With everything rolling towards the abyss, our only hope for a bright future seems to be the Singularity, a technological transformation of what it means to be human. But in a talk for TEDx Brussels, science fiction and horror writer John Shirley argues that there are really two Singularities — and yes, everything will be terrible in the short term. So why is he optimistic about the future of the human race? Read on.

Top image: Magic Fox on Deviant Art.

1.

It’s a contradiction in terms — two singularities. But there are two, there’s the fanciful technological singularity of the imagination and the singularity that’s likely to come about. The false singularity, supposed to come between 2035 and 2045, is almost a “supernatural event” in the minds of many people. With its dream of technologically achieved eternal life, it has the reek of religious mythology about it, the unconscious fear of mortality. The half-suppressed terror of death that has generated most of our religious myths has also generated the myth that we can create a second machine body into which we’ll supposedly project a copy of ourselves and — puzzlingly — this recording in a three dimensional form is regarded as immortality. But the human essence is a whole that’s more than the sum of the parts, consciousness still remains mysterious to us, and selfhood is not a series of likes and dislikes recorded into a program.

The second singularity, as we’ll see, is the real singularity — it is more modest but impressive enough

2.

But all technological convergences, revolutions, renaissances, taking place in the next fifty years will happen against the backdrop of social and environmental crises. Multiple simultaneous crises will create shortages, which will further concentrate wealth in the hands of the few, schisming the world, separating most of the world from the breakthroughs of “singularity” level tech and biotech — this could result in a powerful and eccentric technocrat class with its own elitist rationale for dominance of the technologically under privileged through control of media and mechanism. Generally, the moneyed class will be the technologically equipped class — and with some exceptions the disenfranchised financially will be the disenfranchised technologically, despite the cell phones we see now in many remote villages.

Let me be clear that I do not foresee the downfall of civilization, I do not expect my sons to have to emulate the Mel Gibson character in Road Warrior.

But it’s going to be a long slog. Just a few weeks ago the most thorough analysis yet of the world’s energy infrastructure, from the International Energy Agency, reported that without significant reduction in greenhouses gases the next five years will take us to a point where it will be impossible to hold global warming to relatively safe levels—and the last chance of stopping the worst climate change will be “lost forever.” The door is closing, says their chief economist, in five years.

Does anyone think we’re going to get global warming under control in the next five years? With all the entrenched denialists backed by big oil and the intransigence of companies that profit from burning coal — no! Sadly it’s not going to happen. We will feel the full consequences of global warming. When tropical diseases and pests move northward, when monsoons take place in regions unprepared for them, when radical changes in climate impacts agriculture, causing dust bowls in some areas and catastrophic flooding in others, we’ll see a gigantic surge of refugees, hundreds of millions of people, totaling billions globally, moving away from these areas, desperately migrating toward more protected areas. Oceans provide much of the world’s food—Global warming contributes to the acidification of the ocean which adds to the attrition of fish stocks. And globally, fish supply 60% of the protein consumed by the human race — we have already harmed fish stocks by destructive methods of fishing, and pollution.

Food stocks will be radically challenged when climate change — as it’s already doing in Africa — increasingly damages agriculture. We may assume famines that make current food shortages seem like the good old days. And you do think western nations are dealing with a lot of refugees now? A drop in the bucket.

The social cost of all this will be brutally intimidating. With seven billion people on the Earth we have about a billion going to bed hungry right now and billions more people coming — And it’s been observed that the poorest people on earth contribute least to climate change but will feel its hand the heaviest, since they have the fewest resources with which to adapt and respond.

The massive shifts of large population will put unprecedented stress on infrastructure and social systems, especially food sources, water and housing, and will doubtless result in military confrontations. A Pentagon study concluded that under pressure to find new sources of food and safe housing in harsh climate change conditions, some countries will find excuses to invade other countries.

And of course there are other environmental crises arising — it’s becoming clearer that fracking to access hydrocarbons does cause earthquakes, and we’re doing more and more fracking; this and climate-change reduction in ice pressure on tectonic plates may well cause a great many more earthquakes. And don’t forget the black winds, toxic fronts of synergized pollutants capable of killing large numbers of people, quite possibly being formed in the upper atmosphere, like an aerial complement to that corresponding giant whirlpool of plastic in the Pacific ocean. Then there’s the delightfully diverse soup of pharmaceuticals (along with other random industrial chemicals, in many places) we’re finding in aquifers and drinking water. We all know about drugs combining dangerously — “don’t mix those two drugs, dude, bad news!” — but we’re combining hundreds of them randomly in our water. Sure they’re somewhat diluted, but one wonders if some general, cumulative compound will develop, some drug mix of birth control pill hormones, steroids, Prozac (one of the commonest pollutants in water), antihistamines and antibiotics. What collective neurological side effects might it have? The Romans had their leaded eating plates…

Still, the privileged will have access to fantastic augmentation. Recently nanoengineers at Princeton have developed a superthin electronic skin, that puckers and stretches like real skin: it can be adhered invisibly to your forehead; it could be hidden in the throat and used for subvocal communication. More sophisticated iterations will be able to communicate with the internet, with other people at a distance, constantly transmitting and receiving data — this kind of extreme interactivity will make some cyborgian dreams come true.

The tech-elite will have access to electronic resources and protected food stocks — some will be synthesized, with fresher foods raised in high-security agricultural skyrises (now planned, they’re towering, high tech greenhouses). Feeling threatened by the instability of the rest of the world, technocrats will naturally coalesce defensively against those migrating to seek better conditions. Moneyed, technologically sophisticated elements of society will tend to withdraw from the increasing pressures of the masses of disenfranchised, into the safety of walled, highly protected enclaves, which will be in effect, if not in legal status, technocratic city states.

Some of this semisuperhuman cyborgian elite will obsess about managing an unmanageable world — and they will come up with some solutions. But other privileged technocrats may well sink into the repellently self indulgent decadence of virtual reality retreats, where they’ll be sequestered physically and mentally both. Addiction to social media, videogames, cell phones and the internet is now a recognized phenomena and that has implications for our relationship to future tech. Because its addictive capacity will only increase as its experiential quality improves.

It’s strange—most of our technology is about extending our reach… but paradoxically, we’re in danger of a relationship to technology that actually cuts us off from one another. Cartoonists already caricature families who sit together talking to everyone but each other on their plethora of devices. . .

3.

Every technology and every wrinkle of a technology has a dark side. We have a contemporary example: automated aircraft are supposed to be safer— but the airline industry lately has suffered from what an FAA committee called “automation addiction.” And we’re seeing “a new breed of accident with state of the art planes”. Pilots use automated systems for all but a few minutes of the flight… they usual manual control only for takeoff and landing. They simply program navigation into computers rather than using their hands to fly the plane. When something goes wrong they no longer have the skills to deal with it.

There is intelligent collaboration with technology — you’re reading this with the aid of a technological interface — and then there’s a risk of mindless dependence on it. A biomedical engineer has already designed an Ecog chip that does not disrupt brain tissue, it floats atop the blood brain barrier, sensing the output of neurons and transmitting them to prosthetic devices, to machinery we wish to control, and so on… and some researchers expect the ecog chip to make electronic telepathy possible. How dependent might we become on such interfacing? How trapped, how lost will we become if our access to it suddenly breaks down?

The real singularity will be simply an unprecedented cybernetic intelligence explosion to many orders of magnitude, combined with astronomically improved interactivity—but the Kurzweilian singularity that allows us to interface with machines until, in his words, “there will be no distinction between human and machine” , will not come about sustainably because the psychological and social consequences would be so dire.

People who are quadroplegic have noted that they feel less emotion than they did, when they could still feel their entire bodies. The projection of the self into electronics reduces our relationship to the body, the seat of our emotions, and for several reasons that might lead to an increase in psychopathology.

And empathy may be a precious commodity in the future. Most people unconsciously cut off their empathy when they’re feeling endangered — when the population increases to 8 and 9 and 10 billion, we may instinctively become, as a race, proportionately less empathetic — unless, with self-observation and cognitive therapy, we actively struggle against that kind of degeneracy.

The super rich may become strikingly more elitist and detached when they get exclusive access to rejuvenation. It’s fairly evident that some form of rejuvenation, and certainly extensive life extension, will soon be possible. It’s thought that the first person to live three hundred years has recently, somewhere, been born. With a probable ability to grow new replacement organs to suit an individual’s DNA in a lab; with Sandia labs’ specialized nanoparticles that blast problematic micro organisms and cancers with precise micro applications of drugs; with methods for teasing stem cells into regeneration, and regenerative drugs like Sirolimus, and other innovations… we will effectively have rejuvenation… for those who can afford it.

Let’s be honest. Rejuvenation is sure to be a tremendously expensive process and it’s possible that only the super rich will regenerate — some people now in their twenties, may in eighty five years be tottering around, quite ancient — and see a youthful Paris Hilton still walking around. I suspect it will be infuriating. Or you may see Dominique Strauss-Kahn, looking younger than you do right now. Do we want Dominique Strauss Kahn chasing hotel maids in the year 2095? There are good wealthy people in the world… but there is a tendency for many of the super wealthy to be fairly awful, spoiled personalities. Having recently gotten 100 million dollars for a reality show of her fake wedding Kim Kardashian may, in thirty years, have invested the money so she can afford rejuvenation. We’ll never be rid of her. Our grandchildren may have to hear about Madonna’s latest affairs — a depressing prospect. Perhaps even a rejuvenated Rupert Murdock might be striding around in a hundred, or even three hundred years? It’s awful to contemplate the possibility of the immortality of the world’s worst assholes.

But we can avoid that fate by making laws requiring that rejuvenation for the most part goes to people who deserve it — you’ll get points for art, for science, for good works, add them up and then get rejuvenated. (Full disclosure, that idea was borrowed from a Jack Vance novel.)

Mastery of technology must include acknowledgement of its dark side. Mastery of technology means accepting of limitations. Limitations have value, eg limiting electricity to what will work for a particular power line means electrical flow isn’t wasted. Water is good; a flood usually isn’t. Technology too needs limits.

An invention which pollutes is only partly invented. And a lot of the time we rush into technology so quickly we don’t realize it’s going to pollute… It was recently discovered that every time a garment made from synthetic fabric goes through the wash, it lets go of thousands of tiny plastic fibers which end up fouling coastal environments throughout the globe. No one expected that. No one thought that form of manufacture through.

Not all biotech innovation will lead to delightful results. People have already gotten carried away, breeding dogs in every variety and it’s thought that genetic engineering will enable us to create a species of dogs that can talk. Is that a good thing? I love dogs but you may not want your dog to be saying, “Feed me now, I’m hungry what’s in your pocket what’s that smell on your shoes can we go outside and defecate and by the way I hate the cat” when you get home from a long day’s work.

In a lab in Glasgow, UK, one man is intent on proving that metal-based life is possible. He has managed to build cell-like bubbles from metal molecules and has given them life-like properties. He says he will be able to get them to evolve into fully inorganic self-replicating entities.

“I am 100 per cent positive that we can get evolution to work outside organic biology,” claims this researcher. If he’s right we could breed the next form of technology. And it’s a little worrisome when you consider that researchers in Seoul, Korea and in Bristol, England using the Venus flytrap as a model have developed plans for something they’re calling an “ecobot” — it’s a robot that eats. It will be able to ingest flesh and turn it into fuel. Put that together with the evolving inorganic self replicating entities planned by the scientist at the university of Glasgow and feel a long slow chill at the thought.

It’s time for a new philosophy of technology—one that acknowledges its dark side and thinks pro actively about the consequences of new technology so that technology can be tweaked and negative consequences prepared for. Technology needs to evolve a conscience.

4.

The real singularity will offer us some great advances — including a redefinition of what money is, and how it will flow, propelled by a computerized awareness of every financial transaction. Paper money will be obsolete and thus money will be thoroughly trackable. As things stand now, money is treated like meteorology. Its mysterious ebbs and flows are predicted rather like the way weather is; people forecast recessions and bubbles. The new computing power will make it possible to track almost every movement of monetary units in the world and will bring a complete rethinking of not only economic probability but also the usage of money. Money is purely conceptual but we act as if it’s got a life of its own. We forget that it is the creation of humanity and it can be made to serve humanity as a whole. When that system is enabled there will never have to be another recession. The connectivity that put the Eurozone at risk from the Greek economic meltdown can also protect it if we incorporate complexity theory and computer modeling: so we’re told by Len Fisher, a physicist at the University of Bristol. “Cascades of failure may be controlled by changing the nature and strength of the links between various parts of the networks,” says Fisher.

And I envision a computer that would have access to a large pool of funds that it would use selectively, with precision and nuance, to prevent crises.

But yes — there will be catastrophe between here… and there. I believe that catastrophe will spur social transformation. I’m optimistic for the long term… because everything will be terrible in the short term. We’ll have astounding technological advancement against a backdrop of grievous social inequity and quite possibly increasing barbarity, for a period, until we are forced by waves of crises to come to terms with the consequences of developing a civilization blindly. Wars, plagues, radical separation of privileges, famines due to climate change and other environmental consequences, will force humanity to reassess, simply to survive, and accept Buckminster Fuller’s “spaceship Earth” concept as very real.

A key will be a new desire for international cooperation— we will be forced by the dire situation we find ourselves in to stop whining about world government. Only world government — not an autocratic one, but a world governance committed to human rights, the rights of women (which are integral to population control), and environmental justice — can deal with the kinds of international crises that will arise in an environmentally stricken and overpopulated world. World government will not mean anyone gives up their culture, except the bits that reject human rights; it will not be a great gray conformity; there will still be at least as much national sovereignty, for most issues, as states in Europe have in the EU — and remember that the EU, a fuzzy foreshadowing of world government, is in a very early stage. It’s having problems, and that was inevitable as it’s still evolving. But it does have the right idea. Toward the end of the 21st century the world will move toward a framework of consensus, on some basic rules regarding population growth, the environment, and access to technology. Empowering third world people with education and technology will give them a step toward the resources and coping ability they’ll need to survive.

I believe we’ll achieve a collective progressive consciousness as a result of the revelatory shocks we’ll endure in the next fifty years. We’ll learn… we’ll come to understand that we can’t treat Spaceship Earth as a party cruise ship.

John Shirley’s new novel is EVERYTHING IS BROKEN, coming in January from Prime Books.

This is a long read but interminably entertaining. John Shirley combines word of emerging disruptive technology with suspected social shifts in today’s culture to brace us with a warning of the future. His commentary on “the assholes living longer” is particularly insightful, and I challenge everyone to use this commentary as screed to rise up and judiciously murder the Kardashians and the Hiltons of our planet.

EXOpc has posted a video of its EXOdesk — an interactive desk environment that lets you do all sorts of tasks on a virtual space on your desk — in action and it looks amazing.

The actual device is a tabletop computer, somewhat similar to Microsoft Surface, offering 40 inches of high definition space, where you can manipulate virtual objects by touching them and dragging them around.

The video offers a taste of what you can do with EXOdesk: add a virtual keyboard, an RSS feed stream and apps to your tabletop surface. A piano simulation app is shown, and though we don’t see much of its functionality, it looks stunning when expanded to the entire surface of EXOdesk.

Although the release date is vaguely set for 2012, we already know EXOdesk will cost $1,299. If that sounds like a lot, compare it to the recently announced price of Microsoft Surface 2.0, which is $8,900, and it will suddenly seem like a bargain.

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Last Updated: Sun Nov 13, 2011 18:24 pm (KSA) 15:24 pm (GMT)

Iraqis renew hopes at TEDxBaghdad

Sunday, 13 November 2011

Hundreds of Iraqis attend the first TEDx event in their country on Saturday. (Photo courtesy of TEDxBaghdad)

By Dina al-Shibeeb

Three young men strummed on their guitar chords as they played the Iraqi national anthem to mark the opening of the ground for the first TEDx experience in Baghdad on Saturday.

Held at the al-Rasheed hotel in the Iraqi capital’s Green Zone, TedxBaghdad unveiled the country’s innovators, movers and shakers of society both from inside and outside Iraq.

The Green zone, 10 square kilometers from central Baghdad, is a fortified center of the international presence of the city that is under tight protection. It served as the headquarters of successive Iraqi regimes including the former Ba’athist one.

TEDxBaghdad’s organizer, Yahay Alabdeli, an Iraqi refugee who lives in Amsterdam, told the audience that the theme of the event was “making the impossible possible,” and to “expose Iraqi talents and creativity for the world to know.”

In a surprise move, the country’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s visit to the event created some controversy as people criticized it as the politicizing of a TEDx event. TEDx rarely has political officials give speeches at its events.

Maliki who hailed the event as an important indicator towards development and creativity, said Iraq’s “blackened era” of not participating in imparting knowledge to the world was due to the country’s politics and wars.

Reminiscing on Iraq once being the “cradle of civilization,” he said that his country would not recede again and promised to create a specialized higher committee to support the country’s creative talents.

Activists to help the disabled

 The epitome of creativity is to offer a service to a human being, and the human being is the greatest resource 

Suroor Yousif, founder of The National Assembly of The Blind in Iraq

One of the main themes of TEDx Baghdad was about Iraqis restoring hope to better lives.

A blind activist from Basra, Suroor Yousif, founder of The National Assembly of The Blind in Iraq, was the first of the speakers to share his experience.

“The epitome of creativity is to offer a service to a human being, and the human being is the greatest resource,” Yousif said. He said wars in Iraq contributed to the soaring high percentage ─ as high as 16 percent ─ of disabled Iraqis.

The disabled and marginalized do not have access to services or education so Yousif journeyed to offer his service ─ his activism ─ to the disabled.

He said for the past 10 years he has been working to help the illiteracy-ridden disabled Iraqis find employment. He said he helped more than 20 disabled individuals to work as telephone operators as “it does not require any movement.”

Another activist, Jeremy Courtney, an American philanthropist who decided to move with his family to Suleimaniya in northern Iraq told the audience that “violence unmakes the world.”

Courtney, co-founder of the Preemptive Love Coalition which helps Iraqi children with lifesaving heart surgeries, has helped 180 patients so far. He narrated the story of his first case, a girl named Khadija from northern Iraq, who received heart surgery; Courtney helped Khadija’s father, a shoe maker, sell his hand-made shoes on an online website to fund his daughter’s heart surgery in Turkey.

Khadija’s father, a Kurd, objected to his daughter’s surgeon being a Turkish doctor who he called a terrorist but because it was difficult to find doctors abroad, the Turkish surgeon was his only hope.

“The doctor was a good Muslim, a good Muslim,” Courtney reported Khadija’s father as saying after he returned from Turkey with his daughter and her recovered heart.

 Preemptive Love is to pump in love to serve another 

Jeremyu Courtney, co-founder of the Preemptive Love Coalition

“Love remakes the world,” he added. “Preemptive Love is to pump in love to serve another.”

He said his group has also helped train Iraqi doctors to perform ground-breaking surgeries. “Before a surgery used to cost $10,000 outside Iraq, now it is only $700 in Iraq.”

Another moving story that gripped the audience was that of Inaam Jawad, founder of the Dina Lodging Institute. Jawad narrated the story of how she lost her husband and she was left to care for her two daughters, one of whom is disabled.

“I wondered why God would take my husband away when I have a disabled daughter,” Jawad said.

“When my daughter would return from school, she used to ask me ‘why people call me crazy?’,” she told the audience, expressing her sorrow that in Iraq there are little venues catering for disabled children, “There was no place I could enroll her without her being emotionally hurt by a society that marginalizes disabled people,” she said.

From meager beginnings selling drinks and sandwiches, Jawad was able to group disabled children together and created Dina Lodging Institute which houses over 60 physically or mentally disabled children and adults.

“Now my grown up daughter knows how to take care of other disabled children; now I can sleep knowing that I made a place for her in society and for others like my daughter,” she said.

“Now I know why God took my husband, so I could work better to give my services to these disabled children that have had no place in a society that rejected them.”

Another concerned parent to take to the TEDx stage was Wisam al-Tuwairji, who was determined to provide support for his daughter’s autism. He helped build an autism based school and restored hope for some of Iraq’s autistic children.

Paying tributes to history

Maysa Ibrahim, one of the speakers and founder of The Young Mesopotamians, addresses the crowd at TEDxBaghdad

Manhal al-Habbobi is an architect who beat 30 competitors ─ including the internationally acclaimed British-Iraq architect Zaha Hadid ─ to win the design for the building of the council of ministers in Baghdad.

He narrated how he came up with his design’s unique structure by combining ancient Summerian symbols with the flares of modern architecture. Habbobi who was at first immersed in detailing how he came up with the government building design, showed concerned about Iraq’s current situation. However, he ended his speech with a hopeful message of his country’s future, saying that “Iraq will recover, because Mesopotamia is thousands of years old.”

The environmental activist and civil engineer, Azzam al-Wash who says he’s a visionary whose life mission is to restore the ancient marshlands of Iraq, told the audience “the marshlands people are our link to the Summerian civilization.” Azzam and his wife, Suzie, founded the Eden Again project in an attempt to reverse what the United Nations has recognized is a major ecological and humanitarian disaster.

Destruction of history

 Heritage is what defines our national identity and Iraqi heritage is the best way of cementing our identity 

Ihsan Fethi, an urban planner and architect

“Iraq is like a page that has 10,000 pages; we cannot tear any of these pages,” said Ihsan Fethi, an urban planner and architect, who has written numerous papers and books on the destruction and deterioration of the country’s architectural heritage.

“Each city of Iraq was previously surrounded by gates, and unfortunately most of these gates got destroyed,” Fethi said. “Urban planners in Iraq do not understand the precious heritage we have, and it is our last chance to save what remains.

“Like children, they can toss a diamond in a trash bin because they do not understand its precious value.”

He called for the restoration of Iraqi heritage as well as a deeper understanding of history. “Heritage is what defines our national identity and Iraqi heritage is the best way of cementing our identity.”

Among the many helicopter-view pictures he showed, the most memorable one was a before and after image of a flattened land of a 3,000-year Assyrian castle in Kirkuk in 1998; he called it “a callous cultural crime.”

He urged the government to form a non-partisan, non-political higher council to keep an eye on the restoration of Iraqi heritage.

One of the speakers suggested marking the first of April as a cultural day for Iraqis to celebrate and cherish culture and knowledge. The first of April is the first day in the Babylonian calendar.

Memorable tweets

“Another remarkable step in the TEDx journey.”

“So proud of TEDxBaghdad, a step forward towards a great future.”

“They tear the country to pieces, then they gather and make films and conferences about it in a hotel located in the Green Zone.”

“If you are in Baghdad, you must know damn well that only very few people are not allowed in the Green Zone.”

“Everything starts with a first step, wonder if TEDxBaghdad won’t be in the Green Zone for 2012?”

To learn more about the other speakers at the event visit: http://www.tedxbaghdad.com/speakers/

“You’re crazy.”

This was what Carrie Matherly heard again and again as she began asking around about getting twin Palestinian filmmakers, known as Tarzan and Arab, to come to Austin. Carrie, Tim League’s assistant, had been tasked with figuring out how to get these two to America after Harry Knowles brought their situation to Tim’s attention. Tarzan and Arab had made a short film, Colourful Journey, but had never seen a movie in a theater. They had studied fine arts but had never been to a gallery. They have never left the Gaza Strip – an area about 25 miles long and 12 miles across at its widest point.

At least not until September. In September they began a long journey that sees them finally touching down in Austin today, to show Colourful Journey to a crowd and to see their favorite film – Bergman’s Cries and Whispers - projected. And everyone had said that this could never happen.

Tarzan and Arab – real names Ahmed and Mohammed Abu Nasser – studied photography and fine art in school. They live in their studio, which is decorated with their art and cluttered with books and two pianos.  They say they got their talent as painters and illustrators – as well as their nicknames – from their father, a teacher who was also an artist. They’ve never seen a movie in a theater, but they became obsessed with film when they would pass by the burned out wreckage of a cinema and look at the tattered remains of movie posters, and imagined what it must have been like.

Those posters gave birth to one of their conceptual art projects, a series of 20 fake movie posters that take their titles from real Israeli military operations, like Summer Rain, Autumn Clouds, Defensive Shield, Cast Lead. They want people to look at the posters, which reflect the struggles and problems of the people of Gaza, and imagine the movies.

While they don’t have the training or the equipment or the money, Tarzan and Arab are determined to be filmmakers. Their short won an award at a festival in Ramallah and played at London’s Mosaic Room in March; they were unable to attend either event. The Guardian, whose report first turned Knowles on to Tarzan and Arab, describes Colourful Journey as  ”about factional infighting within Gaza and its political, social and personal cost. Tarzan and Arab depict a fratricidal war, their identical appearances reinforcing their message that Gazan brothers need to unite to face their common enemy.”

The initial contact with Arab and Tarzan was sparse; the  twins don’t speak much English, and it wasn’t clear they fully understood – or believed – what the Alamo Drafthouse and Ain’t It Cool wanted to do for them. Eventually it became clear that they have family in California, and so their aunt became the intermediary, in order to better communicate.

Things were moving slowly, as they tend to do when dealing with governments in that part of the world. The team was hitting every contact they had, trying to figure out a way to get the boys’ visas; they found hostility when they contacted the Israeli Embassy in Houston, and more hostility when they got in touch with the State Department. No one seemed interested in helping, and the officials only replied with suspicion.

Then Tarzan and Arab got news: the border between Gaza and Egypt, the only plausible way for them to leave Gaza, would be closing in a week. It’s unclear how they heard, as this wasn’t officially announced, but the Palestinians have their ways. Getting across that border is tough in the best of times, especially for young men. The boys decided that this was their moment; if they didn’t make a move now they might not be able to leave Gaza for another year or more.

They sent a message to Austin: “We’re headed to Cairo. Figure out what to do with us from there.” And then they were off. Without a plan. And without much progress happening in America to actually get them to Austin.

The hope had been to get Tarzan and Arab to Austin for Fantastic Fest, but that quickly proved impossible. They spent weeks in Cairo, and the American Embassy took their passports as part of the visa application process. This meant they were trapped in a strange city without identification. Soon money began running out, and without IDs they couldn’t pick up the funds that had been wired to them at Western Union. Worse, the brothers began getting hassled in the streets. They weren’t sure if it was because they dress like big shaggy weirdos or if it was because of their nationality, but they became terrified of getting into trouble without identification. They started just staying indoors.

As they waited they quietly celebrated their 24th birthday, alone in Cairo.

In America Carrie was working with their aunt; their first conversation was a strange one as the woman, while helpful, was terse. Later Carrie discovered that she had been going through labor during the call. “It’s okay,” the aunt said. “It’s my fifth baby.”

By now Fantastic Fest had come and gone. Tarzan and Arab had left Gaza on September 16th and had been without a passport since September 24th. Things were getting desperate, and they had come so far, shown so much determination, that nobody in Austin could give up.

Finally a local Congressman got involved. He did some leaning on the right people and magically the passport issue cleared up. There were some excuses thrown around, but the important thing is that Tarzan and Arab got their passports and their visas. As of this writing they should be in Austin, Texas.

Tim League intends to give the twins the usual Texas experience that many visiting filmmakers get when coming to the Drafthouse – incredible barbecue, shooting shotguns and hopefully meeting with other filmmakers. Their next stop will be Hollywood, where they’ll spend time as tourists and catch up with family in the Los Angeles area, many of whom they haven’t seen in decades.

Talking to the Guardian, Arab said, “As artists we are restricted by living in a conservative and tough community. Let’s be realistic. Our life is under siege, under control. People don’t have time for art. They spend all their time looking for crumbs. They say, ‘What use is art? Art will not give you bread.’ ”

Hopefully their time in America will reinforce what Tarzan and Arab already know: that art is not just useful but vital and essential to the human experience. And maybe while they’re here we can be reminded that art isn’t about your equipment or facilities, but rather about your will and your vision. While Tarzan and Arab don’t have the cameras or editing software available to most young American filmmakers, they have a surplus of will and vision.

If you’re in Austin, join Tarzan and Arab as they show Colourful Journey and watch their first ever movie on a big screen. It’s Wednesday at 7:15 at the Alamo Ritz.

If you’re not in Austin, you can help Tarzan and Arab get their first feature together; Tim League has opened a Kickstarter for them. You can donate here.

About Devin Faraci

A ten year veteran of writing for the web, Devin has built a reputation as a loud, uncompromising and honest voice – sometimes to the chagrin of his readers, but usually to their delight. A well known apologist for the Friday the 13th films and a worshiper at the altar of the original Star Trek, Devin is passionate in his dedication to the weirdest and wildest movies.