Mysterious O.G. McRibb maps our technological death wish

Jean Tinguely’s centenary, celebrating one hundred years since May 22, 1925, was a week ago. The creator of “Métamatic” kinetic sculptures that did nothing but destroy themselves, typified by “Homage to New York” (1960) and “Study for an End of the World No. 2 “(1962), satirized postwar mechanization and consumerism, both current concerns as AI technology and climate change denial threaten world economies, and, indeed, the human world. Modern-day callbacks to Tinguley’s Dadaist absurdity can been found in the 110-pound faceless robot dogs recently exhibited by China’s military, puppers armed with rifles, and able to run, squat, and leap under the direction of a controller or autonomously. (No doubt Pentagon chiefs find the robot-dog gap concerning and will use it to alarm the masses in upc