Re: virus: The experiment is over
Bob Seals (bseal90@entergy.com)
Mon, 16 Feb 1998 15:32:05 -0600
Richard Brodie wrote:
>
> For years, now, I've looked to this list as a refuge from the irrationality
> and mysticism of the memes pervading world society; as a place where people
> could go to meet others with the discernment and commitment to reality to
> choose to live life uninfected by cultural viruses. We've even made a few
> steps in the direction of creating a new designer virus, one that has the
> potential to spread this life-freeing philosophy to the rest of the world.
>
> I can't tell you how disappointed I am with all of you.
>
> I have been running an experiment for the last several months. Under an
> assumed name (because like it or not, there is too much attention and
> credibility paid to my own name to make this possible), I have been sending
> the most irrational, nonsensical posts I could muster, shrouding them in the
> Trojan horse of coherent-sounding jargon. I've pushed the envelope farther
> and farther, posting off-topic gibberish, responding to and quoting
> nonexistent contributions from others, deliberately misunderstanding in the
> most extreme way the simplest writings of fellow memebers. I have been
> writing this under the assumed name of Brett Lane Robertson.
>
> Now what did I expect would be the results of this experiment? Naturally, I
> expected to be caught right away! I never thought I would go on indefinitely
> and, like Hitler, seem to GROW in popularity the more extreme I became and
> the more times I repeated the nonsense. Silly me. I forgot a basic tenet of
> memetics.
>
> But wasn't there ANYONE on the list with the discernment to see my posts for
> what they were? It's almost as if the truth were so unimportant (contrasted
> with blithely letting your buttons be pushed by my messages) that no one
> here was conscious enough to poke through the curtains and find the man
> behind the wizard. I almost think that, even after revealing myself, I could
> continue posting as Brett, making myself even more irrational and
> nonsensical and, even though you all now know the truth, it wouldn't make a
> bit of difference.
>
> In fact, I think it might make a good second experiment. Very well then.
> I'll keep on posting as Brett for awhile. You all know the score now.
>
> Even in this group of enlightened minds, will it make a difference?
>
> Richard Brodie richard@brodietech.com http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie
> Author, "Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme"
> http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/votm.htm
> Visit Meme Central! http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/meme.htm
Richard has a point,
This has been a test. Had this been an actual conversation you would
have been directed to the nearest POD bay door, HAL. I really don't
care
I have my own agenda and interests. I speak for myself and not others,
I do have a Discerning mind, I just don't pay attention to bright lights
and all the doo-dads that generate mimd numbing inertia. Another
salesman bites the dust. You can so intellectualize your life you miss
it. You have to live it, not vicariously from an armchair via eamil and
the net. What is needed are the nuts and bolts to utilize "Memetics"
that is applicable to real world results. Theory can only go so far
if a budding science is not replicable in the field then it is only a
pipe dream. A nice "if". What ifs(Yes they do have a life of their
own,encapsulated little virii) can usually drown out non-lnear and
linear thought processes that actually create something viable and
useful to people such as a product, a story, a piece of music, New art
works. When the stream of creativity that is damned up with this
insanity, is it any wonder that we have so many people taking prozac and
zoloff? The questions that need to be asked is what can "memetics" do
for me, How can it empower me and how do I start? Or is it just another
mindless exercise in Intellectual futility. Utilitarian? SO?! So is
that auto you own. If it doesn't work, would you buy it?
Would you buy a tool that didn't work if your career depended upon it?
So if we are to see any headway in "memetics" without all tangeants
and intellectual ramifications ramble on much ado about nothing, We need
replicable experiments to carry over into this thing called "Life".
Living in the purity of philosophy of Intellectualism is fine and does
create
some new ideas. Without the other half of the equation though it is a
Intellectually
and creativelly bankrupt.
Bob