Microserfs

He went on:

"Given this new situation, the presumption of the existence of the notion of 'history' becomes not necessarily dead but somewhat beside the point. Access to memory replaces historical knowledge as a way for our species to process its past. Memory has replaced history - and this is not bad news. On the contrary, it's excellent news because it means we're no longer doomed to repeat our mistakes; we can edit ourselves as we go along, like an on-screen document. The transition from history at the center to memory on the periphery may prove to be initially bumpy as people shed their intellectual inertia on the issue, but the transition is an inevitability, and thank heavens we have changed the nature of change itself - the prospect of cyclical wars and dark ages and golden ages has never particularly appealed to me."

Finally:

"And the continuing democratization of memory can only accelerate the obsolescence of history as we once understood it. History has been revealed as a fluid intellectual construct, susceptible to revisionism, in which a set of individuals with access to a large database dominates another set with less access. The age-old notion of 'knowledge is power' is overturned when all memory is copy-and-paste-able - knowledge becomes wisdom, and creativity and intelligence, previously thwarted by lack of access to new ideas, can flourish."

I changed the subject to that of tickets to the upcoming Sharks game in San Jose.

FRIDAY

        Todd apologized for calling me

         a cryptofascist and called me

          "benignly centrist," instead.

The formatting for this paragraph is

                                obvious.

* * *

Dad had his interview with Delta. "An interview's an interview's an interview," he said. I think he just doesn't want to overly raise his hopes.

* * *

I later told Dusty Michael's theory of history being dead and she went goggle-eyed. Dusty said conspiratorially, "Michael may be a crypto-Marxist." (Oh God . . .) She kept blabbing, and it's so weird to see Dusty's mouth moving and genuine political words emerge. It just doesn't mesh with her computer image. I get the impression she should be discussing exfoliation or tanning factors instead, but then, bodies are political, too. Or so Dusty has informed the office.

I surprised Dusty. I said, that "since Marxism is explicitly based on property, ownership, and control of means of production, it may well end up being the final true politik

of this Benetton world we now live in." She said, "Hey, Danster - I underestimated you."

It was interesting to briefly enter the political realm - as such.

SATURDAY

Dusty made a "Bulimia Top Ten List." Dusty is so incredibly willing to discuss her body. She even confessed she had to become a big-time shoplifter to support her habit. "Hey babe - bulimia ain't cheap." Karla was, needless to say, silent on the subject.

Bulimia Top Ten List:

• several buckets of Haagen-Dazs strawberry

• two large spaghetti dinners

• large box of Godiva chocolates

• stack of eight grilled cheese sandwiches with ketchup

• entire cheesecake

• two dozen chocolate pudding cups

• four hundred grapes

• bucket of McDonald's french fries

• even larger box of Godiva chocolates

• largest box of chocolates in the universe

* * *

Dusty is designing a cosmetic surgery program for Oop! as her creative project. Basic body and facial structures are loaded into the system, and by sucking and implanting bricks in and out, Oop! users can reengineer whatever body shape they want.

Dusty's being stringent in using 100 percent genuine medical parameters, so even if you wanted to, you couldn't transform Arnold Schwarzenegger into Christy Turlington. "You can only max out the potential of what's already there. Users must know the body's limits."

She and Susan are sharing bone parameters from Susan's dancing skeletons product.

* * *

Speaking of Christy Turlington, I have noticed that a fair number of women seem to want to be her. In fact, I have noticed that if modern conversations don't switch to the disappearance of time, they shift to discussions of super-models. I guess supermodels are like geeks, but instead of winning the Punnet Square of brains, they won the Punnet Square of looks. It must be bizarre being fabulously good-looking. I mean, at least you can disguise brains.

* * *

Supermodel; Superhighway. Coincidence?

* * *

The Boris and Natasha nickname is really catching on. We actually use the names to their faces. I think they love it.

* * *

I keep forgetting Susan's rich, but she is. She came back from grocery shopping at Draeger's with edible flowers ($1.99 a tub) and Bear Head mushrooms ($19.99/lb. - they look like white coral). Karla and I buy noodle-helper-style boxed products at Price-Costco. We're going to have to start eating better. Food is too good here, and eating crap makes you feel like such an outsider in the Bay Area.

* * *

Rants are the official communication mode of the '90s.

Karla asked Dusty what she thought of Lego, and this triggered a mega-rant: