On page one of the Boston Globe this morning is the announcement that a crackhead religious group claims to have cloned a human, perfectly and flawlessly reproducing someone’s DNA. On page 9 of the Living/Arts section is an article by Randy Lewis that first appeared in the LA Times that says that Eminem, Toby Keith and the Transplants all have added analog-sounding crackles and pops to their CDs so that they’ll sound as good as the old vinyl LPs.

For millennia, the distinction between human beings and God was that we’re imperfect. In the age of digital machines, increasingly that’s the line between being human and being technology.

Q: How many human institutions exist to deal with our imperfections?
A: All of them.
Each is informed by the fact that not only are the participants imperfect, but the system itself is fallible. No wonder we flounder with our own perfect inventions.

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