The Anthrological Restoration (3/3): Reflections from 2075

Sequel to A Bicentennial Manifesto Against the Scientific Enslavement of Humanity

Have Greta Thunberg reflect in 2075 about the Anthological Restoration, inspired by the forbidden works of Jane Jacobs and powered by underground discoveries of fusion and AI.

ChatGPT Prompt

February 1, 2075 – Two hundred and fifty years ago, James Watt laid the foundation for the Anthrological Age—a world where human life was measured, optimized, and controlled in pursuit of absolute efficiency. Fifty years ago, that world collapsed.

I was there when it fell.

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The Anthrological Resistance (2/3): A Bicentennial Manifesto Against the Scientific Enslavement of Humanity

By Renegade Neuroergonomics Professor Noam Chomsky

February 1, 2025 – Today, the world’s elites gather to celebrate two centuries of the so-called Anthrological Revolution—a triumph of efficiency, a monument to the conquest of the human body and mind. They praise James Watt not as the harbinger of mechanization but as the architect of a world where humanity itself has become the machine.

They speak of optimization, synchronization, and productivity as though these were ends in themselves, virtues beyond question. But behind this utopian rhetoric lies a chilling truth: we are not free. The Anthrological Age is not the height of civilization—it is the final victory of systemic control over human autonomy. And if we do not resist, it will be our final age.

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Autonomy Anonymous: How Thailand, Bhutan, and Nepal Stayed “Single”

Write “Autonomy Anonymous” with the three non-colonial nations as African-American women not letting a Man tell them what to do.

ChatGPT Prompt

Setting: A small, cozy space with a circle of chairs set up for an exclusive meeting. The vibe is casual but defiant—like a sisterhood of resilience. The leaders of Thailand, Bhutan, and Nepal sit together, fanning themselves like queens at Sunday brunch, sipping metaphorical tea as they dish on empires trying to run their business. The facilitator, a well-meaning but clueless representative of colonial powers, awkwardly sits nearby, trying to mediate.


Introduction

Facilitator:

“Welcome to Autonomy Anonymous. We’re here to discuss how you’re navigating independence and managing external pressures. Let’s start with introductions.”


Thailand: The Diplomatic Diva

Thailand (Rama V): (leans forward, waving her fan)
“First of all, let me just say—hi, my name is Thailand, and ain’t nobody taking this throne, okay?”
(The group chimes: “Hi, Thailand!”)

“So these British and French men keep sliding into my DMs—‘Oh, you’re so beautiful, let us manage your trade.’ Uh-uh! I told them, ‘You can look, but don’t touch.’ They want my resources, but I told them if they’re fighting over me, I’ll just keep the peace my way.

“I modernized a little—gave them railroads and some treaties to make them feel special—but honey, this crown is staying right here. They can take their ‘colonial ambitions’ and put it on someone else’s plate.”

(Bhutan snaps her fingers approvingly.)


Bhutan: The Quiet but Fierce Queen

Bhutan (The Dragon King): (sits back, crossing her arms, unimpressed)
“Hi, I’m Bhutan, and let me tell you something: I’m not about that messy drama.”
(The group: “Hi, Bhutan!”)

“See, when the British knocked on my door, I said, ‘Oh, you thought? No thank you.’ I signed one little treaty—just one—so they wouldn’t bother me, but that’s it. They don’t set foot in my house. I told them, ‘You can manage what’s happening outside my borders, but don’t think for one second you’re coming up in here telling me how to run my kitchen.’

“I stay low-key. I keep my doors closed, my culture tight, and my people happy. They don’t know what’s inside, and guess what? That’s how I like it. Y’all out here playing chess, and I’m sitting on my porch with tea, watching.”

(Nepal gives her a side-eye with a grin.)
“Nepal, don’t look at me like that. You know I’m right.”


Nepal: The Balancer Queen

Nepal (The King of the Himalayas): (throws her hands up dramatically)
“Okay, okay—hi, I’m Nepal, and I’ve been dealing with everybody’s nonsense.”
(The group: “Hi, Nepal!”)

“Y’all, I’m sandwiched between China and British India, and both of them act like they own the place. The British came at me after that Anglo-Nepalese War, and I said, ‘Fine, you can have some land, but don’t think I’m one of your little colonies.’ They tried to get cute, so I told them, ‘Here’s the deal—I’ll send you some of my boys to fight your wars, but you leave me alone, capisce?’

“And don’t get me started on China. They’re over here staring at me through Tibet like, ‘You good?’ And I’m like, ‘Yes, I’m fine, mind your business.’ I’m out here juggling alliances like a circus act, but guess what? This crown hasn’t moved.”

(Thailand leans in and whispers: “Girl, we see you.”)


The Facilitator Chimes In

Facilitator: (hesitant)
“Well, it sounds like you’ve all found… creative ways to handle colonial powers. But don’t you think modernization or integration might have made things easier?”


The Collective Response (in unison):

EXCUSE YOU?


Thailand:
“Sir, let me educate you real quick. Just because you show up with ships and suits doesn’t mean we’re gonna roll over and hand you the keys, okay? We’ve been running things for centuries.”

Bhutan: (leans in, glaring)
“Let me tell you something—nobody asked you to come here in the first place. Manage your mess before you tell us what to do.”

Nepal: (snaps fingers)
“Yes, preach! Look, we’ve been holding it down. We didn’t need your ‘help’ then, and we definitely don’t need it now. Next!”


Closing Remarks

Thailand:
“So here’s the lesson for today: If an empire comes knocking, you tell them, ‘You can negotiate, but you will not dominate.’”

Bhutan:
“And don’t forget—sometimes the best power move is saying, ‘Nope,’ and closing the door.”

Nepal:
“Or, you know, keeping both of them busy fighting each other so they don’t have time for you.”

(The group bursts into laughter, leaving the facilitator speechless.)


Key Takeaway

These three queens—Thailand, Bhutan, and Nepal—are like fierce, independent women refusing to let anyone mess with their sovereignty. They might use different strategies—diplomacy, isolation, or balancing—but the core message is the same: “I run my house. Not you.”


Younger Self Café Epilogue: Eras of Musical Legends

A Roundtable Hosted by Katy Perry

The Younger Self Café transforms one last time, its walls lined with glowing neon guitars, vinyl records, and digital holograms. The café is now a grand roundtable, the conversation spanning decades of music and culture. Hosting this final gathering is the ever-colorful Katy Perry (Official Site), who brings together three legendary voices: Elvis Presley (Official Site), Billy Joel (Official Site), and Garth Brooks (Official Site). The conversation flows like a song, weaving together themes of youth, reinvention, and the enduring power of music.


Act I: Katy Perry Sets the Stage

Katy Perry sits at the center, her outfit a dazzling mix of retro and futuristic styles, nodding to the eras represented at the table. Her bright energy kicks off the discussion.

🎙️ Katy Perry: “Welcome, legends. We’ve had poets, writers, and activists in this café, but today, we’re closing it out with the music that shaped generations. You’ve all been icons of reinvention, of youth culture, of moments that changed how people felt about themselves and the world. So, let’s talk about it. What does youth mean to you? And how does music keep it alive?”

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Younger Self Café v5: The Age of Poetry Slam

The Younger Self Café has transformed again. The wooden tables remain, but the room now pulses with rhythm and energy. The walls are covered in graffiti-like verses, glowing faintly with the power of spoken words. A microphone stands in the center, and the stage belongs to the voices of the Poetry Slam era. Gathered around are Patricia Smith, Saul Williams, Sarah Kay, and Rudy Francisco. Their conversation flows as a battle of rhymes and rhythms, where every line is a declaration.


Act I: Patricia Smith, the Griot

Patricia Smith steps to the mic, her voice rich with wisdom and rhythm.

“We speak of youth, but do we truly know
The power it holds, the seeds it will sow?
I’ve seen it in verses, in slams, on the street,
In the pulse of the poets who rise to compete.

Youth is a storm, unpolished, untamed,
A fire that burns but refuses to be named.
It’s not just rebellion; it’s life in its raw,
It’s the mirror of hope and the fist of the law.”

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Younger Self Café v4: Maya Angelou and the Counterculture

The Younger Self Café shifts again, its atmosphere tinged with the echoes of protest marches, soulful jazz, and the hum of electric guitars. This time, the voices of the 1960s and 1970s take center stage. Maya Angelou is seated at the head of the table, her presence commanding yet warm, surrounded by figures of the counterculture. With her are Bob Dylan, Joan Didion, and James Baldwin. The café is alive with the spirit of revolution and introspection, its walls seeming to pulse with the rhythm of change.


Act I: Maya Angelou, the Luminary

Maya Angelou, her voice resonant and melodic, opens the conversation.

“Youth has always been the vanguard of change. It is where the world begins anew, not because young people know more, but because they are unafraid to dream. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, I wrote about the pain and beauty of growing up as a Black girl in America—about discovering my voice in a world that wanted me silent. To me, youth is about finding that voice, about understanding that your story matters, that your existence is a kind of defiance.”

She pauses, her eyes sweeping over the table. “But youth isn’t just about the individual. It’s about connection, about community. In my time, the civil rights movement was driven by young people—marching, singing, risking everything. Youth is power, but only when it is shared.”

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Younger Self Café v3: Kerouac and the Beat Generation

The Younger Self Café is alive with energy, its bohemian charm electrified by the arrival of the Beat Generation. Smoke lingers in the air despite the “no smoking” signs that someone’s thumbed out of existence. Jazz hums in the background, syncopated rhythms punctuating the cadences of their conversation. Around a table sit Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Diane di Prima, their words weaving a tapestry of rebellion, searching, and longing.


Act I: Kerouac, the Nomad

Jack Kerouac, wearing a rumpled plaid shirt and running his fingers through his hair, starts the conversation. His voice is soft but insistent, the cadence of On the Road lacing every sentence.

“Youth, man—it’s not something you grow out of. It’s a road you’re always on. When I wrote about Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, I wasn’t just writing about a couple of guys chasing kicks. I was writing about that feeling—you know the one—when you’re young and you think the world is just waiting for you to discover it. And maybe it is. But youth isn’t about age; it’s about being open, being alive. It’s about saying yes to the journey, no matter where it takes you.”

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Younger Self Café v2: T.S. Eliot and the Early Moderns

The Younger Self Café has changed. The bohemian charm of mismatched chairs and golden light remains, but the air feels heavier, tinged with the weight of modernity. A new set of figures sits at the tables—T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), and W.B. Yeats. The Romantic ghosts linger in the corners, observing silently as these poets of the early 20th century grapple with the meaning of youth in a fractured, modern world.


Act I: Eliot, the Skeptic

T.S. Eliot adjusts his tie, his expression as sharp and unyielding as the lines of The Waste Land. He begins, his voice clipped and deliberate:

“Youth, as the Romantics envisioned it, was a noble fiction. A beautiful illusion, yes, but an illusion nonetheless. To them, it was a time of passion, of fire, of self-discovery. But in my time, youth is not a spark—it is a shadow. In The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, I wrote of a man who had outlived his youth only to find that it was no sanctuary, no paradise, but a series of missed opportunities and unspoken questions. Youth is not a promise of becoming; it is the burden of what one might fail to become.”

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Younger Self Café: Did Romantic Poets Invent “Youth?”

Riffing on Modern Self Café

In a dimly lit, bohemian café nestled somewhere between the foggy moors of England and the shores of Lake Geneva, the spirits of the Romantic poets gather. This is the Younger Self Café, a space outside time where youth itself is the central theme. The poets—Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, Lord Byron, and William Wordsworth—sit at small wooden tables, their ink-stained hands gripping steaming cups of tea and coffee. Overhead, the faint sound of a skylark mingles with the whispers of an eternal breeze.

They are here to grapple with a profound question: Did they invent the modern concept of “youth” as something distinct, not just a precursor to adulthood but a transformative state of being?

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Remix: The Next Jazz Age (ChatGPT as F. Scott Fitzgerald)


Have the ghost of F Scott Fitzgerald speak at The Plaza Hotel on the exact centennial of The Great Gatsby, reflecting on how the Jazz Age marked a shift from top-down/elder to bottom-up/youth culture.
Muse optimistically how the upcoming Age of Remix could herald a similar shift to an inside-out culture of “perpetual adolescence” (in both positive and negative senses of continual self-creation). 

ChatGPT Prompt

Scene: The Grand Ballroom of The Plaza Hotel, New York City. The date is April 10, 2025, precisely 100 years after the publication of The Great Gatsby. A gentle glow fills the room, and the ghost of F. Scott Fitzgerald appears, his figure refined and luminous, dressed in his Jazz Age finery. He approaches the podium, the timeless elegance of the space mirroring the timelessness of his words.


F. Scott Fitzgerald:
Ladies and gentlemen,

One hundred years ago, I offered the world a story—a slender book, simple in its telling, but complex in its reflection of a moment when the tides of culture began to shift. The Great Gatsby was born from the Jazz Age, an era where the old world—dominated by elder authority and inherited tradition—gave way to a vibrant, uncontainable culture driven by youth. The top-down society of my parents’ generation crumbled, replaced by the daring, pulsating rhythms of jazz, the shimmer of sequins in dimly lit speakeasies, and the bold defiance of young women in bobbed hair and short skirts.

The Jazz Age was a turning point, a revolt against the weight of history and a celebration of creation from the ground up. It was a time when young people became the architects of culture, when their music, their ideals, and even their recklessness reshaped the world. But as I stand here, gazing across the veil of time into your era, I sense that another transformation is on the horizon.

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