Being a Buddheo-Christian, I can say I believe in the Pythagorean Theorem and have faith in something some call God.
And I ponder why there is Something rather than Nothing. Maybe quantum mechanics? It's getting pretty close. My bet is my brain is so beat up at this point that an EKG would not likely find a hint of much. -- Owen On Mon, Dec 22, 2014 at 6:09 PM, glen <[email protected]> wrote: > > circa Mon Dec 22 18:10:45 EST 2014, mgd wrote: > >> As I see it, the significant attention in that case in that example is >> putting together the joke. For True Blood or Walking Dead, it's the >> screenwriters, actors, directors, consultants, and other creative >> individuals involved in making the shows. For a video game, it's the >> artists and coders. >> >> I suppose I could say by paying my cable bill, I'm somehow a >> participant. But that would be like saying because I voted I'm a >> leader. I think that is absurd. Maybe in the gaming example, there is >> a more overlap because experienced players would be able to give useful >> feedback to the game developers. >> >> If there is any point to our consumer culture, it's as a clumsy and >> inefficient tax to sustain the people that create. >> > > Ahh, but you're forgetting that your payment includes not only your money > but also your eyeballs. Thankfully, we're evolving away from the more > one-way transactions of content. Network shows, including nonalacart cable > services, rely on more than how much money you pay for each individual > episode. The continued existence of True Blood depends on extrapolations > into eyeballs. By watching it you are participating. Even further, if you > talk about it at the water cooler... if you reference it in mailing list > posts, if you wear costumes at halloween parties based on it, etc, you are > participating. The same is true for most video games, now, which track > interest via varous "trophies" as well as tracking social games (where > people play together over the internet), not to mention MMO games where the > boundary between real assets and game assets is blurred. > > Even your oversimplification to "I voted, therefore I'm a leader" isn't as > absurd as you intend. Voting isn't merely a purely private ink mark on an > anonymous ballot. It's an identity for many people. Do you split your > ticket? Do you vote for candidates? Do you talk about voting... even in > the abstract? Hell, even non-voters like Russell Brand are participants in > our voting system. > > -- > ⇔ glen > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >
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