Re: virus: Virian Tarot

zaimoni@ksu.edu
Mon, 30 Sep 1996 23:36:59 -0500 (CDT)


On Mon, 30 Sep 1996, Chelstad, Erik wrote:

>
> Perhaps the purpose of the virian tarot cards would be
> to act as a sort of meme oriented Rorschach test to
> divine (yes, I used that word to be difficult) what memes
> we ourselves have been infected by.
>
> Not having done my research on the tarot system yet,
> I give an example of a trio (I'm sure it's much more than
> this, but for argument's sake...) Art-Degeneration-Civilization.
> One meme would ask it's host to believe that Art is bringing about
> the Degeneration of Civilization, whereas it's anti-meme would
> have the host thinking Civilization is Degenerating Art.
>
> Many other memes might also be detected from such a combination.
>
> Does this do justice to the brain-in-the-black-box idea, where random
> inputs help define the contents of the processor?
>
> eEc

It's a good start, but doesn't really go far enough. However [in
psychological terms], this is precisely the point: defining the processor
contents is important, because most people do NOT have a fully integrated
memory. This sort of device is useful in getting at the inaccessible part.

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/ Kenneth Boyd
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