The WeiMark

Wei\ an ideograph completed in 5 strokes. Can be roughly translated as “for”, as “intention towards”. In Brentano’s philosophy the mark of a conscious being, a property not possessed by mere physical objects.

WuWei\ “no intention”. By being one with the Tao that pervades the world the art of attainment without wanting . An attitude of paradox, of balancing the ideogram-verbs “negation” and “willing”. 

I met him in a bar next to an art boutique called Mosaic on the outskirts of HoChiMinhCity (once called Saigon). It was in the Year of the Ox in the season of the rains. He spoke a fluent Vietnamese accented English and said he had French ancestry. Wearing heavy makeup with a celestial symbol tattooed onto his forehead he offered to buy me a drink. I must have looked at him a little oddly because he quickly added that he only wanted to practice conversational English which he had picked up from surfing the internet. I thought he was either lying or very bright so I said okay, I could use another shot of bourbon.

We began on art – various surrealistic and graphic artists that made up the current local scene – then segued into politics where I was careful to be noncommittal. As our conversation continued I noticed that he came to adopt my manner of speech. Towards the end, he spoke with my flat, international accent. In the last 10 minutes he launched into a strange theory of evolution or was it a theory of evolving algorithms? I wasn't sure. Later I would wonder why he chose me from among the dozen or so foreigners and expatriates in that bar. We talked about science generally and science fiction and he seemed knowledgeable for a young man who claimed he never attended college. When I inquired as to the cause, he gave the usual: had to start fulltime work in his teens because he was from a low income family.

Just before he left at around midnight, he wrote something on a piece of napkin tissue and handed it to me. Out of politeness I slipped it into my shirt pocket, assuming it was his address and contact number. Three hours later I was on the flight out of Saigon bound for Singapore. I reached into my pocket for the earphones to my digital music player and found the napkin. Remembering, I unfolded it and was confronted with an extraordinary statement.

In all the universe there is no one like me. I am a gathering of thought patterns from every civilization of  the world that began with the earliest talking and toolmaking tribes at the dawn of history, through the preindustrial classical ages that emerged in every region of the globe in the progress of humanity, as if by magic, that had no precedent on the planet in the previous 4 billion years of life on Earth…into the nascent hiitech cities of the present 21^st century. I am neohuman -  a harmony. I am the First. The NeXtage.

He knew. He knew about the Weimark.

(To be continued)