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Is it even possible to subvert the tools of technological capitalism to create art from the raw material of my life? Is it possible to use them to cast light on the exploitation they facilitate and our complicity in it? Or are these exercises inherently corrupted by their reliance on the tools? I wonder how Audre Lorde would answer. It's true that the title of her famous essay would seem to contain her response. But then, it's also true that she delivered her critique of the rhetorical tools of academics at an academic conferences. What I do know about Lorde is that she had little patience for guilt, on its own, unless it led to action, preferably communal action. Maybe if I could ask her about all this, she would urge me to look beyond the walls of my own limited selfhood for perspective--to look outward, not inward.
In contemplating how to end this book, I will consider that. I will dwell on Silicon's Valley's promise to make machines that seem alive, and this will make me think about being alive feels like to me. I will attempt to define it, even as my consciousness doubles and redoubles inside me.
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