How Did I End Up Writing A Poem About Gods and Robots, Aging, Mazes, And Many Other Things?

Untitled 

Born into

S-o-m-e-t-h-i-n-g

Calling it names

Tearing it down

Building it up 

Trying to figure out

January, 2020, San Francisco, Promenade Cafe

I’m sipping my tea at Promenade Cafe in the fog neighborhood of San Francisco. Approximately 80% of us here are by ourselves, and staring at screens. In the middle of us all, there is this one group of people. They, from what I’ve heard, are sharing thoughts and ideas regarding human psychology while offering homemade pies to each other.

Then, I write a poem. A poem that involves gods and robots, CRISPR, aging while undoing aging, mazes, and many other things.

January 14th, 2020, University of San Francisco, Laser Talks 

Adrienne Mayor is talking about the Magical vs. Logical at Laser (Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous) Talks at University of San Francisco. I feel so much like raising my hand, and asking her to explain more about the differences and/or resemblances between the so called Magical and the Logical, but I tend to be shy in such situations.

I take notes.

January 14th, 2020, University of San Francisco, Before the Laser Talks

We are mingling with Hadar Kleiman, a San Francisco based sculptor and conceptual artist, before Adrienne’s talk: Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology. On the screen appear the five armed buddhas, half horses, half humans, multi headed snakes. These images remind me of a product produced by a company I recently interviewed with, the Odin, I tell Hadar. They sell human cell cultures, kidney cell lines, glowing jellyfish genes, and DIY bioengineering lab materials. Doesn’t that sound like making the ancient dreams of technology come true ?! At home?

The talk begins. I take notes.

July 2019, San Francisco

California passes legislation intended to discourage do-it-yourself gene editing, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration also says it’s illegal to sell bioengineering kits intended for use in humans.

August 2017, San Francisco, San Francisco Art Institute Chestnut Campus Book Loft

I’m in the process of designing a book for Eureka Science Comedy Show hosting Zoltan Istvan, an American transhumanist, journalist, entrepreneur, and futurist, who much later, I discovered, rode 600 miles cross country in a coffin-shaped bus (The Immortality Bus) with companions including a hippie, a robot named Jethro, and a Russian think tank member who froze his dead mother’s brain. Browsing through the images online takes me to an artwork of Flo Pizzarello’s.

San Francisco, February 2020, A Sunday Morning at Home

Istvan’s transhumanist work, Pizzarello’s drawing and my book brief come together. They make a folding book that illustrates the growing of human feet through its pages.

Eskisehir, 2009, A Sunday Morning at Home

I live with my good friend Deniz. We both go to school and work. Deniz bartends all night and I usually spend the weekend out. Yet exhausted, every sunday morning, we start the day by chatting about interesting stuff. Someday it is climate change, another it is the extinction of orangutans. Books, documentaries, podcasts. We are all about it while hardly being able to open our eyes! We dream and make plans of going to Madagascar to see the baobabs, and to the California Coast to see the redwoods.

San Francisco, January, 2020, Promenade Cafe 

This is a morning like the college times, but without my friend Deniz. Nowadays, it takes us quite a while to schedule such mornings. So, I do the morning ritual by myself: I listen to an interesting talk. I chose Aubrey De Grey, with whom I worked on a few occasions while I worked for Joon Yun. I go for his talk Undoing Aging.

Let’s go back to my weird poem. I was sipping my tea at Promenade Cafe while turning the pages of my notebook. The last thing I remember before writing the poem was a pie: a pecan pie. A piece of pecan resembled that of a human brain. It did at least more than a peach or strawberry.

Never did I write a poem nor ever intended to, and I hope that it puts a smile on your faces. : )

Untitled 

Born into

S-o-m-e-t-h-i-n-g

Calling it names

Tearing it down

Building it up 

Trying to figure out 

Making Gods

Making Robots

Editing Videos 

Editing Genomes (CRISPR)

Undoing Aging while aging (that sweet spot between prevention and treatment, words by Aubrey De Grey) 

Because born into 

S-o-m-e-t-h-i-n-g (A maze?)

To explore

Notes:

1. Aubrey De Grey is an English author and biomedical gerontologist. He is the Chief Science Officer of the SENS Research Foundation and VP of New Technology Discovery at AgeX Therapeutics, Inc.

2. Adrienne Mayor specializes in ancient history and the study of "folk science", or how pre-scientific cultures interpreted data about the natural world, and how these interpretations form the basis of many ancient myths, folklore and popular beliefs.

3. Flo Pizzarello is a San Francisco based artist and publisher: Worm Ink Publishing.

4.Zoltan Istvan is an American transhumanist, journalist, entrepreneur, futurist, and a 2020 Republican US Presidential Candidate.

5. The Odin is a company that the founder Dr. Josiah Zayner runs out of his garage in Oakland, California, selling biohacking supplies ranging from $20 DNA to a $1,849 do-it-yourself genetic engineering kit.

6. Eureka! Science Comedy Show, hosted by Allen Saakyan and Kevin Witthingil is an interactive science comedy show where scientists talk, comedians crack jokes, and audience members win fun, silly prizes.

With Peace, -Gozde