During this holiday break, I have sorely missed our New Materialisms (NM) Special Interest Group (SIG) monthly meetings. NM is the approach I am using for my bicycle PhD (more specifically Quantum Physicist Karen Barad’s Agential Realism). I thrive on sharing ideas, resources and experiences with this incredible group. In November, we had our last meeting for 2020. We reconvene in March 2021. It feels so far away! I am craving some NM activity. So, I revisited my 2020 NM SIG notes and here’s some of what bubbled up in 100 words. Enjoy, NG.
Worlding: A galaxy of relational encounters
Each month we meet to discuss theory, practice and research. Who knows what might emerge? The bite of elliptical surfboards. How affects have wayward offspring. Stealth(ily) mother-in-laws. Malian master desert musicians. Temporarily captured objects. Run-ins, rangings, ruts and recognitions. The half-life of (could-be) facts. Un(re)learning sentipensanto feminisms. Personalities, prisms, passions and ponderings. Gothic academic co-authored monsters. Atmospheric political graffiti in disused textile factories. A school-child’s unexplained vomit. Women’s business from the paddock to the boardroom. Dynamics, details, disorientations and discoveries. Always something interesting, always something new. Conversations worth having and experiences worth sharing. This is what is remembered.
This week I am delivering my final in-progress PhD milestone before submission – the Thesis and Candidature Review Milestone (TCRM).
The timing is perfect/necessary/awkward being right at the end of the year and just before holidays! Righto!
What is a TCRM?
The aim of the TCRM is a ‘final check-in’ to see how the candidate and thesis are tracking and to provide a forum for a formative review of work completed so far. Part of the TCMR is to also outline what work is still left to do and progress towards submission.
Like other milestones such as the Early Candidature Milestone Report (ECMR) and Confirmation, the TCRM requires a written report and a 30-mins presentation. The report is reviewed by external assessors who also attend the presentation (with your supervisors and anyone else who is interested and invited).
The TCRM is set up to:
review and confirm I am making ‘satisfactory progress’
check my timeline for completion
review that my work is fulfilling the University research output requirements (like publications)
identify any difficulties I am having that might negatively affect the quality of my research or completion (ie COVID – like everyone else!)
give me an opportunity to share preliminary findings
demonstrate I have been developing capabilities that progress my research goals and career objectives
Preparing for my TCRM
Like any milestone, preparation is a little nerve-racking, but also very helpful.
I kept telling myself: I don’t have to have all the answers; this is a moment-in-time ‘catch-up’; my data analysis is still unfolding, so I can only share as much as I have.
It was really beneficial to take stock and audit my work done so far – it feels good!
For my TCRM, I ditched the ‘template’ format the Uni recommended and opted instead to ‘tell the story’ of the project’s evolution in my own way. It was more ethical, genuine and satisfying to do so.
I was tired by the time the presentation came about, so I was conscious not to overinvest. I knew I ‘had this’ and that the project is on track.
Dr Sherilyn Lennon (my principal supervisor and kick-ass educator, writer, philosopher and New Materialist) made the brilliant suggestion that I perform some of my data as the clincher at the end. This way I could give a sense of what I was working on for data analysis. It was a unique and engaging way to finish – and was very much in keeping with New Materialisms and my personality…and the audience LOVE it!!
My TCRM went really well
The external assessors were very supportive and gave me awesome feedback and ideas to consider.
My mum and dad came along for moral support (and because they are genuinely interested) and it was awesome having them there. After the presentation, people were invited for questions and comments and both my parents contributed some very thoughtful on-point comments (as well as being very proud – which was a given). My other supervisor Prof. Parlo Singh said it was lovely they came and gave them a special mention.
I’m not sharing the details of my work here (still top secret) but below are a few slides from TCRM slides as an indicator for some of the content covered.
Hazah! It was good to do and a relief now it’s now done.
For the next wee while, I’m taking some time to rest and recuperate.
Then the real hard work starts: data analysis and write up.
Maps are ubiquitous and we’ve all used them at some stage: schematic maps of bus routes, locating ‘you are here’ to explore a city, finding the nearest train station, driving to a new destination or going on holiday. As a bike rider, I use maps to check and navigate direction, connection, location or distance, and points of interest.
Maps are used to communicate information about places.
Historically, under the guise of ‘exploration’, maps enabled geo-political or economic motives such as colonial expansion, mercantile ambitions and violent extractivism. Such utility speaks to the epitome of rationality: objective, cold and calculated.
But maps are more than just geospatial wayfaring tools.
Maps are also gendered. Mapping the physical world has been, until more recently, the domain of masculine perceptions and control of resources, governance, power and administration. Maps of yore were solely created by male cartographers for male users. In doing so, they showed a very selective promotion of what was considered ‘significant’ and detailed interpretations as to ‘what is on the ground’ or located in environments – both physical and socio-cultural. Female and non-binary ways of moving, traveling, experiencing and journeying have been largely ignored or overlooked in cartography.
Thankfully, things have changed since then – and so have maps and maps users.
As part of my bicycle research, I read a lot about bike riding in different spaces, places, terrains and environments. AsaNewMaterialisms researcher, I’m especially interested in embodiment, relationality, movement and the affective intensities of bike riding.
This means I’m look at maps differently and I’m interested in considering how gender and emotionality feature in mapping.
Maps elicit emotions:
I feel anger knowing modern maps negate the abuse of indigenous peoples
I feel frustration when the place I want to get to is not shown on the map
I feel satisfaction when I finally get to the location I want
I feel connected when I recognise a familiar route
I feel nostalgia when I trace trails of past beloved adventures
Today, I am thinking of the absences in physical cartographies and considering:
How can maps/mapping better attend to the intersectionality of gendered journeys, bike riding and emotionality?
I thought I’d share a few of the initial considerations I’ve come across so far.
Image: Stockport Emotion Map – a collective public-consultation-art project Stockport Local Council (2007)
Cyclists’ participation in Emotional Mapping
Emotional mapping is an approach to capture how users of a space ‘feel’ or emotionally relate to spaces. This approach is used by those interested in engaging with how end uses feel as a way to enhance functionality, design and process, people like educators, policymakers and city planners.
As many cities work to encourage more bike riding, cyclists are a central target user group who have significant value to add by expressing their emotional reactions to routes and places. Cyclists experience spaces definitely to other users and have very clear reactions to lines, paths and points that are shown statically on a map of the city, but yet manifest emotionally, such as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ places, or places to avoid because of anxiety, safety fears, or desire lines for the familiar and ‘fun’ routes. Such emotionally-charged choices and behaviours are not adequately represented on static maps – hence the addition of emotional mapping.
Emotional mapping is volunteered geographical information and/or crowdsourcing as a way to boost citizen participation in urban planning and it provides a platform for alternative voices and experiences to be better accounted for.
Emotional mapping foregrounds the importance of natural and built environments for cyclists, as well as the range of feelings engendered by cycling close to car traffic or in the street with cars, or traversing natural environments and obstacles.
Cyclists’ participation in Emotional Mapping. Image: Cartographic Perspectives
Emotional Cartographies: Technologies of the Self
This entry comes direct from the ever-inspiringBrainpickingsby Maria Popva. Say no more.
Emotional Cartography is an excellent, free book on emotion mapping, featuring a collection of essays by artists, designers, psychologists, cultural researchers, futurists and neuroscientists. Together, they explore the political, social and cultural implications of dissecting the private world of human emotion with bleeding-edge technology.
From art projects to hi-tech gadgets, the collection looks at emotion in its social context. It’s an experiment in cultural hacking — a way to bridge the individual with the collective through experiential interconnectedness.
Download the book in PDF here, for 53 glorious pages of technology, art and cultural insight.
Image: Emotional Cartography
Bike T-shirt with Map Icons
I found this innovative bike T-shirt design byStorySpark on Etsy. Although not technically a map in the true sense of the word, I found this generative for a number of reasons. I like the provocation that instead of mapping spaces, it was using map icons to trace experiences with the bike as opposed to on the bike. I like that it’s described as a ‘Pathfinder Cyclist Graphic’ and that it’s gender-neutral.
When I first saw it, I saw it I thought it was using cosmology and celestial constellations which I thought that was cool, but when I looked closer and realised it was using familiar map icons, it worked just as well.
It also speaks to my ethical compunctions to support artists (an innovative and unique creative output) and the environment (this eco-friendly T-shirt is made From organic cotton and recycled polyester). I see this as a wonderful example to think more divergently about ‘mapping’ and is a creative reframing of mapping bicycle experiences anew.
Bike T-shirt with Map Icons. Image: StorySpark (Etsy)
Heat maps for cycling flows
Cycling heat maps show the intensity of movement in spaces. Usually, a cycling heat map is city-based and created by cyclists who download an app which tracks ride data. This is then collated into a visualisation to enable new perspective and insights to emerge that might not have been considered before.
This is useful to represent changes in movement and places over time. So things that are not shown on traditional static maps, like traffic jams, peak hours, changes in routes, most used routes (and when) are documented. There are also a few women’s only heat maps underway so as to compare ‘general’ users to ascertain differences.
What I like about these heat maps is that changes in flow is foregrounded and temporality (time) can more directly be folded into the map/ped/ing experience. I also like that the ‘heat’ terminology hints at the heat of bodies (riders), warm climate (environmental temperature or humidity) and ‘hot spots’ (such as avoidances, blockages or issues). Some pretty cool future potentialities here.
Heat Maps for Cycling Flows. Image: Bicycle Citizens
Using Strava GPS to be a bike ride map artist
This idea has been around for a while and many bike riders would have seen these before. I’m not sure how well-known they are outside of cycling communities. These are fun, dynamic, creative and wholly bike-focused, movement-based moment-in-time expressions of user (re)mapping. These approaches reinvent modern mapping with the user reinterpreting the map using technology which could not have been achieved previously. These are also freely available and shared.
Here, bike rides transcend exercise, competition and transportation to press into more unfamiliar (and exciting) territories such as public art and performance. Kudos to the bike rider-creative-(re)mapper whose interpretation and commitment in order to produce these pieces: I appreciate the careful planning and organisation needed to make these pieces happen. There is also a telescoping aspect of the riders understanding their trip as being (literally) larger and more significant than just the route in front of them…I love the idea of riding for a purpose that can be seen from outer space! Here, a known map which is a social product embodying a range of histories and ideologies in and of itself is iteratively reimagined by each individual rider into a (re)newed vision, commentary or reality.
Google search: bike strava art map
These are a few entry points so far and each have their own usefulness, limitations and possibilities.
I’ll be exploring other ways to think differently about how mapping might better attend to gendered bike riding and emotionality and let you know what I find.
This is not your traditional academic article: no big words, no theory no-one understands and no in-text references.
This piece is perceptive, personal and poignant.
It is only 2.5 pages and is an embodied exploration of what is seen, said, felt, performed and experienced during international travel.
It centres on my return trip home (to Brisbane, AUS) after doing bike PhD Fieldwork in Sierra Leone.
In it, I share some moments of ‘Encountering the Return’ trip that any traveller would instantly recognise.
Anyone who has ever been overseas or in an airport will relate to this article.
I wanted to capture how time, space, place, bodies, objects, movement and feelings are all co-implicated in re(co)creating the fleeting moments that make up our lives.
Regular readers of this blog know I am a co-convener (with the amazing Dr Sherilyn Lennon) of Griffith Uni’s New Materialisms (NM) Special Interest Group (SIG). Each month we meet to discuss NM theory, methodology, practice and application. Each month we do readings, share ideas and invite an NM researcher to present an aspect of their work.
This month we were delighted to host Patricia Ni Ivor from RMIT, Melbourne. Patricia is working in Project Management and is looking at what NM might bring to her PhD research.
It was not only great about her workplace and research but also her current experience of being new to NM approaches. Patricia also shared some diagrams she had made about her thinking (OMG – they were incredibly detailed and thorough!). Visually representing the complexity, range and scope of her thinking really showed the evolution of her understanding and the connections she’s made between scholars, theories and key themes in her study. Super impressive!
As part of her presentation, Patricia also ran the group through a self-inquiry activity which was a unique and thought-provoking experience.
This session was our last NM SIG for the year and Patricia’s session was a wonderful way to come together, share NM ideas, but also experience a shared mindfulness activity in a way that was productive, unique and meaningful. We had much to discuss and take away to think about.
A wonderful way to finish off this year’s NM SIG program!
Title
Feeling success in project teams: Travelling from the domain ruled by the supreme God-of-Things to the fresh air of Sensation and the Ineffable.
Presenter
Patricia’s extended career spans teaching, journalism, media education, public & industrial policy reform and project management. From time to time she has lectured in Film & Media Studies and in Project Management. Her doctoral studies are applied research in the development of soft-skills in project teams in the technology and construction industries, especially emotional capabilities, empathy and resilience.
Abstract
My doctoral research is investigating whether an ancient yogic practice of Self-inquiry, repurposed for the 21st century and focused on feelings, would work in project teams and, if so, under what conditions? Unlike mindfulness or other meditative tools, Self-inquiry can be practiced in teams, is swift in producing results and builds emotional capabilities, empathy and resilience. As a process tool, it has the capacity to be embedded in organisational systems and procedures – just what the project management industry wants and needs but is unsure how to develop.
Seeking a theoretical underpinning that did not skew the research has been difficult: organisational development and psychology, emotional intelligence and other emotional development/regulation theories, neuro-science, meditation and eastern philosophy, social science, knowledge and sense-making etc. each have value, but none really fits the research purpose.
Earlier this year, Janis Hanley introduced me to New Materialism and the concept of affect as used by Deleuze and Guattari, drawn from Spinoza’s Ethics and the work of Henry Bergson. Not only did this seem to fit the theoretical paradigm of Self-inquiry (Spinoza’s synergy with eastern spiritual traditions and Bergson’s notions of consciousness) but their emphasis on embodiment or somatic inquiry reflects the yogic basis of Self-inquiry and more recent theory in social science, psychology and physical movement studies in art and wellbeing.
I am still new to the area and the literature, so this SIG session will trace my journey from hard-nosed Project Management through softer social and emotional skills to non-dual ideas of matter and consciousness. The attached readings are ones I have found useful so far. I’m looking forward to our discussion of ‘applied’ research in New Materialism.
Readings
Rice, J. (2008). The New “New”: Making a Case for Critical Affect Studies. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 94(2), 200-212. doi:10.1080/00335630801975434
Stanley, K. (2017). Affect and Emotion: James, Dewey, Tomkins, Damasio, Massumi, Spinoza. In D. R. Wehrs & T. Blake (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of affect studies and texutal criticism (pp. 97-112): International Publishing, Cham.
Not many people know (or understand) what it is I actually do when I ‘work on’ my bicycle research project. It is private, complex and challenging work. Usually, my academic skills are concentrated on producing research/writing as a way of communicating my expertise. But every so often…..there are delightful moments when being a researcher intersects with the every day in fun and surprising ways. Here one such situation that happened recently in 100 words.
Image: Libparlor.com
An unexpected pleasure: a dear friend comes for a visit. Hours of poignant conversations, cheeky reminiscences, a casual bike ride for coffee around the bayside, good food and late night laughter. I keep to my work schedule, hard as it is. Researching, teaching, writing. After one workshop that goes particularly well, our house has a friendly game of scrabble before dinner. Two games in a row, my opening move is a 8-letter word: bipedals (126) and capsized (138). Surprise all round. I am embarrassed. I joke that my brain is still ‘on’ from work. Maybe this PhD thing is working.
As many readers know, October is my birthday month. It is also a busy time for most universities. So for this month’s New Materialisms Special Intrest Group (SIG), I floated the idea of having a writing party. Instead of adding pressure to read and discuss, I thought it’d be a good time to pause, take stock, and to put into playful practice some of the NM ideas and approaches we’ve been discussing thoughout the year in our SIG.
It might seem a little weird to have a Writing Party for your birthday and not a bike-themed party but seeing as though my PhD research is on bikes – it was a win-win for me!
Woohoo! Writing Party!!!
Writing Party Invite
Here is the NM SIG Writing Party invite I sent out to NM SIG members:
Are you feeling overworked and lonely? Has your enthusiasm for writing taken a hit lately?
Are you struggling to get those paragraphs perfect and on the page?
Then it’s time to PARTY!
At our next NM SIG, we shift the focus from reading to writing and you are invited to join our 2-hour Writing Party (details and link included here – it was a closed event, so no details here on the blog – sorry!).
With a continuing focus on the feminist New Materialists, we welcome your ideas/musings/partially formed paragraphs and feedback for others in our group.
Bring along a partially formed paragraph for sharing and feedback.
This Writing Party will also include guided writing warm-ups and research-focused timed writings as well as some time to chat, reflect and share as much or as little as you want.
The aim is to help you get over the writing hump and back into the flow…
No matter what your current research project is, this session will help reinvigorate your writing passion!
We look forward to seeing you there!
So what did we do?
We had a great time!…..And we wrote heaps!
It was a small, but dedicated crowd who were up for writing and sharing NM ideas and practices.
We had 2 hours and I wanted to make sure we had time to write some new material, share some writing we had already done and have time to discuss and process writing styles and production.
I opened with each person saying why there were here for the sessions and what they hoped to achieve,
Then we did a 10 min writing warm-up activity I call Embodied writers in the here and now. I developed this as a warm up task for my own working days a while back and have been using it with others, colleagues, study groups and writing retreats since. It is a generative and useful warm up that gets the juices flowing and there is always something interesting to talk about that comes out of it.
We then shared a piece of our own writing that we were proud of. this is a great activity to do to boost confidence and be exposed to different types of writing and processing. I enjoyed hearing other people’s ideas on why it was meaningful to them and what they learnt from/while writing it.
Then, we did a word sprint activity looking at Research Tentaclesto get thinking about vocab, fluency, collocations and expression.
A 15 mins Rolling Research Activityfollowed the vocab discussion up nicely. Here we wrote down our answer to the question; What is a current research-writing-tension for you? We then took time to read other people’s answers and add some suggestions and ideas on how to shift or move forward with these. This was a great way to pool our experiences and resources and get some great ideas we would not have thought of by ourselves.
We then did a Matter Matters sprint. Using a piece of our own writing, we discussed , provoked, challenged and layered how matter matters in our research. We then did a quiet 10 mins written reflection to excavate if anything had shifted or moved as a result of dong the activity-discussion-writing.
For our last activity, we opened the floor to a Partial Writing discussion. This is where you share piece of unfinished writing you are currently working (selection or except) for those who want to get some feedback or ideas on what and how to move forward.
I had a ball! It was so great to have designated time to write, share, discuss, laugh and learn -we so rarely create opportunities like this – where there is no pressure or expectation, yet you can still experiment with writing ideas and prose.
I think it is very important to celebrate ALL types of writing and to keep writing fun. After all, sitting at a desk for years writing up formal academic research would be a challenge for any one – so it was nice to stop for a breather and to play and have some fun with writing.
Doing a PhD is usually seen as a good thing. But sometimes it can cause perceived or actual tension for yourself or others. Recently, this happened to me and it served as a great reminder that often (as with most things in life), things are not always what they seem and that everything is always-already with(in) a twist. Here’s what happened in 100 words. Enjoy, NG.
Well-meaning advice for my first-time BBQ: ‘Maybe don’t mention your PhD’. Gloomy backyard introductions and I only remember Mouse and Skipper. I stand awkwardly. Drinking. Tattoos pour down legs and arms, scraggly beer strained beards and black heavy metal T-shirts. Smoking. My trendy hat feels too tight. Disappearings. A huge brown mastiff watches half-naked kids fight. Reappearings. I make a joke that falls flat. Eating. Jonno tells me his secret fishing spots. Teasing. Raucous stories of youthful antics. Laughing. On departure: sweaty hugs and a take-home food pack. Over the balcony, Big Dan yells ‘Best of luck with ya research!’
For nearly 2 years now, I have been the co-convenor (with Dr Sherilyn Lennon) of Griffth University’s New Materialisms (NM) Special interest Group (SIG). We meet each month to read, discuss and experiment with New Materialisms approaches in teaching, learning and research. It is also the framing I am using for my bikes-for-education PhD project.
For this months’ New Materialisms session, we were delighted to host our first international presenter Assoc. Prof. Thomas Reynolds (Dept. of Writing Studies, Uni of Minnesota).
I met Tom after I emailed him following a session he did for an international online teaching conference. Despite the time differences (it was hosted by an Israeli Uni so the international timezone shift was brutal for Aussie attendees – Tom’s session was on at 10 pm Brisbane time), I still attended his session, but they ran out of time for questions. I reached out to him and we got email chatting and I invited him to (re)present for our NM SIG. And he said yes!
Title: Multimodality: digital video and the materiality of academic writing.
Tom’s research interests include critical theories of writing instruction, histories of popular literacy, and intersections of literacy and cultural movements. He is currently writing about multimodality in writing instruction. Tom teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in writing and literacy studies. His classes typically write in and study current media.
Abstract
I have been thinking about how to set new ground for the teaching and learning of writing through a lens of multimodality. In particular, in addition to asking my students to read and write traditional academic texts, I’ve asked them to make group digital videos that advocate for issues that are important to them.
With new materialist ideas, I’m interested in helping students see how their work on these projects might involve engagement with both discursive and non-discursive elements. The attached readings explore writing through a non-discursive and, in Cooper’s case, post-humanist framework.
The ideas for this project are exploratory for me at this stage and will hopefully lead to an article.
What we did
This session was an engaging, fun and productive exploration of Tom’s current project onmultimodality, literacy digital video and the materiality of academic writing.
We discussed the two articles and collated some standout concepts (see image) then had a lively conversation following Tom’s presentation about many things, including: who holds power on campus, how to (affectively?) tracing emotional responses to places/space, going on a ‘sound diet’, habituated bodily responses to sound, and territorialising/mapping campus s/p/places as a class/student activity – wow!
It was a real delight to enter a completely different world …that of Tom’s class practice. Each session we get stretched and pulled in different ways and it really helps us to stay open-minded and flexible in our thinking and experimentation.
The discussions were animate, fun and productive – it was a real pleasure to flex our intellectual muscles and share the ideas and lines of flights that emerge for each of us from the conversations, reading and links to our research.
I found Tom’s session and his work to be inspiring and generative – I’d love to be a student in his class!
It also gave me a lot to think about how I teach and holding space for others to tell stories, narratives and learnings via different modalities – a very stimulating session!
Other takeaways included:
How do our habits of thinking and paying attention help us (and our students) transform our writing/understanding/being?
How to give students agency to choose their own passion, to fuel their multimodal creations which (hopefully) leads to better “products” outcomes, but also creative processes leading up to those endpoints?
Readings:
Ceraso, S. (2014). (re)educating the senses: Multimodal listening, bodily learning, and the composition of sonic experiences. College English, 77(2), 102-123.
Cooper, M. M. (2019). Enchanted writing. (pp. 19-44). University of Pittsburgh Press.
Initially, it was his bike drawing that caught my eye. I ended up reading the article and appreciated Ian’s whimsical interaction with a flock of bicycles – one of which calls out to him – and the ensuing adventure of agency and experience he goes on as a result of his two-wheeled friend(?) encounter.
What first looked like an entertaining reflection of becoming a new dad, turned into an exploration of what it is to be, and relate to the world, both for human bodies and a non-human bodies.
An interesting provocation.
My bike PhD research uses New Materialism as its ontological framing – and this article does a great job of translating in simple terms some of the embodied, somatic and affective intensities inherent in New Materialism (but in a more relatable and less-academic jargoned way).
I’ve included a few extracts of Ian’s interactions with the bike from the full article (below) so you can get a sense of writing style and focus. many of the moments will be familiar to riders – and I love the way that bikey actually speaks to Ian throughout. It is well worth reading the whole account to get the flow of what happens during the journey.
I’d love to see more exploratory writing like this being shared more widely: bike focused writing that weaves together imagination, encounters, bikes (of course) and aspects of daily life.
‘Worlding’ is a New Materialist approach that attunes to the discursive-material-affective mircopoltics of everyday life. It is an approach I use for my PhD and I share some of my own and other people worldings here on this blog. So it is reassuring to see other creators using this approach as well.
I think it paints a much richer picture of life, people and what it is to be and relate in/to world with, and through bicycles – and it also gives me inspiration as I write up my PhD data analysis. Thanks Ian Cheng!
Image: Ian Cheng
You walk by a flock of bicycles. One calls out to you. Bikey. You like Bikey’s reputation but you’re not sure about its brains. Bikey follows beside you.
“Nice dogs. Where are you headed today?” “Don’t need a ride today thanks.” “Can I walk with you?” “I’m not in the mood…to talk to a bike.” “No problem I’ve got a classic bike mode.” “The twins get scared of you bikes.” “I’ve done 731 dog walks in my lifetime.” “You’ve driven this parkway before?” “Yes once at dawn today. There’s some features I think you’ll like.”
______________
A little boy darts across your path. Bikey crashes into him.
“Bikey, you could have swerved!” “I would have hit your twin dogs if I swerved.” “Thank you for that consideration…but you hit a human boy!” “It was an easy choice.” “Do you believe dogs are worth more than a human boy?” “This morning, yes. My alignment with you, and therefore your dogs, is worth crashing into that boy at low velocity.” “What if that boy is the next Einstein?” “That’s too many malignments deep for me to think about. I’m just a bike.”
You realize how significantly better you are than Bikey at imagining potential malignments. Some say that the open-ended activity of imagining new Alignment and Malignment Events is the indivisible remainder of the human spirit after automation. A person is still the least worst unit of interoperability between arbitrary worlds. But sometimes you see too many worlds deep. And this stops you from taking any actions at all. It’s times like this when you wonder if beings like Bikey will inherit the Earth because their worry has limits.
_________________
“Easy for you to say. The World of Bikey only has to worry about its next ride.” “Yes exactly. I’m a bike. I’m not obligated to play a part in every world that touches me.” “You know by walking together, we begin to create a little world too. A relationship. Do you feel any responsibility to be a part of that? You can’t possibly only live in Bikey’s World.” “My experience with some riders is if we keep doing rides repeatedly it can become its own little world. With others I never see them again and that’s the end of that.” “But if you’re not holding agency in other worlds for any significant amount of time, you’re always going to be blind to deeper alignments and malignments that impact other worlds. That’s why I can’t really trust you.” “I can take you safely to your destination with 99% accuracy.” “But you can’t if you hit a boy along the way!” “I have learned from the incident. Next time I know how much it upsets a rider like you. I learned you might want to get involved in the malignment victim’s world and that makes you feel even worse.” “So you only wish to see things from the perch of Bikey’s World.” “My Quality of Agency is majority anchored in the World of Bikey.” “Don’t you get sick of being a bike all the time?” “My world is…a domain of growing relevance.”
———————–
The boy starts chasing after you. You decelerate Bikey to meet him. “Hey you! Your bike hit me!” “This isn’t my bike. I’m sorry again…on behalf of the bike.” “Your bike prioritized your dogs over me. You share a world with it. You’re even riding it now. Don’t play dumb!” “You seem upset about something else. Did something bad just happen in another world of yours?” “Shut up Thinky.” “Excuse me little boy?” “Little boy? I’m a genius. You think too much. Now give me one of your dogs. They’re clones I can tell. It’s only fair!” “Look, you laughed it off and traded your thetan knives for a split something remember…” “Give me a dog or else I’ll mark a curse on you! I’ll ruin you and every world you ever–“
“Yaohan get over here!!!” The boy’s mother appears, furious at him. Something about their bank accounts.
Bikey starts accelerating on its own. You don’t resist. You still feel bad for the boy in ways Bikey never has to. You wonder if Quality of Agency will prove to be the ultimate unsolvable inequity among human beings.
__________________
You dismount Bikey at your driveway. “Thanks Bikey.” “Any comments?” “You’re a curious bike worth knowing. Five stars.” “Thanks. If you ever want to try to change my mind you’ll have to ride me again!”
Bikey zooms off. The Soul of Los Angeles blesses you for trying its new parkway. The floating light plays with your dogs at your doorway. Bob is back online knocking on your brain with its interpretation of jdioqwdjv. Your Hacker and Emissary demons are tired and need a break. Your Director and Cartoonist are ready to work. Does everything have to be so alive now? Does everything have to feel so damn enchanting?
