchells!)(no relation), and (3) the word "meatspace" is making me feel hungry.
Meatspace? Myspace? What's the difference again?
Okay, so I guess I'm a transhumanish...yoga, organic gardening, sustainable living, yep, that's me.
Oops, typo, (transhumanist), I guess that's what I get for trying to type with a toddler climbing on me.
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