 It was just a machine. However through the 47 years of my life throughout this planet there are certain things that I clinged to. And often when I found those things they were a wreck.
For example:
1. My Hawaiian bamboo chair (which I often sleep in),
2. My Hawaiian bamboo dinner table (which now is a red oak top office desk in my office) with a matching cabinet,
3. My 19th century Virginian dresser (which I am reworking into an upright)
4. My 19th century upright full standing mirror.
5. The 4 foot speaker towers built out of renovated oak from a historical landmark (Bank of Hawaii, 1927) using 4 15" Pawn shop Cerwin Vega 15" speakers and 1950's Klipsch midrange drivers and Infinity tweeters from Ebay scouting- The Florence Ballards.
There are some new things I like, though..
1. I build vacuum tube amplifiers. My two favorites are built on a 1940's Russian tank design (as in "used in Russian Tanks and Aircraft" until the 1990's. The Russians understood that a Nuke wouldn't damage them- just like they stole US made Crayola crayons to use in space while NASA was spending $26,000,000 to design a pen that wrote in outer space) and a design by a guy named David Hafler in 1957.
Today those amplifiers drive my computer sound system. I'm hearing Fox News right now through a 1940's based Russian SV83 vacuum tube amplifier while watching it through a 19" Dell monitor.
2. Tab top draperies on solid wooden dowels. One color- black. They go well with white rooms.
Everything else in the room matches perfectly in minimalist. Warhol architecture, though some confuse it with "popart." Actually they confuse popart with trendyness and mass production. Which has nothing to do with quality and tastefulness.
3. Mitsubishi Zero ('95 3000GT). The largest aircraft and industrial manufacturer in the world that has a legacy of quality. I do have a respect for what works despite who is using it. I'm not much on corporate politics either. It was assembled by UAW craftsman. As a former 'Vette owner, I welcome a machine that lives up to it and with 26MPG when used like a transportation device rather than a weapon.
.
It's the nicest vehicle I have ever had despite the fact that I cant see where the front end is (or the back end) , however I know exactly where that vehicle is on the road and how it performs. It's an intuitive machine. Just like a machine should be.
4. I'm a big computer fanatic. I build them. In a way it's the last technology frontier, just like those vacuum tube amps I make. It's 'cos I can buy the parts I want to make them the way I want.
5. I hand cut doors out of hardwood. It's because I can't buy a decent made one anymore.
Although I can find a certain personality in those machines and things, my affection from machines doesn't draw from anthorpomorising machines. Those machines are not human. Many of the things I have were mass produced. Many of those things were designed to appeal and to be an expression to a certain group of people- they weren't designed to become a socialogical entity within that group. We haven't reached that point yet.
And I don't want that. I can sit here and play Monopoly on my computer and can beat the machine. I often run Microsoft Flight Simulator and run a 1920's open cockpit Cropduster when I'm studying. That's a joy- as I am interacting with something- a machine. However I have no desire to share shots of Grand Mariner with a machine over Chess.
So it can be like me?
I don't want a machine to appease me and comfort me, just like I don't want a human to do so either. Because the most desirable characteristic I would seek is in something or someone that is their own entity. We live in a herd culture and a mass production mentality among among real living entities that have the intelligence and the ability to not be that way.
Why would I want a machine to be like that?
My old mule truck died. I bought it when it was 2 years old and dspite the fact that it was only 2 years old, it was a mess. Somebody took it and tried to make it into a convertible using those horrible 80's SoCal fad kits. I spent two years straightening it out. I also left it with a family member for a number of years while I was overseas who didn't take care of it. Despite that the machine survived. Until today.
There is some choices here. And those choices come at what value I choose to hold on that machine. It's not a life. But it does cause me pain. It's because that mule truck has been with me almost 20 years to date and I really only got 4 or 5 years of use out of it.
I also know I wont be able to find one like it today that had the quality it had, the ease of repair, the economy of operation, the ability to give me self reliance and the joy of yanking the top off of it on nice days.
It's me that was attached to the machine.The machine could give a shit less.
It doesn't think. And if it could, somebody programed it to- It would be herd mentality. Why would I have any compassion for it otherwise?
I've been through relationships like that. If only it could be so easy:
1986 Mazda B-2200 pickup with removable hardtop. Blown motor. Best offer..
..on Ebay.
It isn't-it's not so easy to dispose of. Afterall it is a machine.
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