Sunday, November 16, 2014

Depravity & Abomination


DEPRAVITY (if not abomination): Cybernetics – (the cybernaut:
helmsman steering):a term & idea that emerged during WWII
when we were attempting to design “smart” bombs—self-correcting
mechanisms that by trial and erroring would reach designated
destinations. Cruise control. Thermostatic homeostatic autopoetic
devices that convert ratios of positive and negative feedback to
make it home, so to speak.

Ever play Hide-the-Penny? Jolly Uncle Jon hides a penny in the living
room after Sunday dinner and you are assigned to find it—searching
here and there, under & over, round and round. “You’re cold, “ he says
Colder, much colder; ah, warm, warmer, oh: cool cooler, yes Yes hot
hot hot EUREKA

Navigational ratios of hot-to-cold What some of you call BALANCE
but dynamic balance in time, not just balance standing still. Imagine
if you merely accentuated the positive and suppressed the negative.
Let hot stand for pleasure, happiness. Let cold stand for pain,
unhappiness Let there be no Penny—only the quest for pleasure
and happiness and the avoidance of pain and unhappiness


What was a cybernetic ratio and navigating system aiming for a
goal has no been twisted to be the goal itself: accentuate the
positive; avoid the negative. See the “problem.” Just describing
here. No judgment. A depravity is all (“twisted”). Abomination.

8 comments:

  1. http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/21/tech/web/online-comment-sections/

    Influential tech blog Re/code announced Thursday that it has shut off the comment forums on its story pages. Instead, the website is steering commenters to social media.
    "We thought about this decision long and hard, since we do value reader opinion," co-executive editor Kara Swisher wrote. "But we concluded that, as social media has continued its robust growth, the bulk of discussion of our stories is increasingly taking place there, making onsite comments less and less used and less and less useful."
    The announcement was just the latest in a recent wave of prominent websites removing or significantly scaling back their comment sections. Reuters, Popular Science and the Chicago Sun-Times have recently nixed comments.
    Fairly or not, comment forums have gained a reputation as a haven for Internet trolls. Several of the sites that have banned comments noted the lack of civility in their decisions.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Virtual Hyde Park. Groves of Academe--hoi polloi : the commentary seems to me as valuable as the comment,
    article, observation. -. .

    ReplyDelete
  3. What about civility? Etiquette? Taste? Sense and sensibility...

    ReplyDelete
  4. http://arts.nationalpost.com/2014/11/21/dave-bidini-on-spilling-secrets-south-of-the-border/

    On American gut-spilling storytelling. Very sympathetic.

    I like Bidini's writing. He illustrates in the newspaper with stories all the time, arts section, timely material. Very smart writer, more along the lines of creative non-fiction.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good article by Bidini. Must be a song writer as well as writer. I spent a few weeks in Colorado Springs in the 70's. My students are forthcoming in class because the courses draw it out. Educe. Don't have Canada's reticence (?) to compare it with. They are much more savvy than even 10 years ago. The technology . They carry the world's information in the pockets and backpacks. Etiquette, taste, sense and sensibility? Gardening in tuxedoes?.

      Delete
    2. I think this American tradition may come out of Methodism and conversion testimonies, if it is a tradition different from other people's. I have more thoughts on this than I can begin thinking about writing about. Reticence, yes or no, the pressure always has to give way; it will come out in one setting or another, in one way or another. I suppose it is interesting to observe the different ways, as in studying process...

      Delete
  5. We sat around after church comparing Arizona stories. We were trying to think through the American-Indian experience. While there, on the reservation I studied some of the faces, which bore great similarity to each other. I don't know if it was Navajo or Hopi traits I was looking at. Someone told me it was Navajo.

    wiki:

    "The name Hopi is a shortened form of their autonym, Hopituh Shi-nu-mu ("The Peaceful People" or "Peaceful Little Ones").[28] The Hopi Dictionary[29] gives the primary meaning of the word "Hopi" as: "behaving one, one who is mannered, civilized, peaceable, polite, who adheres to the Hopi way." In the past, Hopi sometimes used the term "Hopi" and its cognates to refer to the Pueblo peoples in general, in contrast to other, more warlike tribes.[30]

    Hopi is a concept deeply rooted in the culture's religion, spirituality, and its view of morality and ethics. To be Hopi is to strive toward this concept, which involves a state of total reverence and respect for all things, to be at peace with these things, and to live in accordance with the instructions of Maasaw, the Creator or Caretaker of Earth. The Hopi observe their traditional ceremonies for the benefit of the entire world."

    Interesting is their perception of their own civility.

    ReplyDelete
  6. total reverence and respect for all things, at peace with these things, living in accordance with the the instructions of the creator. Who can argue with that?

    ReplyDelete