JZ: What transformations can the pollution of ‘pure thought’ by technology result in? Do you see it as a promise or threat; or maybe fear would be a necessary component of the thrilling vertigo these changes evoke, if they are to be treated seriously enough?
SG: It’s a promise and a threat, or a promise as a threat. At the same time, I wouldn’t like to sound overly Derridean about that. I’ve just given a paper which was a take off on my prior bodies, called ‘Bitter Twisted Evil Queen’, and it says that the notion of community is both a promise and a threat, but it also delivers a kind of gift. I don’t necessarily think that corruption is only a threat, or a promise in a one-sided sense, but one has to know that one is dealing with a caustic agent. To think that if you are handling acid without gloves on, you are not going to be burnt, is foolish. To jump out of the window and think that you are going to fly is foolish, unless you have fantastic drugs or you don’t really care what actually happens, so to me these transformations are almost dangerous. But just because something is dangerous doesn’t mean it’s bad, it just means it’s dangerous.