Farewell, Human; Praise be Machina humana

 (Published in ENRICH magazine, 2022)

WELCOME, "MACHINA HUMANA" -- the human machine -- the technologically enhanced suprahuman that might be the future of humankind.

Machina humana will be the primate species that will at last give substance to the epithet "God-like." Its ascent will ensure the inevitable decline of Homo sapiens (today's humans) that have been the species supreme on this Earth for the past 300,000 years.

Centuries to come will see our planet become an arena pitting two humanoid species against each other for lordship over a Future Earth one fondly hopes will consist of Geniocracies governed by the intelligent.

The suprahuman is, of course, the stuff of countless science fiction fantasies. It will come to pass because Homo sapiens can't leave well enough alone. Imagine a species arranging its own demise to advance the cause of science. Only humans can be so stupid. Or, perhaps, is it because we're too smart for our own good?

This speculative future being I call by the Latin phrase, Machina humana, will be the offspring of diverse human technologies seeking to accelerate human evolution without recourse to the glacially slow and cumbersome process of natural selection.

Technology is, even now, giving birth to this "thing" in paroxysms of invention. It would be presumptuous to declare Machina humana the ne plus ultra in “directed evolution,” not when the rulers of the Earth in tens of millennia hence will look nothing like we humans.

Machina humana might even be called "transhuman" and "posthuman." Fans of the mutants in the Marvel Universe could even say they’re the fantastical "Homo Superior." Machina humana, as I see it, is beyond the transhuman and posthuman.

Transhumans/Posthumans

The transhuman is a biotechnologically enhanced human that sits between humans and posthumans on the evolutionary scale. It is a being "that resembles a human in most respects but who has powers and abilities beyond those of standard humans," according to one definition.

Another posits a transhuman as "a nanobiotechnological enhancement of humans through applied reason, especially by using technology to eliminate aging and greatly improve human intellectual, physical and psychological capacities."

The transhumans’ march towards domination is predicted by 2030 when true biotechnological fusion between humans and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is foreseen as coming to pass.

As explained by some of its champions, transhumans will eventually ascend into the posthuman, a being "whose basic capacities so radically exceed those of present humans as to be no longer unambiguously human by our current standards."

The posthuman will become "the hoped-for transcendence of materiality" bruited about by speculative philosophers and futurists. This being will exist in a state beyond human; it will be an amalgam of the organic human, digital, medical and mechanical technologies and nature.

Evolution to posthuman

Science will force transhumans to evolve into posthumans using tools such as genetic engineering, bioengineering and a plethora of medical, electronic and mechanical technologies. But it will be in its intelligence that posthumans will shine. One vision sees them as being completely synthetic AI, which is to say a symbiosis of human and AI.

Some might even refer to posthumans by the archaic term, "cyborg" (cybernetic organism), coined in 1960 to describe a technologically augmented human with a body both organic and biomechatronic. Think back to "The Six Million Dollar Man" TV series of 1970 whose hero (Col. Steve Austin played by American actor Lee Majors) is conferred superman powers by a bionic left eye, bionic legs and a bionic right arm.

Whatever the appellation, Machina humana will combine the great qualities attributed to the transhuman and the posthuman. Machina humana will be superhuman without the impossible "superpowers" depicted in comic books. Their intelligence, deductive reasoning and other mental capabilities, as well as their creativity, will exceed ours.

There will be nothing outwardly visible that distinguishes a Machina from a human. It will still be human in appearance and reproduce like one.

The Six Million Dollar Man poster

Super health

What strikes me the most about Machina humana, however, isn’t its superior intellect or physical powers, but its superhuman health. These creatures will live to be more than 100 years old and might even live for over a thousand years.

Only a bioenhanced being, or a mutant, can attain such obscene longevity. Surviving for centuries means these beings will have to be incredibly hale and healthy. Only the power provided by medicine, science, technology and mathematics can attain this result.

Genetic manipulation, bio-hacking, cognitive enhancement and other biointerventions such as stem cell therapy will enable Machina humana to remain healthy and physically active beyond today’s norms. Machina humana might even eliminate physical disabilities and do away with much of the physical and psychological suffering that bedevils today’s humans.

Superior longevity and health, however, will physically alter Machina humana in profound ways. This enforced evolution will be one reason why people millennia hence will no longer look human.

Their bodies will have to adapt to survive the assault of new technologies, as well as the Earth's new climate and ecology due to a much warmer and austere world. It might also include bionic feet, arms and internal organs that give them the strength to cope with environments on Earth and on other planets.

We must remember human society has always been on the march towards Machina humana. Eyeglasses, hearing aids, pacemakers and prosthetic limbs, to name a few of the simple devices that allow us to function despite disabilities, can be seen as steps on the road towards Machina humana. On the other hand, AI and biointerventions are providing the quantum leap hastening the march towards this being.

The road to the posthuman

Super brains

Among those at the forefront of the march towards transhumans, posthumans and Machina humana are California-based tech firms such as Neuralink Corporation and the United States Armed Forces, which are doing so for widely different reasons. American techies and the military are focusing on perfecting technologies such as the brain-computer interface (BCI) and one of its iterations called the Stentrode (stent-electrode recording array) motor neuroprosthesis.

A BCI is a direct communication pathway between an enhanced or wired brain and an external device such as a computer, a robotic arm, robotic leg or a weapon. It's also called a mind-machine interface (MMI) and a brain-machine interface (BMI).

In its civilian guise, BCIs are used for augmenting or repairing the brain’s human cognitive or sensory-motor functions, among other things. Neuralink's BCI technology involves ultra-thin probes inserted into the brain by a neurosurgical robot, as well as a high-density electronic system to process information from the brain’s neurons.

The probes are made mostly of polyimide (a high-performance, biocompatible thermoplastic polymer) with a gold or platinum conductor. Each probe consists of an array of wires whose electrodes can locate electrical signals in the brain. The electronic system will amplify and acquire brain signals while using Bluetooth to communicate with external devices.

Neuralink said its BCI technology will one day help people control computers with their brain activity alone. BCI will also boost cognitive capabilities like speech and sight, and should be capable of restoring the ability to speak.

Neuralink "is aiming to bring something to market that helps with certain severe brain injuries (stroke, cancer lesion, congenital) in about four years,” said company co-founder and CEO Elon Musk in 2017.

In July 2019, Musk said the company wanted to have its first human patient equipped with the technology before the end of 2020. That didn’t happen and the world is still waiting for it to occur. Instead, Neuralink in April 2021 demonstrated a monkey with an implanted Neuralink BCI playing the 1972 classic ping-pong video game, "Pong.” Musk also believes future humans might communicate with one another using technological telepathy.

The great goal of Neuralink’s BCI technology, however, is human enhancement -- or the creation of the transhuman. Musk later confirmed this long-term goal, saying Neuralink wants to achieve "symbiosis with artificial intelligence,” but as a defense against what Musk believes will be a future AI apocalypse. Musk hopes to "help secure humanity's future as a civilization relative to AI" with Neuralink’s BCIs.

Neuralink Brain Computer Interface or BCI

Cyborg warriors

While Neuralink is falling behind on keeping its promises, the U.S. military appears to be forging irresistibly forward with the development of Stentrodes for its future fighting men. Conceived in 2010 by Australian neurologist Dr. Thomas Oxley MD, a Stentrode is a miniscule electrode array made of platinum mounted on a nitinol (nickel titanium) endovascular stent. The Oxley Stentrode measures some five centimeters long; its diameter comes to only four millimeters.

The Stentrode is capable of two-way communication, which means it can sense thoughts and stimulate movement. Basically a feedback loop within the brain, the Stentrode is the first motor neuroprosthesis (or a BCI) implanted via a patient's blood vessels.

Once in position, a Stentrode expands to press electrodes against the blood vessel wall close to the brain. Here, it digitally records neural information and delivers electric currents directly to targeted brain areas.

The system digitizes signals generated by the cerebellum (the part of the brain that controls movement). It then translates these signals into commands a computer equipped with special software can read and execute.

A most successful Stentrode test on humans was conducted in 2020. The two test participants suffered from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), a brain disease that causes the deterioration and death of the motor neurons controlling voluntary muscle movements such as walking and talking. The late great theoretical physicist Dr. Stephen Hawking was an ALS victim.

With Oxley’s Stentrodes, both participants were able to use direct thought to wirelessly control a computer operating system that allowed them to text, email, search the internet and shop online. This historic feat was also the first time a BCI was implanted via blood vessels, thus eliminating the need for dangerous and difficult open brain surgery.

The Oxley stentrode

Stentrodes in non-military use will also be invaluable in helping people with spinal cord injuries. A Stentrode can also be used to control robotic prosthetic limbs with a user’s thoughts. Although experimental, the Stentrode was impressive enough for TIME Magazine in November to declare it one of “The Best Inventions of 2021.”

Oxley's research team based in Australia is receiving funding for its Stentrode research from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as part of the Reliable Neural-Interface Technology (RE-NET) program. Oxley founded Synchron, Inc., a start-up building BCIs and Stentrodes, and is now co-head of the Vascular Bionics Laboratory at the University of Melbourne.

The American military still sees the Stentrode as a critical step in the process to transform future U.S. soldiers into "cyborg warriors." These fighting men are directly connected to battlefield computers and computer-controlled weapons, and are able to "talk" to them telepathically. The military Stentrode is also expected to enable U.S. soldiers to move and react faster on the battlefield.

For the U.S. Air Force, the long-term aim is to create a “novel hybrid brain-machine interface” that improves its airmen’s ability to learn and make more rapid, effective decisions, especially in combat. It’s continuing to develop an “augmented learning platform,” or a Stentrode, to make the brain more receptive to imbibing information.

The Stentrode will transform American fighter pilots into true cyborgs. Oxley in 2016 said DARPA wants U.S. Air Force fighter pilots to control their jets directly by plugging their brains into the aircraft's computer system.

"The military appear interested in the potential for jet fighters to control their planes with direct thought control, rather than using their arms,” Oxley revealed. “The reaction time you'd shave off would be milliseconds."

Blitz-fast reaction could spell the difference between life and death for American fighter pilots in supersonic aerial battles. A Stentrode might also reduce stress among American fighter pilots since flying computer-controlled warplanes such as the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor air superiority fighter and the stealthy Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is physically taxing.

Piloting these complex flying computers requires a pilot to evaluate and monitor several actions occurring simultaneously. Stentrodes are also expected to reduce pilot error.

The U.S. Navy is getting into the act. Its Neural Engineering System Design program being implemented by DARPA is developing an “implantable neural interface” (a Stentrode) that should give "unprecedented signal resolution and data-transfer bandwidth" to fighter pilots on its fleet of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

It’s clear a cyborg soldier’s enhanced abilities derive from technologies such as the Stentrode and other types of BCI. The cyborg warrior as envisioned by the U.S. military, as well as Neuralink’s BCI, will mean the rise of the transhuman, the posthuman and Machina humana is all but certain.

Only a way station

Machina humana, however, will only be a way station leading to the "Ultima." Thousands of years from now might see the rise of the truly "God-like being" I call the Ultima.

The dawn of the Ultima will be historic. Ultima will no longer look like human beings; they might even be grotesquely loathsome by today’s human standards of physical beauty.

It is to be hoped, however, that Ultima will be far, far better versions of us. Yes, Ultima will be vastly intelligent and physically stronger. But it might also be less bigoted; less murderous; less warlike -- and more altruistic and more sapient.

Ultima will be a new human species completely alien to Homo sapiens. They will be the aliens amongst us, but will still be "us" in a paradoxical way.

Our inhuman future looks bright.

Hell on Earth might just be around the corner

 (Published in ENRICH magazine, 2021)

"LUCIFER HEATWAVE." It’s the hellish name for a heat dome where searing temperatures in excess of 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) linger on land and torment people for days on end.

The catastrophic outcomes of a Lucifer heatwave include record-breaking temperature highs that can cause heat-related illnesses and deaths, and trigger horrific forest fires. Ten countries in southern and eastern Europe, as well as four states in the western United States (Arizona, California, Colorado and Utah) are still reeling from the mind-numbing heat and wildfire damage inflicted by Lucifer heatwaves from June to September this year.

A recently published study asserts Lucifer heatwaves will become normal in southern Europe by 2050 if no effective action against global warming is taken.

"It is unbearable," said one resident of Seville, Spain about the terrific heatwave. "We are used to it in Andalusia but this is reaching a horrendous point. We don't manage to get any rest at night or during the day."

This Spaniard had good reason to gripe. The State Meteorological Agency, Spain’s national weather service, on July 31 warned people about high temperatures reaching 44°C (111.2°F) in 31 of the country’s 50 provinces. Less than two weeks later, or on August 11, Lucifer produced the hottest temperature ever recorded in Europe -- an astounding 48.8°C -- measured in Sicily, Italy.

The severity of this peak can be appreciated by comparing it to the hottest global temperature recorded this year. On July 9, the temperature at Death Valley National Park's Furnace Creek Visitor Center in California hit an incredible 54.4°C (130.0°F). Lucifer might also have had a hand in bringing about this record-breaking result.

Europeans coined the phrase "Lucifer heatwave" to describe the sizzling 2017 summer heatwaves in Western Europe and the Mediterranean region. The first-named Lucifer struck in early August in southeastern Europe. This extreme heat assault lasted three days and broke numerous records, including several all time high temperatures.

Both Europe and the U.S. have been savaged by Lucifer heatwaves and will suffer again as global warming continues mostly unchecked due to a combination of human apathy and inaction.

For Filipinos, the question is, "Will there be Lucifer heatwaves in our future?"

The short answer is, "Yes."

The last nine years were the warmest on record globally

It's getting a lot hotter in the Philippines

Filipinos are used to hot weather due to the pervasive relative humidity and heat in our country. No Filipino this year, however, has experienced the agony of a heatwave hitting and exceeding a dry-bulb temperature (which doesn't include relative humidity) of 40°C.

The hottest daily temperature in the Philippines in 2021 was a blistering 37.8°C and it occurred at Tuguegarao City, capital of Cagayan, on May 14, said the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA). The relative humidity in Tuguegarao came to 37% that day, thereby producing a heat index of 42°C.

On the other hand, our hottest day as measured by the heat index was also May 14, when a reading of 53°C was recorded at Dagupan City, Pangasinan. Dagupan's dry air temperature was 37.4°C but its relative humidity was far higher at 61%. May is traditionally the Philippines' hottest month with April the second hottest. Our dry season extends from March to May.

Hottest day in the Philippines in 2021

Average annual temperatures in the Philippines normally range from 21°C to 32°C. The average yearly temperature is about 26.6°C.

Historical temperature data seem to confirm a much hotter Philippines. The country's average mean annual temperature in 1901 stood at a cool 25.4°C (77.7°F). This tolerable level increased only slightly over the next 100 years to 26.3°C (79.3°F) at the end of the 20th century, according to a study from the World Bank.

In 2020, however, the country's average mean annual temperature jumped to 27.1°C (80.8°F). An increase of 0.8°C in only 20 years might not sound dire but the United Nations has warned even half a degree (0.5°C) rise stands to expose tens of millions more people worldwide to life-threatening heatwaves, more drinking water shortages and increased coastal flooding due to sea level rise.

Inevitable heatwaves

The new heat danger now facing Filipinos is not atmospheric heat per se but heatwaves such as Lucifer. Heatwaves are dangerous and lethal because hot weather and high humidity, both of which exist hand-in-hand in the Philippines, boost body temperatures and open the door to life threatening conditions for the unwary.

Our bodies can only work and effectively function if our core body temperatures remain in the healthy region of 36.8°C. Heatwaves disrupt this ideal state and can lead to unwanted afflictions such as heat stroke, heat exhaustion, dehydration and death from excessive water loss. These ills are especially dangerous for the elderly and infants that have problems maintaining ideal body temperatures.

A heatwave is a period of unnaturally hot weather typically lasting two or more days. To be considered a heatwave, temperatures have to be higher than the historical average for a given area. Thresholds vary from area to area but are typically around 29°C to 32°C.

PAGASA, however, defines a heatwave as an extreme heat event lasting at least five straight days. Its definition follows that of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which defines a heatwave as five or more consecutive days during which the daily maximum temperature surpasses the average maximum temperature by 5°C (9°F) or more. PAGASA's definition means Filipinos will have to endure the unimaginable for five days before the agency declares a heatwave emergency.

Should PAGASA wait that long since the Philippines, "will face more than 300 potentially lethal heatwave days each year under the business-as-usual emissions trajectory known as RCP 8.5," according to a published report from Prof. Rolando Talampas, Officer-in-Charge of the Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman.

RCP 8.5 refers to the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that delivers global warming at an average of 8.5 watts per square meter across the Earth. Unchecked, RCP 8.5 can trigger a temperature increase of about 4.3˚C above pre-industrial temperatures by the year 2100 . It's a worst case scenario for climate change.

Drought in the Philippines caused by El Nino

Heat mortality

Another study, this one a "heat health risk" assessment of Philippine cities by Prof. Ronald Estoque, PhD, and his Japanese colleagues, found the 16 cities comprising Metro Manila are at high, or very high risk, from heatwaves. It focused on the phenomenon called the "urban heat island,” which is basically a heat dome enclosing a city, in 139 Philippine cities seen as having very high heat hazard index values.

The study revealed heat health risk is already a key risk in the Philippines. Therefore, it argues adaptation to heat-related health impacts should be one of the main priorities of government, The report also dwelt on the minimum temperature thresholds that place people at heat health risk. It "found a minimum mortality temperature (MMT) threshold of 38.3°C for daytime and 24.3°C for nighttime."

Getting worse

Another troubling study says the already painful summer heat is only going to worsen in the years ahead. This study published in the peer-reviewed journal, Nature Climate Change, estimates some 74% of the world’s population will be hit by deadly future heatwaves. 

Even more distressing is the finding that nearly half of the world will still be assailed by heatwaves even if emissions from greenhouse gases such as CO2 are reduced. Some 30% of the world is in danger due to global warming conditions.

"We are running out of choices for the future," said study lead author Camilo Mora, associate professor of Geography in the College of Social Sciences at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

"For heatwaves, our options are now between bad or terrible. Many people around the world are already paying the ultimate price of heatwaves, and while models suggest that this is likely to continue, it could be much worse if emissions are not considerably reduced."

The online tool, ThinkHazard!, contends there's a more than 25% chance of at least one period of prolonged exposure to a heatwave in the Philippines over the next five years. It also classifies the extreme heat hazard in the Philippines as "medium" based on modeled heat information.

World on fire

It goes without saying the Philippines is getting painfully hotter. We feel it every year and the data bears out our worst fears. The coming heatwaves mean Filipinos are going to have to find better ways to protect their health and those of their loved ones.

The Philippines' hotter climate also reflects the global effects of climate change, which keeps producing the hottest years since global records began being kept by scientists in 1880.

In July 2016, NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) announced the five hottest months globally up to that time were recorded in July 2016, July 2011, July 2015, July 2009 and August 2014.

July 2016 was then the hottest month ever in recorded history while the first six months of 2016 were the hottest in history. It was 0.84°C warmer than the global average temperature from 1950 to 1980.

These records were bested this year. In August 2021, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said July 2021 displaced July 2016 as the world’s hottest month on record.

Globally, the combined land and ocean-surface temperature in July was 0.93°C above the 20th century average of 15.8°C. This made July 2021 the hottest July since records began. July's temperature was also 0.01 of a degree Centigrade higher than the previous record set in July 2016, whose record was tied in 2019 and 2020.

Asia also posted its hottest July on record, thereby eclipsing the previous record set in 2010. Europe had its second-hottest July on record in 2021.

“July is typically the world’s warmest month of the year, but July 2021 outdid itself as the hottest July and month ever recorded," said NOAA Administrator Dr. Rick Spinrad PhD. "This new record adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has set for the globe.”

July is the Philippines' fourth warmest month, however. The average mean temperature this July came to 27.7°C with daytime temperatures hitting a sweltering 31.4°C.

Historically, July has a mean average temperature of 27.5°C and a high of 31°C. As a reminder, the country's average mean annual temperature in 2020 was 27.1°C.

Today's Earth is the sweltering planet some scientists predicted should have appeared by 2026 at the latest. Why? Because the world reached 1.2° Celsius of warming in 2020. This means there's now a 90% chance of exceeding the red-line threshold 1.5°C of warming before 2026.

The Paris Agreement of 2015 saw the international community pledge to keep global temperature rise this century well below 2.0°C above pre-industrial levels to keep climate change in check. This level was later modified to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

The strident warning issued in June 2021 by the WMO, a specialized agency of the United Nations, confirmed the world reached 1.2°C of warming in 2020.

The WMO warning is far worse than the conclusions of a paper published in the weekly scientific journal Nature in 2018 that predicted the world reaching 1.5°C of warming by 2030. It's also more disheartening than the estimate made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that this red line might be reached by 2040.

The heat will only get worse

In May 2020, the World Economic Forum issued a report saying that by 2070, 3.5 billion people might be forced to endure unlivable heat in places that will become as hot as the Sahara Desert (30°C mean temperature) is today.

It projected the world's mean annual temperature jumping to 29°C compared to 13°C today, a level far outside the livable climatic envelope of human development. By 2070, the world's population is estimated at 9.5 billion compared to today's 7.6 billion.

This dire forecast spells out what's in store for one in three people in the world unless countries take decisive action to control global warming. The report said less than 1% of the Earth's land surface currently experiences climate where the mean temperature is 30°C.

By 2070, almost 20% of the Earth's land area will be affected by this higher temperature. Also by 2070, the average person will be living in temperatures 7.5°C hotter than pre-industrial times if climate change goes unchecked.

And then, there's Lucifer to contend with. Hell is in our future.

Sahara Desert




















esert

 

Idolatry, thy name is K-pop

 

(Published in ENRICH magazine, 2021)

FOR A K-POP CRAZY country, the Philippines let pass the 25th anniversary of the founding of K-pop idol culture without as much as a ripple of recognition.

The rise of the $5 billion industry and global cultural phenomenon called K-pop -- which also sparked the androgynous "kkonminam" ("Flower Boy") sub-culture among Korean men -- is widely held to have begun in September 1996 when "H.O.T." (Highfive Of Teenagers) burst onto the pop music scene.

The five boys in this group released their first album that same month, but it was their second album, "Wolf and Sheep," released in 1997 that saw them rocket to fame. The album sold more than one million physical copies in only 10 days. Just to give you an idea of how big a deal this was, sales of six of the top 10 physical albums in Korea in 2020 ranged from 1.7 million to 1.0 million.

H.O.T.'s first big hit, the clownish "Candy" from their first album, "We Hate All Kinds of Violence," featured all the trappings we've come to associate with boy idols. These include catchy pop music; strong, synched dance moves; rich wardrobe, outlandish and colorful hairstyles and feminine facial make-up typical of kkonminam.

You'd never know the track was dropped in 1996 if you saw it today and knew absolutely nothing about its history. You can say the same thing about H.O.T.'s 1997 monster, "We Are the Future," whose performance MV (music video) resounds with female fans screaming from start to finish.

Small wonder those in the know regard this first generation band as the daddy of 21st century K-pop. H.O.T. disbanded in 2001 following a contract dispute with their management agency.

The group got together for an evening mini-reunion concert in 2018 with the boys now over 40 years old. It was poignant watching them try mightily to resurrect their inner young stud as they went retro. But their equally old fans loved it, and screamed like it was 1997 all over again.

The rapid commercial success of H.O.T. in only 10 months helped ignite today's crazed K-pop culture where "ARMIES" of fans venerate their idols on social media platforms to the point of idolatry. The good, the bad and the ugly abound in these armies. And they can be sooo irritating at times.

Other K-pop experts claim the three-boy band named "Seo Taiji and Boys," which exploded onto the "gayo" (pop music) scene in 1992 and popularized rap, might well have been the first K-pop boy band. Still others have their own take on the issue.

H.O.T., the Korean boy band credited with launching the K-Pop craze in 1996

Girl idols

The first K-pop single by a girl band that got my attention was the catchy "Nobody" by the now disbanded "Wonder Girls." I first saw and heard the song's MV on TV back in 2009.

I didn't pay much attention to Wonder Girl's five group members, however. Not one girl stood out. The MV cast them as dolled-up 1960s back-up singers who all looked alike in their gold pencil-cut minis and bouffant coiffure.

My girl idols existed in the 2010s, making them part of the third generation of goddesses. I've no interest in the newest acts such as Blackpink, Twice and Itzy. They're are all fourth gen idols that seem far too masculine for my taste.

The goddesses of Hello Venus

The first idol girl group that knocked my socks off was the magnificent "Hello Venus," whose final six members look like they all could have contested the Miss Korea national beauty title.

Hello Venus' trademark was beautiful sophistication. The goddesses' pulchritude was the centerpiece of a showtime career that lasted from 2012 to 2019.

Their initial sweet high school image later gave way to a classy seductiveness as the group matured. A Hollywood-like glamor pervades Hello Venus' MVs.

This was highlighted in the stunning performance MV for "Mysterious" with the girls decked out in sparkling gold and blue outfits, and in the official MV featuring a spy adventure on a pink train with actors, Seo Kang Joon and Cha Eun Woo.

The goddesses of Hello Venus

The same focus on elegant sexiness was evident in the MV for the group's top hit, "I'm Ill,"and in stage performances for "Wiggle, Wiggle" and "Venus." A shoutout to Alice (Song Joo-hee), Nara (Kwon Na-ra), Lime (Kim Hye-rim), Seoyoung (Lee Seo-young), Yooyoung (Lee Yoo-young) and Yeoreum (An Chae-yeon) for just being here.

Another group founded in 2012 that also featured members with movie-star looks was "Fiestar." Unlike Hello Venus, however, Fiestar took their sexiness a bit too far and paid a price for it.

The group's single, "One More," with its far too suggestive lyrics and risque MV was banned from airing by MBC TV. Their most successful singles on the Gaon Digital Chart were "Sea of Moonlight", "Vista," One More and "You're Pitiful."

Fiestar

In 2016, fans voted the group's leader Jei (Kim Jin-hee) and Cao Lu (Seo Lu), the Face of the Group, the prettiest of the five members. Linzy (Im Min-ji), the lead vocalist with the sad eyes, was also a favorite. The remaining equally lovely girls are Hyemi (Kim Hye-mi) and Yezi (Lee Ye-ji). Fiestar disbanded in 2018.

Also a child of 2012, "AOA" (Ace of Angels) had more hits chart than either Hello Venus or Fiestar. Unsurprisingly, the three most popular of AOA's seven members are its loveliest: Face of the Group Seolhyun (Kim Seol-hyun), lead dancer Hyejeong (Shin Hye-jeong) and lead vocalist Choa (Park Cho-ah).

AOA

Seolhyun was praised by her fans for having the loveliest butt in K-pop. There are YouTube fancams showing nothing but Seolhyun wiggling her perfect posterior. Too much!

"Heart Attack" debuted at the top of several Korean charts in 2015. It went on to become one of the year's most downloaded tunes. It also became one of the longest charting singles on Melon's top 100.

AOA's other hits include "Miniskirt", "Short Hair"," Like a Cat", "Heart Attack" and "Give Me the Love." AOA's still at it but of the original seven, only Seolhyun, Hyejeong and Chanmi (Kim Chan-mi) are left to carry on.

The wonder year of 2012

The year 2012 can be seen as the breakout year for K-pop with a deluge of new bands making their debut. The success of Wonder Girls on the world stage in 2009 seems to have triggered the frenetic burst in "idolization" that remains with us to this day.

The year 2012 saw the appearance of 32 new girl groups and 24 new boy groups, the largest number to appear in a single year, said Soompi, the online resource that claims to be the world’s largest English online media covering Korean pop culture.

Among the groups emerging in 2012 were my idols (or bias): Hello Venus, Fiestar, AOA and Dalshabet. Except for AOA, none of these groups made it past their seventh year. This high attrition rate confirms the cutthroat competition among groups. It also highlights the relentless need to slake public demand with a continuous inflow of fresh new faces.

Imposing a shelf life on talents might appear cruel, but it works. This talent pipeline brought the total number of boy and girls bands to more than 300 by August 2021. Most of today's top boy and girl bands debuted after 2013.

Data shows girl bands becoming more multinational. Among the top boy bands, the trend seems to revolve toward having more members. One of the top bands, NCT, has 23 boys in its line-up.

As of August, the top girl band was Twice, which consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and one Thai. Founded in 2015, Twice rose to fame with their 2016 hit, "Cheer Up" that seized number one on the Gaon Digital Chart and won "Song of the Year" at the Melon Music Awards.

Blackpink, the top girl group in 2020, was second in August. It's world famous for setting records galore since it burst onto the global scene in 2016. Blackpink still remains the highest-charting female Korean act on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

Its track, "Ice Cream," in 2020 topped out at number 13. Their album, "The Album," released in 2020 became the first album by a Korean girl group to sell more than one million copies.

Third on the list for August was Red Velvet and its five South Korean girls. Red Velvet was ranked by both Time magazine and Billboard as one of the most popular K-pop girl groups.

The multinational (G)I-DLE, who became famous as the monster rookies of 2018, held fourth place. Its six members are from Korea, China, Taiwan, and Thailand. The oddly named MAMAMOO with its all Korean cast (four girls) was in fifth place.

As for the boys, the alpha male in August was BTS. iKon and its seven-members held second while Seventeen with its 13 boys was in third. Got7 with its seven members lies in fourth while NCT ("Neo Culture Technology") and its platoon of 23 boys landed in fifth.

Blackpink

Hell Joseon

I have an abiding interest in Korea and things Korean due to my being a historian of the Philippines' involvement in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. It always astounds me how one of the world's poorest countries in 1950 rose rapidly to become the 10th wealthiest country a scant 70 years later. You wish you could say the same for the Philippines.

The intense national discipline, hard work, self-sacrifice and conformity among the Korean people that created the Miracle on the Han River now works to the disadvantage of South Korea's younger generations.

Gravely hurt by the constant pressure to conform to traditional and sometimes harsh mores are generations of Korean youth starting with Generation Z. These digital natives born starting in the mid-1990s include many of today's K-pop stars. They also live in the shadow of a national suicide wave.

Suicide was the leading cause of death among young Koreans in 2018, according to a report released last year by Statistics Korea. The suicide rate per 100,000 people between 9 and 24 years old hit 9.1 in 2018, up from 7.7 in 2017.

Suicide has been the leading cause of death among young Koreans since 2007. It reached its current all-time high in 2009 when the suicide rate came to 10.3. And why is this so?

The answer: savage pressure to conform and succeed. These factors create higher stress levels among young Koreans compared to the global average. They also contribute to South Korea having the highest suicide rate in the developed world.

K-pop stars have not been immune to the suicide crisis. Media reports say there have been at least 25 celebrity and political suicides over the past 15 years.

At least three of these people belonged to K-pop groups. They were Kim Jong-hyun, main vocalist of the boy band Shinee (died Dec. 2017); Goo Hara, former member of the girl group, Kara (Nov. 2019), and Cha In-ha, who belonged to the boy group, Surprise U (Dec. 2019).

Kim Jong-hyun's suicide note was telling: "I am broken inside" and "I hate myself," he wrote. Kim also assailed a doctor who blamed his depression on his personality.

Depression among young Koreans is also driven by other pressures. The Statistics Korea report showed Koreans between 13 and 24 mostly worry about their future jobs and with good reason. One in five unemployed Koreans is between 25 and 29 years old, the highest ratio in the developed world.

Another source of angst is the brutal need to pass the infamous "Suneung" college entrance exam that determines what university a student will attend. This is among the reasons why close to one in three students (39.8%) see suicide as a way out of the almost unbearable academic duress placed on them day in and day out.

High schoolers taking the dreaded suneung examination

Korean kids also worry mightily about their physical appearance, which is likely due to K-pop and its focus on physical perfection. These painful facts about life in Korea have led many young adults to rebel and embrace the life of the "sam-po" or "n-po."

The sam-po generation refers to youth that have given-up on attaining three key relationship goals: dating, marriage and having kids. Many of Korea's youth have gone sam-po because they've lost hope in the promise of a good future.

N-po are distressed and depressed youth that have given-up on practically everything that makes life worth living. The word literally means "Numerous giving-up generation."

Young South Koreans have coined a new name for South Korea in light of these horrors: Hell Joseon. They compare life in their country -- one of the world's richest and Asia's most technologically advanced -- to Hell on Earth.

K-pop has become a glossy façade concealing this dreadful reality.

Walking backwards: Stories from Saipan

(Published in ENRICH magazine, 2021)

ABOUT THIS TIME some 30 years ago, I was one among tens of thousands of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) thankful for the God-given chance to earn U.S. dollars every month as employees of companies based in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), better known to Filipinos as Saipan.

My Saipan stint was my initiation into the world of the OFW. It taught me firsthand how tough overseas work is mentally and emotionally. I also learned it wasn’t the solution to my financial problems.

It's nostalgic and sad looking back across the decades. Reading my notes makes me want to build a time machine so I can go back to the 20th century -- a more predictable and less confusing time than today.

 

***

HAMBURGER ISLAND. Lunch was a Filipino fast food feast: hamburgers, breaded fried chicken, “pansit palabok,” French fries and Coke in small plastic cups. The six of us to be interviewed for the job vacancies commandeered a long table at a burger place in Makati.

Halfway through the meal, one of the men spread a small-scale map of the Asia Pacific in front of us. He couldn’t find Saipan on the map, he said. An older man stubbed his finger on a spot off the northwest coast of Hawaii, which is where he proclaimed Saipan jto be, but which looked to me like the position of Midway Island.

I took a piece of burger and planted it on the Pacific Ocean due east of Luzon Island. “Saipan,” I said.

“Looks like hamburger to me,” said an older man.

He let out a guffaw. The others laughed, too. Welcome to Saipan.

 

***

MAKE MINE MARVEL. Garapan, the largest town on Saipan, is a flat, lazy place that only came to life on weekends when legions of Filipino, Chinese and South Korean workers hit its streets.

Our barracks (which is what they call lodgings for overseas contract workers) was a dump. The roof was painted with rust. Corroding nail heads stained the warped walls. We later found to our sorrow the roof leaked when it rained, which was often on this rock.

The older one and I shared a room. Separating us was a long, massive closet that, to my later dismay, couldn’t muffle his maddening snoring. I had a hard wooden bed topped by a thin foam mattress.

Our employer said you couldn’t drink the tap water anywhere on the island. You’d have to buy drinking water at 50 cents a gallon. And don’t forget to zip your mouth when you shower or you might get diarrhea.

Our office was our employer’s home. His family lived on the first floor; we worked on the second to build his advertising business. The computers were all Apple Macs. One was a charming SE with the teeny weenie monitor that was a museum piece back home.

A lot of the flora here was familiar: hibiscus, bougainvillea, coconut trees, bananas, and bamboo. I took a few rocks and pitched a la Nolan Ryan at a coconut tree a few feet away.

There should be baseball on this island. And Marvel Comics. This mote is, after all, U.S. territory. To my surprise, there was no Marvel Comics on the island and no baseball, either.

***

THE INVADERS. There were more Filipinos than locals in the entire CNMI. Apart from Saipan, CNMI consists of the small islands of Tinian (about 104 square kilometers in size) and Rota (85km2). Saipan is 119 km2 in area and is the commonwealth's center of everything. CNMI is a territory of the United States so Filipino babies born here automatically become American citizens.

There were about 25,000 of us Filipinos to 20,000 of them. By "them" I mean the Chamorros and the Carolinians, which are the two main ethnic groups on Saipan. We learned you can tell a Chamorro from a Carolinian (who hail from the Caroline Islands to the southeast of Saipan) by their skin color. Carolinians are lighter skinned. Chamorros, however, comprise most of the indigenous population on Saipan.

Like Filipinos, Chamorros are mostly Roman Catholic and have English as their key language. There were, however, more Filipinos on Saipan than Chamorros when I was there.

Chamorros and Carolinians ran the government and were paid better. We were stuck with private employment and paid less.

Many Filipinos have scare stories about the "locals" as we called them. It was well known that most local employers never went to college. Some were beasts to their Filipino employees. Almost all of them chewed betel nut by the ton.

Filipinos everywhere. It was as if you never left home. And there weren’t that many whites, to my surprise. But there were hordes of Japanese tourists who either soaked up the sun at Saipan’s splendid beaches or paid homage to their war dead at Suicide Cliff.

Once, at a seaside picnic with a few Filipinos, I jokingly said the Philippines should invade this place and make it a province. It’s basically Filipino in numbers anyway.

Saipan’s only defense is its paltry police force and a few CIA spies hunkered down in a hush-hush listening post atop a heavily guarded hill. We’d win easy with the battle hardened Philippine Army, I told them.

Why should we want to do that, asked one of the guys. That would mean we’d be getting our pay in Philippine pesos instead of U.S. dollars.

The rest concurred. Case closed.

***

MAMMON. It’s a 10-minute walk to the mom and pop grocery nearest our barracks. Three local women run the store. Prices of many of the groceries I buy are cheaper here than those at a lot of the Filipino-run stores in Garapan.

Korean stores sell the cheapest, but I’d have to take the bus and pay two dollars roundtrip to get to the nearest one. Two dollars is still two dollars.

I was standing in line at a mom and pop one run by locals one Saturday morning. A brawny Filipino ahead of me was counting his change.

“You short 10 cents,” he told the cashier in English.

“I am not!” the young woman cashier shot back.

The Filipino laid his change on the table and showed her his receipt.

“You short 10 cents,” he said again.

“You musta slipped it in your pocket!” she yelled. “Now get out!”

“You short 10 cents,” repeated the Filipino.

“Call the cops, momma!” shouted the cashier.

She screamed at the top of her voice. He screamed at her in Filipino while those of us in the queue watched in amazement and horror. They kept going at each other until two cops arrived.

One cop shouted: "What the hell's going on?"

The cashier shouted her side of the story. The Filipino, fumbling with his English, mumbled his version. He stared at the floor to avoid eye contact with the huge cop -- a local -- who was glaring at him.

The other cop quietly went up to the cash register, one of those old, pull lever types that rested on four legs, and started looking around.

The cop swept his fingers under the register, and out came 25 cents, 10 cents, another 10 cents, more 25 cents and a lot of loose change.

“Hey, look at this,” the cop called out to his buddy.

The big cop took a hard look at the loose change. He took 10 cents from the counter and shoved it into the pants pocket of the Filipino and told him to go home.

Ten U.S. cents! That’s just three Philippine pesos! No Filipino in his right mind would risk jail time for three pesos. Three pesos can’t even buy you a bottle of Coke.

But this is dollar country and we’re talking U.S. dollars. That’s why this screaming Filipino and I were here. To earn almighty U.S. dollars.

There is but one god.

***

DECENT EXPOSURE. My boss and I had just come from a client meeting and were headed home. At the parking lot, I was startled by the sight of three young girls and a young boy playing volleyball on the beach, which was only short distance away from me.

The girls were wearing long skirts that extended below their knees but were naked from the waist up. Their long, black hair revealed their breasts as they jumped and yelled in delight as they hit the ball back and forth. I stared at them.

"Never seen naked girls in public before, Art?" asked my boss, who was from the island country of Palau to the southwest of Saipan.

"Is that legal?" I asked.

"They're Yapese from Yap island, which is close by," he said. "On Yap, it's indecent for women to show their knees but not their breasts."

I was dumbfounded; didn't know that.

"I know the guy," said my boss. "Come on. Let's say hello. Hey, Joseph," he yelled.

The young man turned towards us and waved.

"Uncle Pete!" he yelled back.

They high fived. The girls gathered round them and they began engaging in conversation. I watched the proceedings with interest.

"Hey, Art," my boss waved to me. "Come on over."

As I approached, one of the girls pointed excitedly at my direction. She turned to the others and said something.

"Raina tells us you look almost exactly like a friend of hers," said my boss, pointing to the girl who pointed at me.

I looked at Raina, a tall, slim lass with a kayumanggi complexion -- and bare breasted.

"You're one unlucky girl for knowing two ugly guys,” I said, smiling.

The girls burst out laughing.

"Yes, I am," she quickly replied.

Again loud laughter from the girls.

"Well, looks like you two are getting along fine," said my boss.

I looked at Raina and smiled. She smiled back.

***

LOVE BITES. One odd thing I noted on Saipan was the dearth of romances between Filipino men and local women. I never met a Pinoy guy who had a local for a girlfriend, which was surprising since I'd come across my fair share of really pretty Chamorritas and Carolinians.

My officemates and I were shopping at a Joeten grocery when we came across a couple of local teenage couples. The teen girls were pretty: one was clad in sheer nighties, which I'd seen some girls wear on the street as if they were day clothes. The other had on a skin tight tank top and really short shorts.

It wasn't their clothes that made me remember these girls, however. What struck and astonished me was that both of these girls had a red circle of bright red "hickeys" (kiss marks) around their necks.

"Don't stare, pre," said one of the guys with me who'd been here for more than a year.

He later explained girls displayed their kiss marks in public because it was a local custom. The love bites show these girls to be desirable, he said. This was the first but not the last time I saw "hickey necklaces" on young women, who proudly flaunted them as badges of honor.

I couldn't help thinking to myself: "What if we had this custom back home?"