The Cool Machine is inside every man and every boy. It is why they build go carts and cars, computers and rockets to the moon. Not because anyone truly needed these things when they were first built, but because they were cool.
It is inside most men, but not inside most women.
Darwin and Marx cannot tell us why men build such machines. It is not about money: those who build new machines mostly go broke or lose money: no one needs or wants them at first. And it is certainly not about getting women: just think about the sort of men who are best at it. What do you think they do on a Saturday night?
It is as if way back in time, like maybe back in the days of Atlantis or something, there once was the Cool Machine that even now is still half-remembered in the hearts of men.
It is like a man born on a desert island who has never seen a woman, not even a picture of one. He would still want a woman but he would have no idea what one looked like. It is the same way with the Cool Machine: men want to build one, but they have little idea what it is like.
If you look through the notebooks of Leonardo you see all these pictures of not just machines, but also horses, birds and water. What are they about? The Cool Machine. He felt it but could not see it. His notebooks show his steps through the dark towards it.
When men build a machine, they are building something that is inside them. Just as a musician creates something that comes from inside.
What will it be like? I feel it inside me but I cannot see it. Here is my first attempt at a description:
- It is fast.
- It is a thing of beauty.
- It works smoothly and with grace.
- It has a smooth skin.
- It is like your second skin – it does what you want so well that it feels like a part of you.
- To a degree it has a mind of its own, but in a way that helps you, not in a way that works at cross-purposes.
- It makes a low sound when it is running.
- It lets you see new things or old things in a new way.
- An ordinary person can change it and work on it.
Some car ads are really not about a car, but about the Cool Machine. Just as other ads are really about sex.
Cars, ships and aeroplanes are the nearest thing we have to the Cool Machine, the closest we can get with the present state of knowledge. But they are only baby steps on the way to something way cooler and better.
If mankind lasts long enough then one day the Cool Machine itself will be built. Men will not be able to stop themselves.
See also:
Dimension traveling. The ship of Babel?
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