Re: virus: Response to Zander

zaimoni@ksu.edu
Sun, 15 Dec 1996 13:27:02 -0600 (CST)


On Thu, 12 Dec 1996, Alexander Williams wrote:

> Richard Brodie wrote:
> >
> > Zander wrote:

[CLIP]

> > I'm actually working on becoming MORE obnoxious; my tendency is to be
> > nice.
>
> Here's a hint: Most on /this/ list seem to respond far better to nice,
> pleasant and erudite persuasion.

Most on this list may respond far better to nice, pleasant, erudite
persuasion--that is, *ineffective* persuasion.

It is my impression that Brodie is going for results, not fluff. This
requires a careful balancing act, since memetic schemata for politeness are
designed to *prevent* communication, including the subform persuasion,
and usually thoroughly infect hosts to elicit exotoxic reactions versus
actually communicating "too directly". Of course, if the content is
inherently offensive [such as blackmail], there is little need for
schemata to identify this; it when the content is inoffensive [such as
Brodie's message] that the politeness schemata start interfering.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/ Towards the conversion of data into information....
/
/ Kenneth Boyd
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////