Origins of Psybernet

I was searching for something and a Zine I wrote in 1994 popped up.

http://www.psybernet.co.nz/zine11.txt

Brings back a lot of memories and I see the origins of many of my current perspective on psyche & cyberspace were there right then.

             --++-=<*>****>>>>>0<<<<<****<*>=-++--

Text is evocative:

'With jaws the size of a truck, the dinosaur munched the man and
swallowed him.'

Did you see that! It cost Spielberg millions to do that.

Text is cheap.

--++-=<*>****>>>>>0<<<<<****<*>=-++--

Quantum jazz biology

The radical democracy of organisms « Future Primitive Podcasts:

Mae-Wan speaks with Joanna about “quantum jazz biology”, the transition phase we are experiencing, the organic revolution, science/art/life…

Listen to the audio.

The science here and the politics might be a bit dubious, but for all that there is a lot here to take on board, I can see how it relates to group work and couple work.

The environment impacts on the Genome

The social anarchy of nature

Quantum Phases and Quantum Coherence:

Quantum coherence implies all that and more. Think of a gathering of consummate musicians playing jazz together (‘quantum jazz’) where every single player is freely improvising from moment to moment and yet keeping in tune and in rhythm with the spontaneity of the whole. It is a special kind of wholeness that maximizes both local freedom and global cohesion.

I wrote the post about art before I heard this! It is a scarily synchronistic!

What Is Life?

What Is Life? – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

What Is Life? is a 1944 non-fiction science book written for the lay reader by physicist Erwin Schrödinger. The book was based on a course of public lectures delivered by Schrödinger in February 1943, under the auspices of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies at Trinity College, Dublin. The lectures attracted an audience of about 400, who were warned “that the subject-matter was a difficult one and that the lectures could not be termed popular, even though the physicist’s most dreaded weapon, mathematical deduction, would hardly be utilized.”[1] Schrödinger’s lecture focused on one important question: “how can the events in space and time which take place within the spatial boundary of a living organism be accounted for by physics and chemistry?”[1]

In the book, Schrödinger introduced the idea of an “aperiodic crystal” that contained genetic information in its configuration of covalent chemical bonds. In the 1950s, this idea stimulated enthusiasm for discovering the genetic molecule. Although the existence of DNA had been known since 1869, its role in reproduction and its helical shape were still unknown at the time of Schrödinger’s lecture. In retrospect, Schrödinger’s aperiodic crystal can be viewed as a well-reasoned theoretical prediction of what biologists should have been looking for during their search for genetic material. Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, credited Schrödinger’s book with presenting an early theoretical description of how the storage of genetic information would work, and acknowledged the book as a source of inspiration for his initial research.[2]

Brian Reffin Smith – Art – psyberspace and treasures

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Reffin_Smith

“There is a mine, a treasure trove, a hoard – I cannot emphasize this too strongly – of art ideas that emerged in the early decades of computer art that still have not remotely been explored. We know how this happens. The next big thing comes along and the Zeitgeist has its demands: things get left behind…”

I think I am still back there with all that Psybernet was to be, there is a treasure trove of ideas on cyberspace and what it is to be online that we discussed in psyber-l and that were discussed back in the early 90’s that is there to be re-visited, built on.

For example, Mark Zukerberg is a sysop. He has designed a BBS really and all the literature about the roles and the principles, the ethics were as alive around early BBSs as they are today. The bare bones of the systems made it easier to reflect, time went more slowly, it too time to download posts. The reflections from back then have not gone to waste, they are a treasure trove.

Two ways Facebook groups impact on the social netscape

Facebook has been criticized for its privacy policy with respect to adding people to groups.

There is nothing wrong with it’s policy.

Anyone can create a group and add their friends. Friends can opt out.

That simple formula will have two main impacts.

1. There will be more focussed groups, with respect to purpose and they will have the potential to be very intimate and private.

2. The current friendship system will be strengthened as people need to watch carefully who is in that circle, as any one of them could add them to groups they don’t wish to be in. Abusers will be unfriended.

Facebook is mediating trust not by policy but socially through it’s users.

Cyberspace is more like life, we will be more careful who we invite to the party, and have better parties, or business meetings for that matter.