mungojelly

2008-11-28T15:58:00.000-08:00

I'm testing whether I can successfully rip some shit from the page of this blog post. I'm going to put some sort of separator next, then I'm going to come back and try to extract what I put! Fun and hopeful success!


~~~~~

ok here is something here 


~~~~~

so now i'm going to see if i can get that to happen. wish me luck! :)

bjarne stroustrup

2008-10-29T19:29:00.001-07:00

i had a hunch that i had to understand the mind of this man, bjarne stroustrup, in order to have any clue about this strange language c++, so i'm reading "the c++ programming language", and i think i was right.. here's an example that strikes me:

This form of explicit type conversion is inherently unsafe and ugly. Consequently, the notation used, static_cast, was designed to be ugly.

and it's not that i disagree! casting should be ugly. all of this ugliness has reasons for its ugliness. i'm increasingly convinced that c++ does indeed make some sort of sense! it has a perspective and it makes sense from that perspective. that's what i've been looking for.

hmm, i think my program has heard of itself?!

2008-10-29T03:51:00.000-07:00


r-2:~/code/gccstudy ixkey$ g++ experi.cpp -o experrr
r-2:~/code/gccstudy ixkey$ ./experrr
hello
hello this ihello this is the testhello this is the test array! ٰ?p???4??????4???p???
n???m??4???$???)%,???4??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
???x???./ex

2008-01-31T02:15:00.001-08:00

this is what i typed while i was cleaning out under my space key:

+bbvm,,mnvbmnbvnbv,mnb.,

2007-12-27T23:06:00.001-08:00

i read this on wikipedia & i felt tripped out:

"The phenomenal world is the dream of Vishnu.[citation needed]"

hehe, citation needed.. woo

two songs

2007-12-19T09:54:00.000-08:00

a song about the internet:
-----

it's nothing but some sentences upon a sparkling screen
but god bless us something happening; there's something those words mean
the world's people all together for the first time ever seen
because information wants to be free

CHORUS:
so now we're all deciding how we want the world to be
and some people've started saying that's a sorry sight to see
but they can't take the internet away from you & me
because information wants to be free

they strung a couple wires in case someone dropped the bomb
i don't think they were expecting that we'd all come along
but now this place belongs to us and i'm singing you this song
because information wants to be free

(chorus)

you may ban me, reprimand me, if you don't like what i say
you may throw me down and cuff me if you think i'm in your way
but i'm clutching to my camera and the world is gonna see
because information wants to be free

(chorus)

it seems some folks are hoping that we'll just go away
they hope next time they start a war we won't have much to say
but we all know the rich & powerful have cause to be afraid
because information wants to be free

(chorus)

AND

What If Ebvreyoinse Grew up PResidne:
---

CHORUS:
what if everyone grew up to be president
why can't everybody have a say?
what if everyone grew up to be president
i really think it's possible someday

read my lips no new taxes
slick willy doesn't know what is is
and w said he'd unite us not divide
they say they'll represent us
till we start our four year sentence
then suddenly they're on the other side

(chorus)

choose one yale boy or another
pretend they're different from each other
when really you've no preference either way
or vote for a third party
if your soul is feeling hardy
and hope they count your vote before it's thrown away

(chorus)

2007-04-24T10:18:00.000-07:00

The fact that the bill is deeply encrusted with incomprehensible jargon and prehensile programs dating back to the 1930s makes it almost impossible for the average legislator to understand the bill should he or she try to, much less the average citizen. It’s doubtful this is an accident.

You Are What You Grow (by Michael Pollan in the NYT)

I got halfway through this article before I realized it was by Mr Pollan. It's fantastic to see this man's mind, with such evident power to reshape our current mental landscape, appearing so prominently. Cheers, Michael.

I find myself despairing, though, about the reform that his article imagines. We have a political system which has developed so many layers of defense against any sort of reform. We have a political system to which reform feels like death.

It's not that we couldn't organize some sort of organization and take on the farm bill & the subsidies and win, because surely we could. The thing is that we're also working right now on media reform, on environmental reform, etc. And there's no way that we can make the system dramatically more flexible OVERALL this year. This legislative cycle we are stuck with the same system-- the same PEOPLE running the same system-- and we'll be likely if they're humbled into changing anything at ALL.

Theoretically it should be possible to open this sort of government up somehow, so that it would be capable of reconstructing itself. I don't really see that as plausible. Just because of the time spans. You'd have to construct an alternative model, and then defend it against systematic resistance by every single entrenched interest. There's plenty of that defense to last us another decade or two.

So I see it as more likely that we're going to have a ghost of this old political system, which is going to seem stranger & stranger as things change fundamentally underneath it. It's no longer going to be the government of anything that matters to us, as we move along with the situation-- but it's still the government of the old world, slowly trying to understand what's happening to it. It's like when you take a mind altering agent, and for a while your normal rationality tries to hold onto the perceptions you're having as if they belonged to that old understanding. No, it's more than that-- it's like being thrown actually into a different world, as in spirit world travel or death.

The farms will start to be roboticized, reconstructed, made of magical materials, actually genetically engineered, actually transformed and the farm bill will just keep trying to rationalize, keep feeding the dogs that it feels it needs to keep at bay. That's what it has to do; a government that transforms as quickly as a Singularity does is no government at all.

unsubscribe response to moveon

2006-10-24T11:17:00.000-07:00

Reason:

Too busy to read emails

Comment:

Hello. I am an Anarchist. I'm also a Singularitarian. Our orientations & contexts are thus very different, so consider this an outside opinion.

Your emails are very demanding. They exude, in fact, a desperate need for attention.

It's not that I don't understand where this feeling is coming from. As a serious Singularitarian, I am well aware that we are in a tremendously dangerous and complicated situation.

This does not however change the psychic reality of the human experience. We can only make deliberate decisions in an atmosphere of calm, because of our ancient reflex responses to immediate danger.

It's not that to stand as one of my political voices and one of my political media I would want you to deny the seriousness of the situation. What would have held me with you would have been if you could stand against this situation without becoming another wailing alarm. If you could stand against it with equanimity and vision.

Yeah, so um, too much whining. Sorry.

<3

2006-04-01T10:05:00.000-08:00

in your dreams.. in the power of your intentions

as a buddhist you intend yourself to be small.. you shrink yourself

the progress of undoing

Tsunami is a good metaphor for what's happening to us. Just a wave passing over us. Sometimes it seems to me like our attempts to survive the Singularity are like hoping to transform into fish as the wave crests. Other times it seems to me like we might have a chance to make the transformation. Because part of the wall, wonder of wonders, is a wave of understanding.

<3

Berkeley experts say stoves can aid women in Darfur

2006-02-09T08:39:00.000-08:00

Now the two are working to redesign the stove to better withstand the vigorous stirring required to make bread, as well as the wind that whips the Darfur region six months of the year.

They then hope to find metal workers in towns near the camps that can produce the stoves cheaply, perhaps for $10 each.

Berkeley experts say stoves can aid women in Darfur

I don't know why I like this story. I guess just because it's a nice change of pace to hear positive news from Darfur.

<3

Bush quietly undercuts

2006-01-26T22:16:00.000-08:00

In 2003, lawmakers tried to get a handle on Bush's use of signing statements by passing a Justice Department spending bill that required the department to inform Congress whenever the administration decided to ignore a legislative provision on constitutional grounds.

Bush signed the bill, but issued a statement asserting his right to ignore the notification requirement.

Bush quietly undercuts laws with bill-signing statement

So look, how does this come down to: Who and what are the people who are actually in physical control of the money or goods involved? I hear that in Iraq they flew a billion dollars in cash over to someone on a plane. My mind boggles. And underpaid federal employees at desks, interpreting.

I saw a politician on C-Span today. Hmm who was it. Oh it was Dick Armey. And a caller was suggesting that the bills should be written in plain English. And Dick Armey literally could not get his mind around that idea. You could watch his brain trying to get itself all the way around the idea of the laws of the country being readable by the citizens of the country, and it would not fit. OK let's call that Problem #1. That is not the end of the list.

And these people run the country! (Note: Statement should be interpreted to mean that they don't.)

<3

unrelated zoning bill

2006-01-25T15:23:00.000-08:00

Though it breezed through House committees, the bill died in the House after Rep. Dan Silva, D-Albuquerque , got upset with the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque , over Silva’s unrelated zoning bill.

Medical marijuana on New Mexico's agenda

This sort of thing seems ridiculously common among these bodies of what claim to be rational adult human beings. How much longer are they going to insist on being necessary? Can we cut to the chase?

New evidence for a Dark Matter Galaxy

2006-01-12T13:41:00.000-08:00

"New evidence that VIRGOHI 21, a mysterious cloud of hydrogen in the Virgo Cluster 50 million light-years from the Earth, is a Dark Galaxy, emitting no star light, was presented today at the American Astronomical Society..."

Whenever I hear about dark matter and dark galaxies, I always think: Wouldn't that be the signature of a post-singularity civilization? They're going to use all of the energy available from any source, and therefore they're not going to pointlessly radiate energy out into the universe-- any energy coming out is going to be communication.

I don't understand the astronomy enough to be able to relate that theory well to the data. I just wish the theory would be taken more seriously, so those who do know could flesh out the details.

<3

read more | digg story

Chavez and Coffee

2006-01-08T00:23:00.000-08:00

Producers "are hoarding coffee, waiting for me to raise the official price, but I won't raise it," said Chavez, speaking to pro-government lawmakers. "If they don't want to roast the coffee in the roasting facilities they have, we will take the roasters ... we will nationalize them."

Coffee crisis brews in Venezuela over state's price limits

Obviously the most relevant fact here, to sort out who is bullshitting whom, is whether the regulation is in fact impossible to comply with. The coffee corporations are claiming, apparently, that their cost is one cent more per pound than the regulated selling price. That seems awfully convenient-- one has to wonder, for instance, is there a multimillion dollar CEO salary that figures into those "costs"? On the other hand, if it's true, then the Chavez administration is on the face of it making unreasonable demands.

What would help here is if I could turn to some sort of unbiased news source, dedicated to finding out the actual facts of the matter. I want to know, what are the expenses of roasting coffee in Venezuela? What is the economic state of the companies in question-- how long will it take them to go bankrupt if they really do lose one cent per pound of coffee? Is this a mortal wound or a pinprick? Alas, every bit of the Venezuelan media is (so far as I know) utterly untrustworthy.

The last few weeks there have been shortages of coffee and this week a Government official suggested an increase in the controlled price was imminent, which led to even more scarcity. Then on Wednesday the consumer protection agency (Indecu) impounded 300 Tons of coffee at the distributor’s warehouses and two additional raids have taken place. The coffee will be forcefully purchased at the official controlled price.

Chavilarism: When people lose their property rights to their crops and buildings

Aha, this is starting to make a little more sense to me. They're going to adjust the price, so nobody wants to sell now at a loss rather than wait it out.

It seems like a complicated question. Obviously there's been some mishandling of the market, some bureaucratic sluggishness, yet on the other hand the inability of corporations to act unselfishly is one of the root causes here.

Hmm.

<3

The Limitations of the Singularity

2006-01-03T21:56:00.000-08:00

We already have this problem, since we fill up our exponentially growing storage resources (both RAM and secondary storage) faster than they grow, and our programs bloat to fill up our growing processors. Niklaus Wirth, has proposed two new Parkinson's Laws for software: "Software expands to fill the available memory," and "Software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware gets faster."

The Limitations of the Singularity

This whole line of thought is perfectly ridiculous. Software gets slower, but it does not get slower at doing the same things. It gets slower by adding new things that it does. It "expands to fill the available memory" because it is making effective use of the memory. Software is dramatically changing all of its capabilities with every generation of hardware. To describe that constant transformation as an argument against the imminence of the Singularity-- well, it's denial, that's what it is.

The question is not how fast Microsoft Windows is going to boot in the future. Completely irrelevant. The application which is most relevant to the Singularity is human-like intelligence. We are going to find code which accomplishes that grail, and then you had better believe that code is going to be well optimized.

Exactly how limiting they will be is hard to tell, but the [sic] definitely will prevent an infinitely fast growth.

If infinite growth is possible-- which intuitively seems unlikely with our physics, but is a real possibility & really is true in some subset of universes-- it'll come about more as a result of energy technologies than information technologies. Only an infinite amount of energy to do computation can hit that sweet spot. Those are the universes where the Powers truly do become Gods.

<3

Earth as a Biopreserve

2006-01-03T17:28:00.000-08:00

Allow me to be one of the first to say it: We could move all of the Singularity activity-- the Technology-- off-planet, and leave Earth as a biopreserve. Here's the story: Mars is never "terraformed," never made into a weird unearthly earth. Instead it is machine formed, made into the most efficient computing devices possible. Grey gooed, fast or slow. This is presuming OF COURSE that Mars is barren.

Let's make things clear, BTW, ladies and gentlemen. I am not going to let Humanity come to a bad end. I am not going to let us be Conquerers Of The Galaxy. We're better than that. It's OK to conquer rocks-- rocks are utterly indifferent to being conquered-- but we absolutely must respect any other races that we encounter in this universe.

So, presuming Mars is just rocks, we transform it into a slightly different kind of rocks. Earth, on the other hand, continues to have butterflies and penguins. Not that we'd have to take a hands-off approach-- in fact Earth may need a lot of proactive stabilization in the medium-term-- but we leave it as a place where DNA life continues to replicate and evolve.

If we can hold our own appetites away from this planet for a little bit longer, we will be able to feast ourselves on all of the other planets. That will give us quite a bit of computing resources. At that point we will have a better idea just how rare Earth is, just how much information this biosphere consists of, and we can make a reasonable judgement as to its most valuable state.

<3

Google Spell Check

2006-01-02T10:35:00.000-08:00

Dear Google,

PLEASE make your spell checking algorithm available as a stand-alone program. It KICKS ASS. It always gives me the word that I really meant-- every single fucking time. Why can't I spell check this with that? I'm writing it on one of your freaking websites!! PLEASE!!

<3

u.s. continues to subvert in venezuela

2006-01-01T21:46:00.000-08:00

While it doesn't deny that it has funded openly partisan groups that were directly or indirectly involved in the coup, NED claims that its funding was limited to civil society education, electoral training, and institution building—not partisan politics or coup planning.

Transitioning Venezuela

I'm not entirely clear on the whole Venezuela deal, & I'm keeping my mind open as I look into it, but regardless of the overall shape of things it's quite evident to me that the US government is attempting to subvert democracy there. They may say they're on the side of democracy-- or Goodness & Rightness, or plum pudding-- but the facts are that they're sneakily (& apparently shamelessly) underwriting a bunch of antidemocratic fronts attempting to blandly advance the cause of More Rich White People. Why, exactly, do we tolerate this?

<3

flickr song

2006-01-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

here's a wonderful song about flickr

<3

famine in kenya

2006-01-01T08:28:00.000-08:00

At least 20 people and hundreds of livestock have died as a result of the drought and severe food shortage.

IOL | Kibaki calls food crisis a 'famine'

Yeah, yeah, famine in Africa. Call me when you have a million dead, and maybe you'll get to share headlines with the latest American (by which I mean citizen of the US, the important country in America) who's skinned their knee.

When does it end? When does Africa become part of the world, a place that we pay attention to? We're already well into the information age. Anyone can pay attention to Africa just like I have, by subscribing to the BBC Africa feed or setting up a Google alert for "darfur." It would take ten seconds to end this blackout. People still are not choosing to.

Even now, Africa is the dark continent.

<3

suicidicide

2005-12-30T22:21:00.000-08:00

76. The day when most suicides occurred in the UK between 1993 and 2002 was 1 January, 2000.

77. The only day in that time when no-one killed themselves was 16 March, 2001, the day Comic Relief viewers saw Jack Dee win Celebrity Big Brother.

BBC News | Magazine | 100 things we didn't know this time last year

If I were one of the people who had considered suicide on March 16th 2001, then I'd feel really special reading that.

<3

diebold's machines are worthless shit

2005-12-21T17:29:00.000-08:00

"The logic to print that zero report is contained on the memory card itself,"

Wired News: Diebold Hack Hints at Wider Flaws (quote is from page two)

The wider flaw is that every single person working for the Diebold corporation is obviously an idiot. I would say that they should go into the clown business, but that would be cruel to children. BAD, DIEBOLD, BAD.

<3

shame on us

2005-12-19T19:43:00.000-08:00

or, rather, shame on the U.S.:

The $50 million would have represented about one-third of the monthly cost for the peacekeepers. The European Union is responsible for most of the remainder.

US Congress rebuffs Rice on Darfur troop funding

This is pennies compared to Iraq. How exactly does our complete lack of concern for Africa fit into our image as "liberators"?

<3

Santa Ain't Fat

2005-12-19T19:26:00.000-08:00

a new song from zefrank

<3

writing to my representatives

2005-12-19T18:06:00.000-08:00

I feel so ridiculous writing to my representatives. How is it supposed to work? I get the idea that it used to be that no one ever did write to their representatives. Maybe someone did every once in a while, and they'd read it and say, hey, OK, that's nice. Then comes the era of form email activism, so presumably now they get thousands of copies of the same email from people all over the world. Either way it seems meaningless.

I don't really want to contact my reps in whatever way has the "most impact." I don't want to have a disproportionate impact. What I would like is to have an exactly equal impact with all of the other constituents. That's democracy, as I reckon it. Obviously there is nothing democratic, nor even sensible, about taking letters and emails and phone calls from whoever happens to call and then taking that as some sort of barometer of public opinion. It's worse, if anything, to ignore what people say who are trying to contact you. So where does that leave us?

I think it leaves us with representatives having an obligation to make some sort of modern system to communicate with the people they are representing. It's certainly possible for them to get good, authenticated data about what their constituents think. So if we're serious about the project of democracy, then that's what should happen. Duh.

<3

2005-12-19T13:42:00.000-08:00

The Australian: Singularly fanciful [December 17, 2005] (in blockquotes, my responses unindented)

In the final analysis, it is based on a bad inference.

Where is this final analysis? Don't you have to present the analysis? Is it really enough just to stipulate that it exists? Is all of the thinking in newspapers this fuzzy, or is it just the Singularity's mind distortion field?

Incredibly, Kurzweil argues that factories and farm jobs in the US have dropped from 60per cent to 6 per cent because of automation; no mention of Third World sweatshops or corporate outsourcing and downsizing.

Factory work has been outsourced, true, but that hardly proves that it hasn't also been automated, which it has. Farm jobs on the other hand are inherently unoutsourcable, and it's just sloppy reasoning to throw them into that sentence like that.

Farm work provides a much cleaner allegory than factory work. Most of the people in the United States used to be farmers, and now hardly anyone is, and yet we are still producing tremendous amounts of food. It's insultingly silly to look at this complete revolution in the nature of everyday life and to deny that it's important because-- well why? Because there's also outsourcing? Please.

The information sciences have sparked the mystic belief that everything is made of ethereal data and that consciousness or identity can be separated from the complex electro-biochemical dynamics of the brain.

It's not merely a mystic belief, though (& what do you have against mystics, anyway?), it's a particular philosophical argument. I'm doubtful that the author of this article understands the terrain of the debate.

Given what I've seen so far from the general public, it seems doubtful that we are going to get any serious public discussion about the Singularity until all of the essential decisions have been made and it's far too late.

<3

Shirky: Fame vs Fortune: Micropayments and Free Content

2005-12-18T11:12:00.000-08:00

Individual bits of content that are even moderately close in quality to what is available free, but wrapped in the mental transaction costs of micropayments, are doomed to be both obscure and unprofitable.

Shirky: Fame vs Fortune: Micropayments and Free Content (wherein a good argument is made for why micropayment systems will fail)

I can think of one way around this: Have the micropayments come after the consumption, and (necessarily therefore) have them be voluntary. A tip jar system. The systems that have tried this before have failed mostly because of transaction costs other than the $0.10-- the effort of signing up to a particular system, the process required to authenticate a payment, etc. If it were actually as easy as clicking a link to give someone a dime, I think it would have its place. I'd play.

It also might help if there was a minor reward for tipping, such as to have your name listed as one of the tippers. That could make it a sort of microadvertising scheme, especially if your name links to your site, but that's not the main hook I'm getting at. What I'm getting at is more the status reward of being a loyal fan. Suppose that a blogger writes a popular daily blog. There's a community that takes place in the comments. As a regular commenter you'd recognize all of the other participants and have some basic relationship with them. At the bottom of each post it says, "Yesterday's 25 Cent Tippers: Bob, Steve, Mary, Joe." Don't you want to be one of those people, if the price is right?

I think that Clay Shirky is right on the overall picture, though. By rights it should be impossible to sell content on the internet. The internet is so huge that there are still plenty of opportunities for people to make money selling things that really ought not to be worth anything, such as 99 cent songs or Incredimail, but these should be treated as aberrations. The real trend is towards free-as-in-beer information.

What worries me about that is that combined with the robotification of physical work, we are burning the candle at both ends. Everyone who knows that physical labor is increasingly being automated thinks that we can somehow move to an information economy, where people will be paid for thinking of stuff. In fact, ideas are even cheaper than physical labor in the information age. We need to start right now on thinking of a completely new structure for our economy.

<3

true neutrality

2005-12-16T12:28:00.000-08:00

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Mona Lisa 'happy', computer finds: "The Mona Lisa features in the opening of Dan Brown's hit novel The da Vinci Code when a Louvre curator is found dead near the painting. "

What is that, a product placement? What kind of reporting is this? What's the logic behind this random string of facts that just happen to involve the Mona Lisa?

They do this with serious stories, too: "The POTUS said such and such about the war. Um, let's see, the POTUS is six feet tall and can bench press 215 pounds. The USA is a country in North America with abundant natural resources. Are we done yet?" It's like the story lasts beyond its own interest in itself, can find no further ways of relating the subjects that come together in its tableau, and gives up on making sense of it, at which point all it can do is give you more details about the protagonists and leave it to you to invent a narrative.

You know what? I just figured out the role of the mainstream news media (MSM). The role of the MSM is to get the fucking fuck out of the way, right now. It is no longer socially responsible for you to go to important events, set up a camera, record high-quality video, then edit out everything except a two-second soundbite, talk for several minutes about the weather and your hair around it, and broadcast it to hypnotized suckers. NO!

If you are in the business of going around to important news events and setting up cameras, you owe it to the public to sell them that data. The information is sufficiently valuable to make a profit, and it's not secret for any good reason. At most I'll grant to the MSM their right to hold off on sharing data for long enough to scoop each other-- give it a two day time lag, say-- but once everyone is in on the story there's no good reason for it not to be open.

Here's a new model: Imagine that there's a camera filming somewhere-- Fallujah, a PTA meeting, somewhere-- and streaming its data out to a data center. You can then go to that data center through the web and access the raw streams. Buying access to the data would mean buying not just the right to view the data, but also the right to redistribute it. (For instance, the data could be under a liberal Creative Commons license (my ideal would be attribs and share alike which would help CC take over the world (drools like zombie)).) Camera operators-- probably mostly independent contractors-- would be making money whenever their camera was rolling and pointed at something interesting.

Q: Why would anyone pay for data that has an open license? A: To get the scoop. Imagine you're a blogger. You want to write about the situation in Iraq. You don't have to go to the MSM begging for crumbs. For twenty bucks you can go dip into the streams coming back from Iraq and buy something new. You could write a special CC-esque license, so that as the Liberator of a particular piece of video you get credited every time that video plays anywhere. If something you had the foresight to liberate gets hot in the blogosphere, everyone's going to know it was you. It might even work as a form of advertising-- this video liberated by Acme, Inc.

After all, other than being a royal pain in the ass, what is the economic role of the MSM in getting news from where it happens to the public? They're a group that hires camera operators. That may indeed be a role for a large organization, but it no longer needs to be an organization that's also in charge of telling those camera operators what to point at and telling the public what they want to hear. It could be a neutral organization, imagine that.

Of course while this model would open things up tremendously in the short term, it would also provide all of the incentives necessary to deeply institute the surveillance society. But, hey, that's probably inevitable anyway. Uh, yeah.

Roomba wars

2005-12-15T12:06:00.000-08:00

Awesome! I had a hunch that if I searched for "roomba cat" on Technorati I would find some awesome posts about Roomba vs Feline relations, but I didn't expect to find anything this awesome!

With a bold swish, she knocks down the cat's favorite string to chase, hoping the ROOMBA will get the string all caught up in its rotors and be brought to its nonexistent knees! It looks like things are all over for the ROOMBA, folks! Quetzlcoatl sits back and waits for her attack to destroy her rival.

Startling resolution, after these messages. <3

Re: BUUYAN > Four square league!

2005-12-15T10:54:00.000-08:00

I was trying to remember the rules for Four Square, but then I realized
that there's no way they play by the rules that I remember. The last time
I played Four Square was at Sudbury Valley School (SVS), which has no
mandatory activities, leaving lots of time to dedicate to serious
activities such as Four Square. At SVS the house rules are (I think I'm
remembering this correctly) that whoever is in the lead square gets to
make a RULE of their choice at the beginning of each round. A lot of the
rules are used over & over, for instance that you have to hop on one foot
is a pretty common one, which means that you can build your skill at each
particular rule. Often you know what rule someone is likely to pick if
they get in the lead-- and to displace them you have to beat them at their
own game-- but then it's also 3-on-1 so turnover is sufficient. That's
the kind of game that I like, with a comfortable core but the potential
for absolute novelty. SVS is a wonderful school, in many respects.

<3,
mungojelly

Carpe Diem

2005-12-15T10:37:00.000-08:00

A beautiful new post from one of my favorite vloggers. <3

Dear Google

2005-12-15T08:40:00.000-08:00

My Blogger is all flickery. It thinks that it's lost its connection to you, even though it always gets it back momentarily. It gets it back so quickly, usually, that it's been difficult for me to read the little line of text that flashes down at the bottom. It's actually kind of neat (I dig flashing), but it's probably not working how you intended. Making it wait just a little bit longer before feeling sure that it's disconnected would probably get it out of this noisy patch, so it can be properly digitized.

Also your About page on Blogger links to http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/archives/000802.shtml which is a dead link. Also, when I tried to search on Dan Gillmor to find what you were trying to link to, all I found was a bunch of stuff about how you're being nonresponsive about Blogger. Also, there was no link to send you feedback, so I'm not actually sending this to you.

TIA!

<3

dumbots

2005-12-15T08:38:00.000-08:00

[11:35:25 AM] rachel_857: Hi there! I was checking out yahoo members and i saw your ad, anyways, yahoo thinks that you're my match.. ;)
[11:35:27 AM] rachel_857: do you want to check out my profile ?
[11:35:42 AM] mungojelly: that depends, are you a robot?
[11:35:46 AM] rachel_857: here, use this link:www.ul%74ramatch.net?id=2109
[11:35:50 AM] rachel_857: you just need to sign in (its free) to get to me, my username's "CatLady".
[11:36:01 AM] mungojelly: ok but first i'm wondering whether you're a robot
[11:36:24 AM] mungojelly: are you or are you not a bot, now i remind you you're under oath
[11:37:02 AM] mungojelly: goddamn it, slashdot told me that you bots were getting smarter! i would like to see some intelligence!

<3

dream computer

2005-12-15T08:00:00.000-08:00

In a dream I had last night, I was using a computer and running a whole bunch of programs. It was more than the computer was capable of-- I was switching between programs and it was doing the kind of shit that XP does when it's working too hard & you try to switch programs, where one program will half disappear and nothing will work while everybody fights about what to do next, or something-- but I could still tell that the computer was way faster than real computers are lately. It was running lots & lots of programs, and lots of them had hundreds of objects bouncing around doing different things.

<3

the first language

2005-12-14T22:25:00.000-08:00

This is a question I just answered on Yahoo! Answers, which BTW is addictively mediocre:

by: farida q
subject: when languages were first introduced?

how people started communicating each other?
in the beginning was there only sign language?
which language was the first to be spoken by human?

Language is always changing, therefore the language that was first spoken by humans no longer exists. It is the mother that gave birth to all of the languages that exist today. The mother's spirit is in all the children, but none of the children are the mother.

A sort of Holy Grail of linguistics would be to discover what the mother of all languages was like. It's possible that with enough study we can figure out something about it-- we have after all learned quite a bit about Indo-European, a prehistorical language which has been discovered by careful examinations of the commonalities between modern languages stretching all the way across Europe and Asia.

The first language probably developed along with the first speakers, people who lived long enough ago that not just their cultures but even their bodies were substantially different from how things are now.

It's pure speculation, but I think that sign language and spoken language probably emerged at the same time, in that strange noble race. Sign and spoken languages seem to me to share a spiritual core, to be the same in their essence. The great singular power of our facility of language is to make any thing mean any other thing. A pile of rocks may mean a burning fire. Some strangely shaped lines can mean the very "meaning" itself. What a glorious world.

<3

USATODAY.com - Can newspapers weather the techno-storm?

2005-12-13T19:10:00.000-08:00

"Information that's free usually crowds out information that's not."

USATODAY.com - Can newspapers weather the techno-storm?

Duh. And could somebody tell that to.. everybody, please? <3

The Seoul Times

2005-12-13T18:49:00.000-08:00

Gangnam has used the internet to make decision on "over 480 policies since September 2001 (and since) 2002 the district has been setting the priority of project budgets through internet polls."

Gangnam: A Model to the World?

Electronic democracy is obviously going to come sometime. I predict that we'll see a lot more of this popping up over the next few years.

The Examining Room of Dr. Charles: How to Stand In for the Doctor

2005-12-13T11:23:00.000-08:00

"Ask something like: “What brings you here today?” Listen for about five seconds. Furrow your brow and look disgusted. Shake your head with disapproval. Interrupt the patient. Then try some empathy. “Your back pain must be painful. That rash seems to constitute quite a rash.”"

The Examining Room of Dr. Charles: How to Stand In for the Doctor

LOL

well here's the last response

2005-12-13T11:16:00.000-08:00

Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 10:54:04 -0500
From: "WikipediaClassAction.org" 
Reply-To: lawsuit@wikipediaclassaction.org
Organization: WikipediaClassAction.org
To: Pope Salmon the Lesser Mungojelly 
Subject: Re: you don't understand the internet

You merely confirm why this lawsuit is required.

That's it. Sigh, I can't think of anything fun to say to that. Oh well. I'm considering "moo moo, mr fish brain!" but he could only be genuinely insulted, I'm sure.

<3

copied from slashdot without permission

2005-12-13T09:47:00.000-08:00

As is, I firmly believe, my moral right to do:

The myth of the poor mouse
(Score:3, Insightful)
by SimianOverlord (727643) Alter Relationship on Tuesday December 13, @08:33AM (#14245772)
(http://fullyqualifiedurl.org/ | Last Journal: Tuesday November 22, @07:39AM)
Mice and Rats in research are supposed to be pitied, by the usual pathetic ways that humans impart everything around them with the feelings or emotions which we possess. Actually, you should look at some facts.

FACT: Mice in the wild live about a year, in the most stressful, difficult and inhumane conditions you wouldn't like to imagine. Should they be unfortunate to gain access to one of the animal rights protestors habitat, middle class suburbia, the self same protestor, full of indignation at experimental killing, will of course call in someone to rid them of their little problem, or condemn them to freeze to death in wooded areas with humane capture traps. In the lab, mus musculus live on average about 2 years in controlled, warm conditions with regular feeding and exercise.

FACT: Rats in the wild live about 2 years max, again in stressful, disease ridden cramped conditions. In the lab, Rats can survive double that, again in nicely ordered, well controlled and comfortable conditions.

So don't bring up that ignorant rubbish about how animal experiments somehow harm rats and mice: unlike Joe Public taking potshots at rats and mice in his backyard, everything WE do is sanctioned, pored over and refined each and every step of the way to minimise suffering. Hell, our animals are no use for experimentation if they're unhappy or agitated: they get difficult to handle. We go to see them and handle them a couple of weeks before expts even start to get them used to our presence, smell, voices etc.

Rats and mice are far better treated in our labs than in the wild or in your homes, and they are also better treated than the conveyor belt of cattle fattened and slaughtered for your own diet. I get angered by the hypocrisy of people opposed to experimentation while conveniently overlooking the animal suffering inherent in large scale production of meat in all the developed world, with cattle stunned with bolt guns wandering into saws. It's so much easier to criticise someone else than look at your won behaviour, isn't it?

This is a very compelling argument. The terrain gets tricky so quickly, though. The implicit moral argument here is: If you could ask the mice for consent, and they had accurate knowledge of the options, they would choose to live in the lab rather than in the wild.

I think this is at least very close to the truth. Laboratories are just one of the places in the world to live-- at times wonderful, at times terrible, just like anywhere.

But since we are manipulating the entire existence of each mouse-- its genes, its diseases, its cures, its food, its challenges-- it's very difficult to really fix a frame on who is being imagined to give consent. If laboratory mice had to give consent in some particular way, we would write their genes so that they'd do whatever it was.

We're leaving the realm where these questions make normal reasonable moral sense in terms of "individuals" and "naturalness" and so forth. We use cloned strains of animals to run the exact same program over & over in different circumstances-- hacking out a momentary bit of code from the ongoing soup and prolonging it. It's difficult to stretch any moral understandings across this discontinuity.

<3

Mice created with human brain cells

2005-12-13T09:31:00.000-08:00

"But the brain poses an additional level of concern because some envision nightmare scenarios in which a human mind might be trapped in an animal head."

AP Wire | 12/13/2005 | Mice created with human brain cells

That's fucking ridiculous. It's funny that the singularity is so obviously filled with so many transformative and dangerous potentialities, and yet all the mainstream can come up with to be afraid of is this random nonsense.

If we could successfully build a human-like brain out of any substrate, then we would either already understand it or we would be in a much better position to understand it. At that point we would have the chance to see if we can transpose it to a Universal Turing Machine.

That's the ENDGAME, folks. Thinking about what we would do after we can build "human minds" in ways other than a human womb is like thinking, "Hmm, after he takes my King, then I can take his Pawn on B2..."

(By then we will have put away the chess set, and taken out the footbag or Monopoly.)

my correspondence with wikipediaclassaction

2005-12-13T07:13:00.000-08:00

To: lawsuit@wikipediaclassaction.org
Subject: you don't understand the internet
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 10:25:20 -0500
From: "Pope Salmon the Lesser Mungojelly" 
Organization: love

Please leave the internet alone.  You don't understand it. 
Go play with your own toys.
 
<3,
mungojelly

this is the first email i sent to them. i just figured i should help bombard, since i knew it was going to happen. i like to participate.

Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 12:27:28 -0500
From: "WikipediaClassAction.org" 
Reply-To: lawsuit@wikipediaclassaction.org
Organization: WikipediaClassAction.org
To: Pope Salmon the Lesser Mungojelly 
Subject: Re: you don't understand the internet

Hello,

You do not understand the issues here, so perhaps,
it is best for you to sit this one out on the side.

Why must I become involved in the Wikipedia website? 
If there is offending or inaccurate content, about me, 
my business or family, why should I be required to 
become a user and edit the content?

I am interested to learn why you thought I would be 
interested in your comments.

Regards,

this is a form letter. i know because other people discussing this got the same one. who gets snarky in a form letter?

Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 21:17:08 -0500
To: lawsuit@wikipediaclassaction.org
Subject: Re: you don't understand the internet
Bcc: ixkey@beautywood.org
From: "Pope Salmon the Lesser Mungojelly" 
Organization: love

On Mon, 12 Dec 2005 12:27:28 -0500, WikipediaClassAction.org  wrote:

> Why must I become involved in the Wikipedia website? 
> If there is offending or inaccurate content, about me,
> my business or family, why should I be required to
> become a user and edit the content?

We are entering a future in which every person on the
planet is in relationship.  Many of the people on this 
planet are not nice, Mr Regards.  People are going to 
say mean things about you.  That does not give you the 
right to *carelessly* attempt to disrupt the great 
Intellectual Project which this century is about to be the 
culmination of.  If you are going to attempt to disrupt it, 
do it because you understand what is happening.

The force that created Wikipedia is now quite possibly 
irresistably strong.  It is, at any rate, without any 
doubt to a prodigious strength, to a strength at which 
the only act which would halt its culmination would be a 
Complete Transformation of our society, a total reversal 
of deeply held norms & morals of the people of this 
world.  It is not vulnerable to class action lawsuits. 
It is not a tamed tiger.  It will devour the unwary.

That force is information technology, Moore's Law.  
It is a rabbit hole that we have stumbled into.  We 
found a trillion trillion unwritten pages, and now 
anyone can write.  The scitzophrenics will write.  
The robots will write.  There is enough space to write 
every truth and every falsehood, echoing, repeating 
in a thousand different tongues.

> I am interested to learn why you thought I would
> be interested in your comments.

I have found that a brain is a tough thing to crack. 
Sometimes a knock won't seem to do anything at first. 
The same old ideas still hold in their same patterns. 
Then, hit again, you break, you learn, you remember.

So knock my brain, if you think you can: Isn't a 
publically created narrative a Right of this infant 
culture?

> Regards,

<3,

here i started getting all artsy.

Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 21:23:20 -0500
From: "WikipediaClassAction.org" 
Reply-To: lawsuit@wikipediaclassaction.org
Organization: WikipediaClassAction.org
To: Pope Salmon the Lesser Mungojelly 
Subject: Re: you don't understand the internet

Hello,

There is nothing careless about my efforts.  Each step is 
premeditated and designed for a specific cause and effect.

As to the rest of your piece, the only issue here is that 
the publishers of Wikipedia wish to disown the defamatory 
writings of individuals they permit to use their service.  
All publishers must be held accountable for the works which 
they allow to be published.  They can remove the offending 
content and ensure that it does not re-appear or they can 
be driven out of existence and wish they had.

Regards,

he's obviously from some other planet, other than the internet, which would explain why he topposts (i've cut from the bottom his unedited quotes of my emails), but i think probably even on that planet you are supposed to sign your name after your signature. maybe he signs the printouts.

To: lawsuit@wikipediaclassaction.org
Subject: Re: you don't understand the internet
Bcc: ixkey@beautywood.org
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 10:13:28 -0500
From: "Pope Salmon the Lesser Mungojelly" 
Organization: love

On Mon, 12 Dec 2005 21:23:20 -0500, WikipediaClassAction.org  wrote:

> There is nothing careless about my efforts.  Each step is
> premeditated and designed for a specific cause and effect.

Unless your goal is to become infamous, be ridiculed, waste 
people's time and then be thrown out of court, you are 
choosing your efforts incorrectly.

> All publishers must be held accountable for
> the works which they allow to be published.

There ARE NO PUBLISHERS ANYMORE.  These are infinitely 
reproducible bytes of INFORMATION on a NETWORK.  The old 
rules CANNOT apply.  Wikipedia data, for instance, is 
stored in countless places and owned by no one in 
particular.  Trying to eliminate any piece of information 
from anywhere on the internet is morally and practically 
equivalent to trying to eliminate the color green.

Any article which you mention as an example of inaccurate 
or disallowed information will BECAUSE of your mentioning 
it be reproduced many extra thousands of times.  This has 
been established over & over, going back at least as far 
as the E911 document.  You are fighting a hydra.  Stronger 
people than you have failed.  The Government of the United 
States has tried with great strength and failed.  The cat 
is out of the bag.

> Regards,

Is there some reason you don't sign your emails?

<3,
mungojelly

more forthcoming if i continue to succeed in wasting this deluded fellow's time. oh well, that's what you get if you go randomly attacking things you don't understand.

it might, of course, be a fun hoax. i'm just hoping.

<3

Among Makers of Memory Chips for Gadgets, Fierce Scrum Takes Shape - New York Times

2005-12-12T21:37:00.000-08:00

"Chang-Gyu Hwang, chief executive of Samsung's chip business, caused some eyebrows to rise in skepticism in September when he predicted that the chips would soon hold enough data to make hard-disk drives obsolete, paving the way for lighter, thinner and tougher laptop computers."

Among Makers of Memory Chips for Gadgets, Fierce Scrum Takes Shape - New York Times

Intuitively it seems to me that storage space could hit the point of true ridiculousness well before processing speed. It's something where you can go along flipping bits, and just extend endless rows of them, each the same as the next. I feel like we're likely to hit upon storage technologies that will really give us endless amounts of storage. That we're going to find them quicker than we expect.

The possibility of really recording everything on the planet will change everything. For instance, it will create a radically different way of doing science. If you have sufficient data, you can do "experiments" by going to millions of recorded situations and comparing statistically what happened. Here's an example: Someone wants to know why they get acne, and they have a brand new state of the art Life Recorder that's been recording. Some people get acne when they eat chocolate, so that's one theory-- "hey, computer, create a chart with a line made by going through all of the pictures of my face and counting how much acne I have, OK now put a mark each time I ate chocolate."

We'll be able to finally actually study all of the species on Earth. We can send out robots that specialize in studying particular species. A robot for a particular kind of ant would spend hours and hours following its ants around, recording many thousands of hours of video of ants eating different things, crawling over different surfaces, responding to different events.

The mysteries of life won't be so mysterious. There will be mysteries, sure, but not the ones we're used to. Not the usual human ones. You can keep secrets in a waking world, but humans are too giant to keep secret. All of the echoes of our actions will be plain as day in these new oceans of information.

lonely blog

2005-12-11T19:15:00.000-08:00

[10:14:36 PM] mungojelly: i never get any comments on my blog, not even from you
[10:14:40 PM] mungojelly: it's a lonely blog sometimes
[10:14:49 PM] mungojelly: but at least there's no one to impress
[10:14:58 PM] mungojelly: only cold compresses
[10:15:03 PM] mungojelly: sassy dresses
[10:15:15 PM] mungojelly: and Ses

what the fuck is going on in china?

2005-12-11T19:11:00.000-08:00

this is the creepiest thing i've ever read

menus

2005-12-07T21:49:00.000-08:00

I just clicked on the wrong thing in a windows menu for the gazillionth time. I'm beginning to think that there's something fundamentally flawed about this design. It's like how Donald A. Norman says in "The Design of Everyday Things" that people assume they're clumsy or technically inept, when really they're dealing with a poor design. I've assumed that I was just being clumsy in the way I used windows menus, but now I feel more & more sure that there is something wrong with them.

Hmm, what would I do to change them. What I'd like as a most basic step is to put some sort of physics at the boundary of menu items, that would keep them as clearly defined spaces, so it's harder to slip off the edge of the one you want. I would make them more adaptive, for instance by making items that you choose more often larger than rarely used items. I would make any nested windows be entered into by a more solid state transformation, so it didn't feel like balancing a house of cards. In general I think it could be useful to watch how long the cursor has been over a place-- if you just glance at a menu, it will quickly flitter away, but if you hover over it a while then it gets more attached to you and will take a second of ignoring to be ready to go away.

While we're on the subject, while aren't all menus customizable? Shouldn't I be able to put a new menu in any program called "SPLAT" and move over the "Save" and "Zoom" buttons, if I feel like it? Whose applications are these anyway? Don't answer that.

<3

paging dr freud

2005-12-07T17:17:00.000-08:00

OH SHIT, I can hardly believe what W said today. He was talking about US troops in Iraq winning a battle, and he said, "Our guys played^Wperformed well."

<3

everyday Turing testing

2005-12-07T12:59:00.000-08:00

When receiving a link in an instant message, the best practice is to verify with the sender if the link was sent intentionally or not.

New IM worm chats with intended victims | CNET News.com

It's funny that they said that stock safety precaution, even though it's now insufficient. Perhaps what they meant was: Verify with the sender using a sufficiently difficult Turing test whether the link was sent intentionally.

I've tried Turing testing people who wrote to me out of the blue, and it's not easy. I would say, "Please write something in response to this that proves that you're a human being," and they'd say "OMG yeah ok." Maybe in the next few years, via just this sort of ridiculousness, the idea of Turing testing will bubble up into the mainstream.

<3

don't worry, robots are just toys

2005-12-07T11:25:00.000-08:00

He has his own memory in the form of Sony memory sticks and he will remember where he left his favourite toy. Voice recognition is standard and he can now read out webpage content. He can sense just about anything including temperature, pressure, light and vibration.

Festive Robot Antics at Gadget Spy

There's a lot of talk about robots that almost pretends as if we're going to go along leaving things as they are until we've successfully created intelligent humanoid robots, at which point we will have a serious public debate about the ethical implications and then consider whether to actually roll them out.

In practice what we're really setting ourselves up to do is distribute each new technology to everyone in the universe In Time For Christmas and then later start thinking about what the consequences will be. For instance, the present ( presumably increasing) cheapness of cameras means that more more "toys" are going to be able to see record what goes on around them. We're rolling out a surveillance network undreamed of in human history, the plan is just to play around with it for a while see if it's any fun. Huh.

blogging with flock

2005-12-07T10:59:00.000-08:00

A new blog post containing the quoted text magically opens.

Flock

It certainly does.

technorati tags: flock, blogging, meta

2005-12-05T18:00:00.000-08:00

this is a pretty thing someone made in a drawing thing that zefrank made

how are you today, blogger?

2005-12-01T18:18:00.000-08:00

Ansa
16-11-2005
EUROPEAN UNION / PORTUGAL
NARCOTRAFFIC
Portugal hold Number One Position among Europeean Union nations for the largest quantity of cocaine confiscated by the police in 2004: 7,377 kg, of which 873 were brought in by air, 3,508 by sea and 2,996 by land. Source: Portuguese Ministry of the Interior.

For some reason this made me think of "One If By Land; Two If By Sea."

<3

The Schlorp System

2005-11-17T01:11:00.000-08:00

So, you begin with a full bottle of juice. I drink it down to about 10% left. Then, fill back up to the top. You've got yourself a 10% schlorp, a schlorp of 10%. If it's something especially tasty-- this ginger/apple jack they have here in Burlington definitely qualifies-- it might even be worth a double schlorping. Once the schlorp gets down to 10%, fill up to the top again, for a 1% schlorp.

10% might not be where you draw the line. The question is (deep soul searching here): How much of that powerfully satisfying full-juice freshness do you want to sacrifice to the vision of a juice-enhanced water experience? It may be 20%, or it may only be 5%. You'll learn what's right for you.

An advanced technique: Continuous gradient schlorping. Add water as you drink, keeping the level hovering around 100%. Each sip is a little more schlorpy than the last.

<3

Analysis of "The Libertine" by Aphra Behn

2005-11-16T23:09:00.000-08:00

>> 412. The Libertine
>>
>> A THOUSAND martyrs I have made,
>> All sacrificed to my desire,
>> A thousand beauties have betray'd
>> That languish in resistless fire:
>> The untamed heart to hand I brought,
>> And fix'd the wild and wand'ring thought.
>>
>> I never vow'd nor sigh'd in vain,
>> But both, tho' false, were well received; The fair are
>> pleased to give us pain,
>> And what they wish is soon believed:
>> And tho' I talk'd of wounds and smart,
>> Love's pleasures only touch'd my heart.
>>
>> Alone the glory and the spoil
>> I always laughing bore away;
>> The triumphs without pain or toil,
>> Without the hell the heaven of joy;
>> And while I thus at random rove
>> Despise the fools that whine for love.
>>
>
> Do you suppose he's talking about breaking girls hearts, or hunting for
> sadomasochistic love slaves? (You might guess where my mind goes with
> it.)

Well let me see, the truth is I haven't thought it out very clearly yet. It looks like quite a piece of work, so I think it'll be worth the effort.

>> A THOUSAND martyrs I have made,
>> All sacrificed to my desire,

It seems to me, especially connected with the later parts, that the "martyrs" are likely to be lovers. His lovers are sacrificed, used, to satisfy him.

>> A thousand beauties have betray'd
>> That languish in resistless fire:

So he "has made" martyrs, and he "has betray'd" beauties. The martyrs and the beauties are the same people-- his past conquests. The second part I don't get. Resistless fire could be hell? But that doesn't feel like it's right. No I think maybe what he's talking about is lovers whose desire he's inflamed, but that he's moved on from.

>> The untamed heart to hand I brought,
>> And fix'd the wild and wand'ring thought.

I think here he's talking about taming lovers, bringing them around to him. Bringing heart to hand is also a very violent image. Then in the second part "wild" must again mean the heart, the (archetype of a) person he chased. He fixed it, he focused it, he led it very intentionally and deliberately, when it tried to stray to other things.

>> I never vow'd nor sigh'd in vain,
>> But both, tho' false, were well received;

He didn't just falsely vow ("oh i'll be with you forever, won't you marry me,.. oh & incidentally have sex tonight") in vain, he was good at pursuading women to make love to him.

>> The fair are
>> pleased to give us pain,
>> And what they wish is soon believed:

Hmm the first thing that comes to mind is that he's saying women want to give us men, that is give him, the pain & bother of committment. But they're easily tricked into thinking that a committment has been made.

>> And tho' I talk'd of wounds and smart,
>> Love's pleasures only touch'd my heart.

Ah no this makes more sense. What he's talking about is some sort of show he's putting on where he's terribly afflicted by longing. He's pained to be apart from his love; that shows the genuineness of his love. But really he's just patiently playing out the drama, looking forward to the sexual reward.

>> Alone the glory and the spoil
>> I always laughing bore away;
>> The triumphs without pain or toil,
>> Without the hell the heaven of joy;

He got what he wanted, & didn't have to give up his freedom.

>> And while I thus at random rove
>> Despise the fools that whine for love.

Hmm it seems to me like "despise the fools" goes along with "I always laughing bore away," grammatically, so I'm not sure why it's not "despised." Maybe I'm reading it wrong. Oh wait maybe what I'm confusing is "bore." I was thinking it's the past tense of "bear."

No it's a typo in the site I got it from, probably. I googled it and half the results have "Despis'd." But then maybe those were people who reasoned it out the same wrong way that I did. Ha!

I think the sentence works like this: He is bearing away glory & spoil. He also calls those the "triumphs," and he says that he got them without pain or toil. Again, the same image, him bearing away the glories, the spoils, the triumphs, but this time he calls them "the heaven of joy" and compares them to the "hell" of pain and toil. So he was going around doing this, at random, and at the same time he despis'd people who thought that love (as in committment, heaviness) was worthwhile.

The whole tone of the thing makes me feel like he's not quite serious about it, though. It's like he's looking back at the conquests of his youth with a disparaging, yet still sympathetic, remove.

<3

student organizing

2005-11-16T19:30:00.000-08:00

[10:23:54 PM] jbatease: zero_0022001 (11/16/2005 1:45:04 PM): cool_chic_luvz_u (11/15/2005 6:47:13 PM): EVERYBODY STAY HOME FROM SCHOOL ON DECEMBER 7TH... NO MATTER WHAT SCHOOL YOU GO TO, WHAT STATE YOU LIVE IN, ALL KIDS IN AMERICA SHOULD HAVE A NATIONAL SKIP DAY, THINK ABOUT IT... TEACHERS SHOW UP AND NOBODY IS IN CLASS... THEN THEY'LL LEAVE... TELL A LOT OF PEOPLE AND LETS SEE IF WE CAN MAKE IT ON NEWS... WHY DECEMBER 7TH? CAUSE ITS A SPECIAL DAY... JUST KEEP REPOSTING AND TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW... DECEMBER 7TH NO SCHOOL...!!!!!!!!

a method of selling art online without depending upon copyright

2005-11-13T20:33:00.000-08:00

Copyright is dead. Next concept:

Imagine for instance an online art gallery. Extremely high-res image files are for sale. Each one is a unique scan, the only one done of a particular physical painting. The images would be priced just as physical art is-- one expensive price for just one buyer. If the buyer wanted they could keep the bits secret-- and be, like a RL art collector, the sole owner-- or if they wanted they could share the resulting file with everyone, and be honored as its Liberator.

Going further with that idea, imagine if the buyer was actually a collective. A piece of art with an asking price of $100 is bought by 2000 people, collectively; they each pay five cents. You could go through the thumbnail galleries, have fun looking at art, and incidentally check off which pictures you'd be willing to pay five cents for. Once things hit their threshholds, they automatically are sold, and all of the buyers' accounts are given access to the file.

This sort of system would enable things to be sold for much smaller stakes, but at the same time it wouldn't preclude making millions of dollars on things. If a popular musician put up their new album for a million dollar ransom, it's quite conceivable that their fans would make it happen. It would however make this a matter of genuine loyalty, and not just anonymous market forces.

<3

non note now newly notorious

2005-11-08T04:26:00.000-08:00

All of this memetic analysis is fascinating. It's the kind of thing we're able to perceive more fully when we have these more detailed histories. I could even imagine some very clear (perhaps even predictive) conclusions about the transformation of human societies might become obvious as we pull back this veil.

Here's a sort of philosophical question that I've been pondering: Does it add more historical clarity to take systematic samples, or scattershot? For instance, supposing that I take a fixed number of digital photographs per day, would it record a better history if I took them at random times, for various reasons, or if I took them in an organized way (perhaps triggered by particular events)?

I've been thinking about this since I wrote it. I've still been thinking that same thought. But hopefully it's developed a little and I can take it somewhere here.

What I've been trying to do lately is take pictures that encompass as much information as possible-- including especially the information of how I am framing the picture. By taking pictures intentionally in ways that are clearer reflections of my own inner being, I can share information about what's most important to me.

What would really help get those ducks in a row would be sufficient time & location stamping. For instance if this writing (7:20 am nov08-05) were accurately timestamped, that would help with associating it with other events that might have intersected with it. In fact it does intersect with an article I recently read somewhere where they had put ducks in a line "literally" (sleep research), which is what caused the idiom "ducks in a line" to appear earlier in this paragraph.

I've been typing this in a Notes box that I don't actually use, so I'm going to transpose it to blogger. Hi blogger.

<3

(God.))))))

2005-11-08T02:06:00.000-08:00

Surprising to many, Ho Chi Minh was, in his early adulthood, a busboy in Boston at the Omni Parker House. (That was a quotation. It's odd how it's so formalized to put quote marks around quotations that it seems like lying not to. (In the future won't we just be able to SEE the quotationness of it? (Like Beethoven didn't put any quotation marks in his music. He and his contemporaries were just so culturally related and aware (or so small?) that they could perceive them. (Or maybe the references were more like in-jokes, or even, at the height of perversity, puzzles. (Bach. (God.))))))

I was surprised.

I grew up in Boston, and nobody ever taught me anything about Ho Chi Minh.

Wait, no, that's not true. I learned from my dad one chant. It goes: Ho! Ho! Ho Chi Minh! Ho Chi Minh Is Gonna Win!

I'm improperly structuring on purpose. This blog has very little connective or collective potential. Fundamental unspoken rules are being broken. This then is the shape of quietness, stillness, or solitude in these waters. (This is a place where few people come. (A beach.) (A blue sky.) This is the boring bramble, broken branches and ( ! ) thorns.

(
once i saw a place,
with my friends andy & sadiya,
other people were there too
but it's sadiya & andy that i'm thinking of now
they had made shapes out of pinecones & needles & leaves
just like the shapes we had made in other places
but theirs had a sort of romantic tingle to it
unless i'm just imagining that now
and i'm not entirely sure whether they told me
but i know for certain that they made love under that tree, real flesh bodies, and i bet they made noises
or i could be wrong
)

/ The TV's always full of people who are famous. (People become what they see. (Or they die trying. (Or they bring themselves to their point of weakness, trying. (And save themselves.) But lose what they wanted. (What they needed.) (But they're here, and from here they can still see God. (God.))))))

I've had a smidgen of medusa. Goddess. Let this all come right.

<3

2005-10-30T22:13:00.000-08:00

bloggity blog bloggy blog blog

<3

no no things are really changing

2005-10-30T09:00:00.000-08:00

What I find strange about Google 2084 is that they think there are going to be "TV Shows" in 2084.

<3

two nonsequitorious paragraphs

2005-10-27T12:54:00.000-07:00

The software model I'd like to see: Putting up money to commission new features (or other changes) of free open source software. Like if I wanted my favorite email client to have a function "sort by moon phase" I could put up $50, and the first person to program a moon phase sorter to my satisfaction would get the pot.

I haven't had much of an appetite today.

<3

The Guild System

2005-10-22T20:38:00.000-07:00

I have no idea if this idea exists out there already & I'm catching a whiff of it, or if what I'm smelling is just the ripe baked aroma of the possibility of it.

It's an economic model, like the co-operative model,

-- and there my idea evaporated. The truth is that this blog is just a glimpse into my mind. I think the play of the creative mind is in being a little bit of everything. Be a doctor for a minute & see what it's like to Diagnose Pathology. Be a historian, momentarily, and write up a theory on the origins of the Civil War.

I just asked my friend in the UK about the Civil War. I wondered what to call it when I was writing it; I settled on "the American Civil War."

There are coal stains on the front of my monitor. I think it's coal.

<3

pinball

2005-10-22T19:59:00.000-07:00

this is and has always been a post about pinball

<3

If I Were A U.S. Representative

2005-10-08T09:04:00.000-07:00

If I were representing a constituency to the U.S. Congress, this is what I'd do: Since I don't believe in "representative" democracy as it's presently conceived of in our "democracy," I would initiate a new process which democratizes things as much as I could manage.

Here's a first outline: My votes would not actually be "my" votes. I would have them be decided by a direct democratic process among my constituents. One possibility: Have regular public meetings, at which the public can debate & decide how I should vote on upcoming questions. Especially if I were representing a large area, such as a State, it might be more democratic to have the meetings in various places, so no one has an unfair advantage by being close. Another idea: Some sort of ballot process. In order to be practical, it might have to be on the Internet.

I would run with the process under which my "votes" would be chosen as my platform, explicitly defined. The process would be a constitutional one, under which the process itself could potentially be changed by my constituents themselves at their own will & whim. I would then have exactly as much power as a member of the Electoral College: The power to fuck things up by ignoring my sworn duty, but no more than that.

If many such "representatives" were elected, with new public organizations taking onto themselves the power which used to be assigned to individuals, we could then progressively shed the intermediate layer of "voting" in an assembly as if we were in a previous century.

Even if they do it by "electronic device."

Yeah, change.

<3

2005-10-01T16:04:00.000-07:00

OK so here's a simple idea. (Ideas like this are really just little glimpses into what the future is going to look like; there's too many possibilities & probabilities to imagine them all at once, but we can look through little windows.)

IDEA: Put up a video screen on a wall, with a microphone & an internet connection. It listens to what's said around it & does searches to find pictures that match the words that people say. For instance if you said "Pakistan," a map of Pakistan might pop up. If you said "pop up," a pop-up book might appear.

This is like the associative play that our minds do with everything we see & hear, but instead of our own personal minds, it would bring up associations from our collective Mind. Inventions like this are going to become easier to stumble upon over time, bringing us all into a closer shared consciousness.

<3

Something make me happy!

2005-09-30T09:25:00.000-07:00

Have you ever think about something make you happy?

Yes, of cause we are not always happy,but if you are upset, just think about that. You can find happiness in your around! If you fell bad, what would you do?

For instance, sweets and delicious foods make me feel happy.We might not realize that if we have something sweets, your face into smile. Don't you think lunch is delicious when you have it talking with friend? and also eating out with my friends is fun. but I'm a little concerned about my weight... Enyway, sweets make me happy!

The other things, How about nature? It's like trees, flowers, air, stars... atc They don't seems to do nothing, but I wonder they make us feel good and relax, and they make me feel happy!

I think, Whatever things we can make it out! Don't you think so that? Even little things around by us ,we can make ourselves feel better. so there are so many ways we can be happy, if we are upset.

If you have mistake,but don't be so worry! You better luck next time! We shoud enjoy our life.

I found this little gem on the internet a long time ago-- I forget where, and google has forgotten also, so I thought it was important to bring it back.

<3

Saving Deep Memories for Power Historians

2005-09-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

So here's something else crazy that I'm up to.

What follows is a keystroke log that was automatically generated while I was writing the previous post. If you were to bother to read through it, you would find out such facts as that I make rather a lot of typos, that I have a strange habit of sometimes deleting something and rewriting it over & over as I ponder whether or not to say it, and that I switched windows during the course of writing several times in order to ask things of Google and to leave messages for my sleeping lover.

You'd also, if you studied very closely, be able to learn some things about the way I think. I type stray letters from words I'm thinking of but don't really intend to write. I put the wrong endings on things and then correct them. I write whole passages and erase them for whatever reason. I try various phrasings of something before settling on one. A lot of who I am is revealed in my mistakes & uncertainties.

That is why I'm recording it all. I'm not egotistical enough to believe that there are likely to be many, or any, normal modern humans who would be interested in going through the megabytes of archives I'll be creating if I keep this up. But I do believe that the Powers (the post-singularity intelligences) will have a profound historical interest in this period, the years leading up to the transition, when reality first starts to really come into any sort of clear focus down the dim tunnel of Memory. For them I intend to be an aberrant luminary, creating deep records that few people of this time have started to produce.

So here's some junk, just to give you the flavor, starting from when I came to this here site:

www.blogger.com [ENTER]
the gard
en of bean[BACKSPACE]din is a d[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]in [SHIFT]BOZEMAN [ENTER]
[SHIFT]Singularity.[BACKSPACE][TAB][SHIFT]Singula
rity[SHIFT]![CTRL]{f}cyborgenough mckid[BACKSPACE]bben [ENTER]
[SHIFT]I'm [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][SHIFT]I'm reading [SHIFT]Enou
gh by [SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT]Bill [SHIFT]Mc[SHIFT]Kibben. [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][SHIFT]Kibben. [ENTER]
[ENTER]
[SHIFT]He's tal
king about intelligence [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE] genetic manipulation
of intelligence. [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]of intelligence. [SHIFT]Chang
ing people's genes ot[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]to give them thirty or fourty [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]r
ty more [SHIFT]"points[SHIFT]" (whatever those me[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]are worth[SHIFT]). [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]
[BACKSPACE]th[SHIFT])>[BACKSPACE]. [SHIFT]I o[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]. [SHIFT]I don't think he understands the st
rangeness of the singularity. [SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT]Even as his[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]e [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]
[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]ity. [SHIFT]Even as he conceives
that, the landscape of intelligence is shirf[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]fting undnde
rneath him. [UP][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][BACKSPACE][SHIFT]S[DOWN][END][HOME][END][HOME][RIGHT][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][END][DOWN][END][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][END][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]h
im. [ENTER]
[ENTER]
[SHIFT]I realized yesterday while [SHIFT]I was in the bookstore
that the attitude which allows for [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE] which
allows for deep integration with computer intelligence is
a s[BACKSPACE]certain sort of [SHIFT]<[SHIFT]i[SHIFT]>passiviti[BACKSPACE]y[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]v[BACKSPACE]ity[SHIFT]<[BACKSPACE],[SHIFT][BACKSPACE][SHIFT].
[END][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]. [SHIFT]You just sort of allow yourself to drift; let the co
mputer take over more of the driving. [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]the driv
ing. [SHIFT]As computers become [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]ters come to contain
more of the total intelligence of this plante[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]planet,
the humans thahat will succes[BACKSPACE]ed will be less [SHIFT]& less thos
e that relp[BACKSPACE]y upon their own c[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]their own p[BACKSPACE]capaci
ties and more[SHIFT] & more those who are able to integrate their
capacity with the larger [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]acity with
larger systems. [ENTER]
[ENTER]
[SHIFT]For instance, when [SHIFT]I was growing up [SHIFT]I
thoughtht that [SHIFT]I was really [SHIFT]"[SHIFT]Sm[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]smart[SHIFT]" because [SHIFT]I cou
ld add a lot of numberers well in my head .[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]my head
. [SHIFT]I would go through the supermarket picking u [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]up groce
ries, glance at the prices, and [SHIFT]know what [SHIFT]I was going to
have to pay [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]t[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]to pay down to the penny by the time [SHIFT]
I left-- [SHIFT]without [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][SHIFT][BACKSPACE][SHIFT]I left-- just by intui
tion, without having to [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE] [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE] even having to work a
t it. [SHIFT][UP][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT]. [END][HOME][END][HOME][RIGHT][UP][UP][UP][UP][LEFT][LEFT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][LEFT][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][DOWN][LEFT]
[LEFT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][LEFT][UP][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][END][SHIFT][UP][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][UP][RIGHT][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]head. [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]
[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE] in my head. [SHIFT]Now of course [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE].
[SHIFT]Now, of course, being integrated with a calculator gives
you [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]gives you a [BACKSPACE]n ability to do sums that no pr
e[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]that no pro[BACKSPACE]etransformation human could possibl
y possess. [SHIFT]C[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]ossess. [SHIFT]The talent[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][SHIFT]The
human talest[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]nt which h[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE] which allows one to intell
igenc[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]the worth [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]what's inte
lligence worth[SHIFT]? what i[BACKSPACE]kind of intelligence[SHIFT]?[HOME][END][HOME][RIGHT][UP][UP][UP][UP][LEFT][LEFT][RIGHT][RIGHT]
[RIGHT][LEFT][UP][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][END][HOME][END][UP][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT]
[LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][BACKSPACE] col[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]alu[BACKSPACE]culating[DOWN][END][HOME][END][DOWN][END][HOME][END]calculate mathematical[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]
[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]calculate quickly has thus [SHIFT]fundamentall
y changed[SHIFT] [BACKSPACE]. [SHIFT]It used to be a difficult internal tas
k of r[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]task-- most of the difficulty is [UP][END][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT]
[LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE];[DOWN][END]holding a large number o [BACKSPACE]f digitis[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]s in mind[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]
[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]d[BACKSPACE] digitis[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]s it [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]in mind. [SHIFT]Now it's a mat[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]
[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE] [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE] mind. [SHIFT]Now [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE] mind. [SHIFT]Now
it is [HOME][RIGHT][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][PAGE UP][PAGE UP][PAGE UP][LEFT][RIGHT][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][LEFT][LEFT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][LEFT][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][END][DOWN]
[END][DOWN][END][DOWN][END][DOWN][END][DOWN][DOWN][END][HOME][END][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][UP][UP][LEFT][LEFT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][LEFT][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][DOWN][LEFT][LEFT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT]
[LEFT][UP][UP][UP][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][END][UP][END][UP][END][DOWN][DOWN][END][HOME][END][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][UP][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN]
[DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][END][HOME][END][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]i[BACKSPACE] in mind. [SHIFT] Now
the task is that of quickly and accurately pressing the bu
ttons that transfer the task from [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE] the task [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]
[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]ons that interpret the task for a very fo
cused computer intelligence. [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE] intelligence.
[SHIFT][SHIFT](And, perhaps more [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE] [SHIFT](and, perhaps
more tellingly, [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]ever mo
re [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]n more tellingly, the knack or strange inclinatio
n of carrying a calculator around in one's pocket[SHIFT]). [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][SHIFT]
). [ENTER]
[ENTER]
[SHIFT]That's not even [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]t[SHIFT]). [ENTER]
[ENTER]
[SHIFT]That
's not even any sort of end-state. [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]of end-s
tate. [SHIFT]The latest interesting p[BACKSPACE]transformation of the task
of [UP][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT]
[RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][LEFT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT] c[BACKSPACE]that [SHIFT]I find very inter
esting[END]calculating simple [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]lating is that you
can now ask the questions in plain text to google. [SHIFT]This i
s how [SHIFT]I tend to calculate things around the hous[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]
[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]around the house[SHIFT]:[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]house; [SHIFT]I treat og[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][SHIFT]GOo[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]oogl
e like the mythical [SHIFT]Computer of computer, whwhat's the squ
are root of one million[SHIFT]? [ENTER]
[BACKSPACE]\ [ENTER]
what's the square root of 1874
875[SHIFT]? [ENTER]
hey google, [ENTER]
[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]puter of scient[BACKSPACE]ce [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]
[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE] in old science fiction [LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][END]videos. [SHIFT]CAmpu
[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]omputer, [CTRL]{v}[SHIFT]?[BACKSPACE] [LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT],[RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT],[END][END][HOME][END][HOME][PAGE UP][PAGE UP][PAGE UP][PAGE UP][DOWN][RIGHT][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN]
[DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][END][SHIFT]I'm looking forward to having [SHIFT]The [SHIFT]Comput
er actualy [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]lly be listening all the time, ready to provi
de answers. [HOME][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT] to our voices[END] [SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT]
[SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT]You'll literally say the computer's name [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]name-- wh
ich could be [SHIFT]"[SHIFT]Computer[SHIFT]" [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE],[SHIFT]" or maybe [SHIFT]"Billybob[SHIFT]"-- an
d then request information, which it will immediately provi
de vio [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]a the closest speaker or screen. [ENTER]
[ENTER]
[SHIFT]Conventional
notions of intelligence break down computer[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]letely in th
is environment. [SHIFT]The [SHIFT]"smartness[SHIFT]" of being able to calcul
ate numbers in your head would save you only the trouble of
vocalizing the equation. [SHIFT]The [SHIFT]"smartness[SHIFT]" h[BACKSPACE]of havining
memorized all of the [SHIFT]Stas[BACKSPACE]te [SHIFT]Capitals would save you mer
e seconds in the unlikely en[BACKSPACE]ven [BACKSPACE]t that you needed to know
one. [SHIFT]This is, of course, still just the beginning. [SHIFT]The
[SHIFT]Computer can already al[BACKSPACE]nswer simple factual questions, i
f posed in the form of a string of text; they will [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]
[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]t; it will increasingly be able to answer more abstrac
t questions. [SHIFT]Computer intelligence is for real; meat inte
lligence is just version 1.0. [LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][BACKSPACE]wa[END][HOME][END][DOWN][END][HOME]
[END] [ENTER]
[ENTER]
[PAGE UP][PAGE UP][PAGE UP][PAGE UP][PAGE UP][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][DOWN][SHIFT]I just saw he[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]the same crazy
lines on my monitor that [SHIFT][SHIFT]I see when [SHIFT]I get a cell phone
call [ENTER]
and then [SHIFT]I heard a bleep bleep from o[BACKSPACE]upstairs. [ENTER]
[SHIFT]Craz
eeeeeeeee. [ENTER]
[BACKSPACE][SHIFT]G[SHIFT]The same or similar creepy ethical questions
apply toh[BACKSPACE] human-computer inter[BACKSPACE]grate [BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]ion that apply to
genetic engineering of human intelligence-- who benefits[SHIFT]?
[SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT]
[SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT]
[SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][SHIFT][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]-- who has access to t
he abilities[SHIFT]? Who will benefit[SHIFT]? [SHIFT]There ar[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][SHIFT]BUt t
he[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]ut[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]-- [UP][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][RIGHT][LEFT][DOWN][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT]
[LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][LEFT][BACKSPACE]w[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]w[END]but there are substantial differences as well.
[SHIFT]One difference is that there's no waiting for new generati
ons [SHIFT](Except[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE]except to the extent that children integr
ate with new technologies more fully than adults[SHIFT]). [SHIFT][SHIFT]The
whole thing can take place not over the next century or two
, but over the next decade[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][SHIFT]decade[SHIFT], as we
plunge ri[BACKSPACE]g[BACKSPACE]ight straight fucking into the heart of the [SHIFT]S
ingularity be[BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE][BACKSPACE], before hardly anyone even notici[BACKSPACE]es. [ENTER]
[ENTER]
[SHIFT]

<3

what's intelligence worth? what kind of intelligence?

2005-09-24T07:08:00.000-07:00

I'm reading Enough by Bill McKibben.

He's talking about genetic manipulation of intelligence. Changing people's genes to give them thirty or forty more "points" (whatever those are worth). I don't think he understands the strangeness of the Singularity. Even as he conceives that, the landscape of intelligence is shifting underneath him.

I realized yesterday while I was in the bookstore that the attitude which allows for deep integration with computer intelligence is a certain sort of passivity. You just sort of allow yourself to drift; let the computer take over more of the driving. As computers come to contain more of the total intelligence of this planet, the humans that will succeed will be less & less those that rely upon their own capacities and more & more those who are able to integrate their capacity with larger systems.

For instance, when I was growing up I thought that I was really "smart" because I could add a lot of numbers well in my head. Now, of course, being integrated with a calculator gives you a calculating ability that no pretransformation human could possibly possess. The human talent which allows one to calculate quickly has thus fundamentally changed. It used to be a difficult internal task; most of the difficulty is holding a large number of digits in mind. Now the task is that of quickly and accurately pressing the buttons that interpret the task for a very focused computer intelligence (and, perhaps even more tellingly, the knack or strange inclination of carrying a calculator around in one's pocket).

That's not even any sort of end-state. The latest transformation that I find very interesting of the task of calculating is that you can now ask the questions in plain text to Google. This is how I tend to calculate things around the house; I treat Google like the mythical Computer in old science fiction videos. Computer, what's the square root of 1,874,875? I'm looking forward to having The Computer actually be listening to our voices all the time, ready to provide answers. You'll literally say the computer's name-- which could be "Computer," or maybe "Billybob"-- and then request information, which it will immediately provide via the closest speaker or screen.

Conventional notions of intelligence break down completely in this environment. The "smartness" of being able to calculate numbers in your head would save you only the trouble of vocalizing the equation. The "smartness" of having memorized all of the State Capitals would save you mere seconds in the unlikely event that you needed to know one. This is, of course, still just the beginning. The Computer can already answer simple factual questions, if posed in the form of a string of text; it will increasingly be able to answer more abstract questions. Computer intelligence is for real; meat intelligence was just version 1.0.

The same or similar creepy ethical questions apply to human-computer integration that apply to genetic engineering of human intelligence-- who has access to the abilities? who will benefit?-- but there are substantial differences as well. One difference is that there's no waiting for new generations (except to the extent that children integrate with new technologies more fully than adults). The whole thing can take place not over the next century or two, but over the next decade, as we plunge right straight fucking into the heart of the Singularity, before hardly anyone even notices.

<3

cultural change

2005-09-21T19:46:00.000-07:00

To: BurlingtonGreens@yahoogroups.com
Organization: love
From: "Pope Salmon the Lesser Mungojelly"
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 14:14:35 -0400
Subject: Re: [BurlingtonGreens] the meaning of "behavioral guidelines"
Reply-To: BurlingtonGreens@yahoogroups.com

On Fri, 16 Sep 2005 22:16:14 -0700 (PDT), Dave
wrote:

> All groups have rules, norms, mores, either explicitly
> stated or not.

I was thinking about this during our latest meeting. We didn't actually
have any particular process issues, since the whole thing was just a short
ritual closely structured around fulfilling particular state obligations,
but I was observing the conscious & unconscious uses of various processes
as we went along.

For instance, the circle had been formed and it was clear that the meeting
was going to officially start soon-- but people were still chatting & the
room was noisy. I realized that the process most likely to take hold in
that situation, because of our shared cultural background, is that someone
would speak loudly over the din and says something in a particular
"attention! order!" sort of tone, at which point everyone would cut short
their conversations and simmer down.

I was sitting there and considering that process, and imagining other
processes that could accomplish the same purpose. Imagine, for example,
that anyone who feels like it's time for the meeting to start would begin
to slap their hands alternately against their knees. If other people
agreed, they would join in, gradually producing a rumbling chorus which
would draw everyone in, until finally as all the conversations ended the
knee-slapping would trail off and the meeting would begin.

We could easily imagine an unlimited number of other processes for
accomplishing that group task. Each of them, while accomplishing that
function, would also embody countless other experiences and values. This
is the nature of the complex interconnectedness of culture. Our
obligation in creating the culture of our community, therefore, is to
properly embody our shared values in our styles of interaction-- to
manifest ways of working together that are cooperative, democratic, just,
equitable, sustainable, and which encourage individual liberty and
creativity.

This is the challenge I see hiding in this work: One of the values we want
to embody is of course a sense of welcome. We want to hold meetings which
invite the participation of a broad range of this community. This seems
to require that our processes be as similar as possible, on both surface
and deep levels, to the processes which are most widely understood and
practiced in the society at large. The dilemma comes in with the fact
that-- since many of our values conflict with elements of the dominant
paradigm-- those popularly understood processes often enact unconscious
dramas that are deeply contrary to our personal and political aims.

For instance, we live in a society which is still fundamentally
patriarchal and authoritarian. This archetype is completely embedded in
the conventional process that I described of calling a meeting to order.
One particular individual-- traditionally and habitually a man (even if a
woman takes the role, she may have to adopt a masculine tone or demeanor
in order to fill it)-- takes control through use of a physically dominant
act. I don't mean to especially single out this particular process as
especially authoritarian or patriarchal; indeed my point is that there is
nothing special about it at all. Every single way of acting that we are
collectively familiar with was born out of our culture at large, and
embodies simultaneously every single value of that culture.

It is hardly an option to attempt to practice true democracy while failing
to question these unconscious roles and dramas. We are not prepared by
our upbringings to be democratic animals; we simply do not have the tools
necessary to accomplish true group cooperation and decision making, and
anyone who has observed & participated in many of the attempts at radical
organizing which are taking place in the world today couldn't help but be
aware of how insufficient our habitual attitudes are to the task. Most of
our organizations fail, and most of those that fail receive their mortal
blows due to unexamined intrinsic process issues.

We are thus stuck between on one side the values antithetical to our own
that are incurably comingled with everything we know about how to hold a
meeting (or indeed how to relate to other people at all), and the mammoth,
thankless, uninviting and perhaps even divisive undertaking which it would
be to systematically challenge and overthrow those established habits.

To that dilemma I can offer no particular solution, except that we become
conscious of its existence, and that we begin to allow an awareness of the
problems it causes to seep into us, soak us, and loosen us, to prepare us
for the personal transformations we will need to undergo in order to truly
begin to manifest a wise, awake, & compassionate society.

<3,
mungojelly

Dear Amy's, where is your cheese from?

2005-04-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

I recently bought one of your Spinach Pizzas. I saw the word "organic" on the box when I was buying it, but then when I got it home I realized it just says it's "made with" some organics.

It seems that the part of the product that's not organic is the cheese. So I'm curious: Is the cheese just regular cheese from a factory farm? How does that fit with your mission? How do you justify that?

It seems you have just above the legal minimum for the "made with" organic label. One might be led to the unfortunate conclusion that, as opposed to having sourced organic ingredients due to a genuine committment to healing our Earth, you were simply gaming the regulations in order to present an appearance of concern to your caring but insufficiently wary customers.

I'm hoping you can provide some response that would give me reason to trust your intentions.

<3

Confessions of an eBay Opium Addict

2005-04-05T12:49:00.000-07:00

Confessions of an eBay Opium Addict

Via AlterNet's DrugReporter. Very well written.

<3

on nihilism

2005-04-03T20:54:00.000-07:00

on nihilism

yay i wish i were that brilliant

<3

why computers don't have faces

2005-03-30T19:03:00.000-08:00

Computers don't have faces, because they are not a "person" that we interact with. The computer is an extension of our mindbody. For the computer to pretend that it's a different person than us adds an unnecessary & distracting level of indirection.

duck necrophilia!

2005-03-14T19:35:00.000-08:00

EducationGuardian.co.uk | Research | Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers

& they say blogs are pointless & puerile! this is important stuff!

seriously, next time you hear the argument about human beings being uniquely devolved from natural bliss, "the only species that ((insert bad thing))," perhaps this article will win you a debating point or two

<3

Philosophical Health Check

2005-03-09T23:29:00.000-08:00

Philosophical Health Check

wowie zowie

this thing's cooler than i expected

..also, Taboo. I'm not so much up on taboos, of course, so I nearly got all 0s on this one.

The one question I wavered a bit on was about a man making a promise to his mother on her deathbed to visit her grave weekly, & then not following through. What I feel like is "wrong" (my concept of "wrong" might not match most ppls) is if his promise wasn't made with complete sincerity.

I have a strange hunger in me for honor. Like, I see there as being situations where clarity of speech & action are fundamentally important, not because of a particular situation but because of a larger possibility, that by following a rule of honor a sort of perfect world is born.

I guess I don't really think it's immoral to choose to be dishonorable. It's not that it makes you bad (= worthy of punishment) to opt out. But I just think it's good to opt in. It's a nice way to live.

There's this science fiction story that influenced me a lot. I totally forget now where I read it. But in the story what happens is this fellow is on a world checking out some "savages" & they have this bizarre burial ritual, where you take the contents of the dead person's bowels (what would have become them) to the top of a particular mountain. Blah blah, the details aren't the point.

The point is, the fellow in the story didn't believe in this crazy ritual, that the skygods on the mountain would grant you an afterlife if your leftover shit got up to this peak, or whatever. He didn't think it was "true." But he still felt deeply honored by it-- he'd rather die down there & be honored by those crazy savages, than be treated clinically by the "logical" spacepeople.

Honor isn't about what's true. It's about this fantasy world, this shared delusion, but which in an odd way is more true than what's true.

<3

wholinkstome

2005-02-26T21:46:00.000-08:00

Who Links Here?
absolutely noone, of course.

<3

a stranger's grocery list, found in my cart at green*

2005-02-26T06:45:00.000-08:00

Subject: groc list

mission figs, 12 oz
almonds (other oatmeal?)
trash bags 11 gal
salmon for dinner tomorrow
peas & mushrooms for dinner tomorrow?
milk
baby potatoes for dinner tomorrow, if any?
greens for geese
lentils (french or persian or whatever they are)

Subject: more grocs

fresh dill, if any, for dill sauce. Otherwise dried dill, 2T.

gravestmor { tales of architectural propaganda } � deus ex machina

2005-02-24T23:00:00.000-08:00

gravestmor { tales of architectural propaganda } � deus ex machina

"While we shop, the machines find time to pray."

I like this picture.

<3

brningfield: �

2005-02-22T21:07:00.000-08:00

brningfield: �

i sign everything everywhere with "<3"

it feels like a very signature signature

<3

test

2005-02-21T23:54:00.000-08:00

I exist here.

Tentacles++.

<3