Apollo Agrees

I realize that if I was a celebrity I’d be getting lots of hate mail for this one, but thank God I’m not! Viral hit, that is what the international culture of Transhumanism will evolve into over the next couple of months after it has become the central topic of bestselling author, Dan Brown’s new book, Inferno, which hit the racks just last month. Similar to the case of the Illuminati, a groundbreaking phenomenon, society will spend a large portion of their time addressing it, an issue that they fail to grasp in the first place… But what is transhumanism really? 

To put it in simple terms, transhumanism is an intellectual movement aiming at fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing technologies to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities. They predict that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into beings with such greatly expanded abilities as to merit the label "posthuman".

I found the moral dilemma the author presented through the protagonists over whether or not transhumanism was to be implemented rather preposterous and the views of the side presented as villain rather sensible. Is transhumanism really a work of a group of fiends from hell or is it truly what is best for the challenging times to come? Before your brain escalates to a thought of, ‘Hell no, I don’t want my genes modified with’, let’s get some facts straight. As you can see in the sigmoid growth curve demonstrated in the graph below, the human race is currently at the point of exponential growth at its highest acceleration yet and it’s ever increasing. Soon enough we’ll have massacres over bread in Times Square and Champs Elysees and the death rates would go so high… and this is where Transhumanism comes in, dearest readers, the ultimate solution.

What if we had bodies that were modified to function just as good, or even better, with a fraction of the nutrients required? What if we became fast enough to ditch the car and go on foot everywhere? After all, we’re faster! There wouldn’t really be emission issues, would there? Would that be, as some parties claim, an abomination beyond proportion? Is this defiance of the deities that each of us conform to? When it come to science, where should we draw the line, or should we at all? I think not. This is just another step in evolution, it is not fast forwarding of the process. In fact, it is what’s natural. Isn’t transhumanism the result of our naturally ‘evolutionized’ minds? The debate between God and science that philosophers, scientists and preachers have been addressing since the brink of dawn is frustrating! God and science CAN co-exist, a point that Dan Brown has been trying to convey since his first novel in the Robert Langdon series, Angels and Demons. Every civilization that’s ever thrived had a God of knowledge or wisdom, be it the Egyptian, Greek, Rome or Hinduism. Spirituality and religion should push rather than hinder the borders of science. You may disagree with Transhumanism, but Apollo agrees.

After dabbling with a bit of HASH, Adam Ashraf's discovered he has become an addict. You can now read more of his random, outlandish musings on his column, Adam's Ecstasy, which will feature regularly on our blog. Disclaimer: All views expressed our entirely his own, and any wrath incited must strictly be directed at him. Write to him at adamashraf97@hotmail.com. 

Though, beware, we fiercely defend out own!

Continue

Hash E-zine: Issue 2

Finding Wonderland: Where It All Began

"They lied...there is nothing beyond the ocean," she said, casting a forlorn glance at the agitated water as its ripples danced ceaselessly around their abode, spitting its spray in measured intervals like the disappointment in her tone.

"At forever’s end we will find what we have so passionately hunted. Until then, let the ocean take you where it wills.” Replied her comrade just as he felt the fishing line go taut. Bracing for the catch, they gasped as the swishing fins of silver tore through the water’s seams, clashing spectacularly against the golden that burned bright in the mystic milieu around them. Indeed, Posiedon had been generous with their feast today, bearing one of its finest to serve the aspiring conquerors as they chased the last beams of sunlight, and what lay yonder…

Hidden, obscure, undiscovered…

But not for much longer.

Email subscribers: Please click here to view the issue.

Continue

In tribute of: the Issue 1 Contributors

We might've thanked you guys a million times already, so this one could potentially get on your nerves. But we have much to owe you. HASH was an idea, something Haroon and I decided to blindly leap into just to somehow make our inner passions a meaningful part of our lives. So that we won't forget them. So that we could live them everyday. So that it wouldn't be that they don't count. Or reward. 
So that we could share them with the rest of you. And more importantly, absorb all the almost out-worldly inspiration you have to offer. It's hard to get through sometimes, most people still find it difficult to comprehend what we do. But we're inching forward. And with every millimeter conquered, it just feels as though another tiny, invaluable dream has miraculously come true.
So thank you, Issue 1 contributors, for giving us the wings to fly. Your works will be the parameters for what's next for a long long time to come. Be well. Live well. Stay inspired. Keep rocking the world with your awesomeness.
Loads of love and HASH-titude,
Bushra Ali

Special thanks to Florencia Raffa for the Cover Art. See her complete works and mini-biography in Issue 1.

Issue 2 comes out...this week!

Continue

Ode to a Pleasurous Life

One who pursues knowledge is one who pursues unhappiness. 

A man who pursues pleasure finds joy in everything. 

The sinful man suffers The One’s wrathfulness, 

The righteous man finds happiness beyond measuring. 

Taken for granted some pleasures go unnoticed, 

Little things in life bring satisfaction and delight, 

Pursuing the unaquisitionable is foolishness. 

But keeping hope always, and dreams focused, 

Brings an end to fright and reveals light, 

And the music of life; no longer tuneless.

-Remington CW*

Contentment Smoking by Joshua Petker

*Remington CW is an 18 year old student from the midwest United States. He writes poetry as a casual hobby, usually of the philosophical or reflective type.

Continue

Chains of Glass- Part 2

"I hadn't grown up in a bubble; I was raised in an enormous oblong glass box. The extraordinary thing about this glass box was that I could see everything of the world without. But to that world, I was completely invisible. The box was impermeable, it was impossible for me to shine in the radiance that showered around it. The glass simply reflected its bright glares. None of the beams reached within." 

    

(Continue reading Part 1 here)

Pavel Guzenko- Eyes

The glass box had a connection. Several connections actually, and they all involve cables, electricity, radio waves and machines. They call this connection ‘media’. The media were our eyes.

For the most part, these eyes consist of a large, blank white mass called a cornea, which has no meaningful or obvious purpose. Then they have a large, spectacular iris that can change both color and shape- this is for the idle talk, often of the unnecessarily overrated and celebrated, which surrounds the pupil. It is the pupil that is the real deal, a massive black hollow in the core of it all. It can see nothing but that which is shown into it and that eventually becomes its temporary focus. Another extraordinary thing about the pupil is that the image formed on its wall is always upside down, never upright, never straight. Yes, the media is an eye, just like an eye.

I would watch through this eye, all the pain, sorrow and suffering, all the evil, brutality and savageness, all the pomp, show and drama.

But just as my heart would bleed when my sight unexpectedly wandered there, just as I could feel the lump grow in my throat, just as my body would numb and my blood would freeze, I would feel something, something that doesn’t allow any of it to actually happen, something that makes it all just a mere whim of my imagination, something that makes it all fake…

Relish.

When a plane crashed into the World Trade Centre, my first notion was excitement, not anxiety- but borderline exhilaration. I was eight, and it was then that I was introduced to ‘terrorism’, ‘attack’, ‘bomb’, and ‘war’, I was introduced to the world outside.

And to think in that first split second of introduction, I had relished it.

To read of so many lives lost at once- I shook my head mournfully, even joined in throwing horrible curses at these ‘terrorists’, perhaps even felt like cursing, even felt the genuine sympathy, grief and horror. But only much after I’d felt the relish. Maybe, a little too late.

I didn’t realize it then. It had been drowned in the series of events that followed. Our peace was threatened for the first time.

And there was a crack on the glass.

It always brushed past me, so smoothly, I dismissed it as soothing. It was, undoubtedly, relish always is. It was only when it brushed too many times did it strike me. When I saw the first bombs of a new war crumble the shattered pieces of Afghanistan from the safety of my glass box, then Iraq. Then, when I saw through my eyes all the other cold wars and old ‘disagreements’ resurface between nations, known and unknown, I felt it in me, the hope, the relish, the want…for more.

I never really believed it was evil. In fact, it was human. Wasn't it?

All this time the glass cracked, and I began to notice the cracks, too, my eyes could see them, somehow I had a feeling they were causing it, helping it- my eyes, those eyes.

And then, suddenly, out of nowhere, there was a gaping hole in it, as if someone had neatly cut it out. And that someone kept coming back for more. That was when our ‘kind’ got threatened, us distinct people- bearers of the glass boxes.

And just like them, my glass, my protection, my invisibility was getting weaker, endangered.

Yet what haunted me even more, what haunts me even now, was that even when I heard their blood had been spilt, they were being torn to pieces, mutilated by those bombs, and when I would read their numbers in the morning, those of my neighbors and alleged ‘companions’- though why it shouldn't matter for all the other innocent blood was beyond me- even then I felt the brush…the relish…the pleasure, 

“19? Only 19?”

…the disappointment.

(...to be continued...)
- Bushra

Don't want to miss the next part? Subscribe to have it delivered straight to your email.

Continue

Smile

A smile is a precarious thing. Thought to be the expression of happiness, it can hide away other things. A shy smile is to let that blue-eyed boy next to you know you like listening to him talk. A broad smile is to let the shy girl know you think she’s lovely. A shared smile is to connect over a joke, a feeling, an understanding. These are the ones known to everyone. But there are those who use smiles in a different way.

A plastic smile, to let your friends know you’re all right, but it hides away your pain and hurt. A wide smile is to assure them you are telling the truth, but you aren’t, are you? That smile that shows no teeth, it hides your anger, doesn’t it? The Cheshire grin heralds the malicious pranks you’ve pulled and the jokes you’ve made. Don’t let these upside-down frowns drag your day down into the dumps. Instead, find the beautiful smiles.

The one covered by both palms in an effort to contain your laughter. The open-mouthed smile that lets out whoops of joy and wonder. The soft smile that follows a kiss from the one you love. The victorious smile, beaming towards others after a comeback with your team. The knowing smile that lights your face when you see friends flirting.

Show the world your pain along with your smiles. There’s no weakness in pain or suffering. The only weakness is in deceit. You are beautiful the way you are and your smile just makes you even more stunning. Smile your favorite smile, for you never know who will fall in love with it.

-Hailey
Regular, undecided teen. Loves the snow others despise. Believer in the saying, "The pen is mightier than the sword"

 

Explosive Smile by Daniel Perkowski

Continue

A Bulb to Brighten

Like many of us try to deny, I am insecure. Maybe it isn’t for the specific flaws another person might have as theirs but just like everyone, I have insecurities. 

It is impossible to perfect yourself if you are not even aware of who you are. Everyone has their own light bulb inside of them. You cannot be someone else. In other words, you cannot steal a replica of another human being’s bulb and try to shine it as bright as they are capable of. That way, one has their own bulb switched off and the stolen one slightly dimmer than the original indicating you will never reach the top being someone you are not. 

Some of us forget how important it is to be ourselves. One affects the entirety of the world by not being themselves. One pretends to be someone for love, reputation, attention. Most of all, one loses who they were fated and meant to be. How you walk, how you talk, how you write will just be ordinary and something you learned from someone else. ‘Someone else’ who was just busy lightening their own bulb. 

You will be but a replica, a dimmer bulb, of someone bright. And as the time flies in the journey of us attempting to become something we are not, we also happen to complete the journey of losing who we were or could be and lastly we unintentionally break the bulb only we could brighten individually. So for now, think about what you have become if it is you or if you have a bulb to fix or a bulb to throw.

-Iman Javed

Burger Aficionado. Crazy but Preppy Muggle.

Continue