I’m going back and rereading my old notes for the cybernetic anthologies. I’ve put this on hiatus for almost two years, and it is really fucking hard to get back into the enthusiasm I used to have for the project–not to mention the feeling of dread and shame I get when I realize how far behind I’ve fallen. Oh well; better late than never.

One of the earlier entries in the physically-focused part of the anthology is what’s called a Bruise Suit. It’s mostly used by paralympic athletes: it’s a thin, flexible material that changes color when stressed (including stress from impact.) Somebody wearing a bruise suit will develop Extremely Colorful bruises on the site of any impact–a pretty hefty boon for anybody without nerve feedback.

Feeling extremely tired, I connected this with a superpower I always wanted as a kid…psychometry. The ability to touch an object and know everything about that object’s history. How it was made, where it’s been, what it’s been used for, who else has touched it….etc etc.

There’s a point to be made here, about creating the psychometry of our own bodies–how I spend hours (in bits and pieces) thinking about my own scars and tattoos, trying somehow to divine the occult-feeling history of where I’ve been, how I was made, who’s touched me and what’s shaped me. The Bruise Suit is a very on-the-nose example, I think, of a purpose to which we regularly bend our backs–trying to figure out what happened, what just hit us, and where? (I speak only semi-metaphorically.)

Oh well.

Also, I think I’m depressed again….in case nobody could really tell from the general gist of this fragment. oops.