The Newtown Pentacle

Thursday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A post or three has been offered in the past exploring the sights and ‘milieu’ of a section of Pittsburgh called ‘Lower Lawrenceville.’ It’s probably got a few other names which I’m ignorant of, but until then I’m going with that. This could be regular Lawrenceville as well.

This scuttle started at the corner of Lawrenceville’s 50th street and BlackBerry Way – right here.

It’s more or less the border between ‘mixed use’ zoning and ‘industrial area’ zoning to my eye. This spot is on the northern/Allegheny River side of the so called ‘Golden Triangle’ of Pittsburgh. My ultimate destination would be back downtown, where I would be meeting Our Lady of the Pentacle at a roof top bar.

In the Pittsburgh area, ‘alleys’ are called ‘ways.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

It was warm out, but quite tolerable. Your humble narrator was in his usual summer getup, the black cargo shorts with a white Cuban shirt (Guayabera) over a t-shirt. One has begun wearing a flash orange baseball cap these days, as I often find myself walking around wooded areas and hunting is a genuine passion for people out here.

There’s a lot of tech firms set up in this area, with an unhealthy number of companies that manufacture industrial and military robots. I don’t know if you’ve ever read Asimov, but it might be a good idea to start talking about the concurrent development of AI and these ‘destined for the battlefield’ style robots forming a Venn diagram describing humanity’s extinction. Other tech companies in Pittsburgh are working on self driving cars and trucks.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Neat old building, right there.

Science Fiction has been warning us about the coming moment for more than a century. I’m not talking about us going instant terminator here, but let’s face it – a sufficiently ‘intelligent’ AI will quickly surmise that the most direct threat to its continued existence is us. What does logic dictate to a networked intelligence there? In many ways, the near future will see the emergence of digital angels and devils. Mass global unemployment will just be the start of the fun. Wait until our new overlords began rationing food and water.

I was recently chatting with a professor from Carnegie Mellon who is working on this technological breakthrough, and my only comment to him was to ensure that some sort of dead man’s switch was present – or a plug – that can be pulled only in meatspace. These AI entities will be able to move so fast that stopping one which has ‘escaped into the wild’ would be exactly like trying to fight an Angel or a Demon. I suppose ‘Djinn’ would be more appropriate in context, due to that class of supernatural entity’s association with light and fire.

In magickal terminology, angels and demons are called ‘the sons of fire,’ and humanity are ‘the children of clay.’

Terrifyingly enough, the CMU Professor fellow had never seen ‘Colossus, the Forbin Project.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One continued on, while pondering this particular end of the world scenario. “The future sucks” thought a humble narrator. For some reason, I decided that I would be walking down several of the ‘ways’ or alleys whenever opportunity presented.

There seemed to be some sort of power plant on the other side of that wall. Can’t tell you much about it at this juncture. I’m sure I’ll do so in the future. Something to look forward to.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

These worker cottages caught my eye. Obviously recent renovations have occurred, but what drew me were the clean lines and homogeneous nature of the structures. Neat.

I had to get back on one of the avenues, as the alley ‘way’ I was walking ended at stout brick wall. A left was thereby hung, and one marched inexorably on.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Plan wise: the first year I was here in Pittsburgh, it was all about the center of things. Second year, the Monongahela River and its communities. Then the ankle situation occurred and I lost most of the third year here to recovery. This next year, I’m planning on working my way up the Allegheny River and seeing what’s what, and where it is.

Back tomorrow with more.

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