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Symbolic Species

The Symbolic Species : The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain by Terrence W. Deacon

What separates humans from animals, Deacon writes, is our capacity for symbolic representation. Animals can easily learn to link a sound with an object or an effect with a cause. But symbolic thinking assumes the ability to associate things that might only rarely have a physical correlation; think of the word “unicorn,” for instance, or the idea of the future. Language is only the outward expression of this symbolic ability, which lays the foundation for everything from human laughter to our compulsive search for meaning.

It is this ability to do the symbolic thing that is the stuff that dreams and cyberspace is made of.

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Friday, 12 January 2024

But. This is a philosophically idealist perspective.

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XML in 10 points
I have a sense, but am not sure, that XML is actually something that strengthens our personal connections. I know that all this might work towards some commodification process… however I’d like it to also assist in the process of linking me to others inthe collaborative filtering way, can it do that? Do i need to learn it?

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The Hi-Tech Gift Economy by Richard Barbrook

The hi-tech gift economy heralds the end of private property in ‘cutting edge’ areas of the economy.
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Net users will always obtain much more than will ever be contributed in return. By giving away something which is well-made, they will gain recognition from those who download their work. For most people, the gift economy is simply the best method of collaborating together in cyberspace. Within the mixed economy of the Net, anarcho-communism has become an everyday reality.

I think it is all marvelous, but something is not quite right. Perhaps it is more that there is a revolution brewing, that the means of production – and the nature of the fundamental commodity has changed. Its not communism thats for sure.

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I have become the world

CTHEORY: Cyberwar, God And Television: Interview with Paul Virilio

Virilio: The body has a dimension of simulation. The learning process, for instance: when one learns how to drive a car or a van, once in the van, one feels completely lost. But then, once you have learnt how to drive, the whole van is in your body. It is integrated into your body. Another example: a man who pilots a Jumbo Jet will ultimately feel that the Boeing is entering his body. But what is going on now, or should happen in one or two generations, is the disintegration of the world. Real time ‘live’ technologies, cyberreality, will permit the incorporation of the world within oneself. One will be able to read the entire world, just like during the Gulf War. And I will have become the world. The body of the world and my body will be one. Once again, this is a divine vision; and this is what the military are looking for. Earth is already being integrated into the Pentagon, and the man in the Pentagon is already piloting the world war – or the Gulf War – as if he were a captain whose huge boat would have become his own body. Thus the body simulates the relationship to the world.

That is isnteresting on the connection between the body and the virtual world!

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Seth Godin: Feeding the Gorilla – BACK TALK – WebBusiness Magazine August 1, 1999

Seth Godin’s company, Yoyodyne Entertainment, developed games and contests consumers played via e-mail to sell products. Yahoo bought Yoyodyne and Godin received $30 million in stock. In addition to working at Yahoo, Godin has written Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends, and Friends into Customers.

Free Chapters available here: http://www.permission.com/

Amazon

All this is leading up to an article by steve beard in MUTE where he talks about Virilio and Godin.

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Paul Virilio

JAMES DER DERIAN: Is the author dead?

PAUL VIRILIO: There is a great threat to writing. The written work is threatened by the screen, not by the image. There have always been images in books. There have always been images in architecture, like frescoes or stain glass windows. No, it is the evocative power of the screen, and in particular the live screen. It is real time that threatens writing. Writing is always, always, in a deferred time, always delayed. Once the image is live, there is a conflict between deferred time and real time, and in this there is a serious threat to writing and the author.

I am following up on some references here for a discussion on the possibility of commodification of dreamwork on the net. Some more references to come!

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Asclepius

Character Glossary (Updated link the old one below does not work – Monday, 26 June, 2006 )

Classical Mythology Online – Character Glossary

Asclepius [as-klee'pi-us] (Aesculapius) or Asklepios, "cut up," or "turn round and round"(?)
The son of Apollo and Coronis, he was god of medicine and healing, but was raised by the centaur Chiron, who taught him medicine (Pindar, Pythian Odes 3.5-7). He could restore the dead to life, for which offense Zeus killed him with a thunderbolt (Pindar, Pythian Odes 3.54-58; Euripides, Alcestis 3-6; Apollodorus 3.10.4; Hyginus, Fabulae 49; Diodorus Siculus 4.71.2-3). The most famous temple of Asclepius was at Epidaurus. His children included Machaon, Podalirius (Diodorus Siculus 4.71.4), Hygeia (Health), and Panacea (Cure-all). Family Tree 21.

The original Psychodrama stage? This site is great – the family tree thing is very useful.

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Likeminds

Macromedia – Press room : Macromedia extends personalization to the inbox with LikeMinds eMail

LikeMinds observes implicit clickstream behavior, purchase history, and explicit form data on the e-merchant�s site. By comparing such behavior with those of previous visitors to the site, LikeMinds accurately predicts the products and content that are of interest to each individual. LikeMinds eMail uses these recommendations to generate scalable, outbound e-mail campaigns that are personalized to each recipient, driving more repeat visits and more satisfied customers

Sounds almost evil, yet this is the I Like This idea we invented and still await the implementaion of.

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