on 7/12/00 7:47 pm, Gord Sellar at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> Then again, wasn't Kellogg also into stuff like colonic enemas too? Or was
> that just in the movie with whatshisname from Ferris Bueller? (I didn't
> bother to check, as Kellogg didn't intrigue me all that much.) The history
> of people trying to discourage sexual temptation is a very interesting one,
> at least the stuff I've read about (mainly Western European). Nobody seemed
> to have come to the conclusion that most people WILL have sex no matter how
> many barriers you erect. ;)
Fnurff Fnurff, he said 'erect'.
>
>> Hrm. Circumcising the body politic...great line, need to figure out what
>> it means.... A way of making sure the males are "all-American?" Strange.
>
> And you were worrying about me having Gradschoolitis. :) That sounds like a
> good line, though, form some kind of gender-theory bio-semiotics analysis.
There are many odd memes floating about American culture. Memes succeed
because they aren't a handicap or give an advantage in context irrespective
of how daft they might appear in an objective view. The 'frontier' meme in
American culture makes people feel better about having been kicked out of
the Old World[1], the 'self help' meme saves on social welfare taxes, the
'religion' meme reduces stress by cutting off some of the thornier 'why'
questions and so on.
>
>>> But . . . I'm still gonna make the pie for the next party I go to here, and
>>> if it makes me sick, I'm gonna retract the above paragraphs! :)
>>
>> Frankly, I wouldn't touch the thing.
>
> But how would you know? It's supposed to be an indistinguishable fake (at
> the right temperature). Oh no . . . this brings us back to old Uncle Turing
> and "is-consciousness-emulatable?" debates. Aaaaaaugh!!!!!!
> Gord
Emulating consciousness would be redundant. Or maybe a category mistake.
Simpler to just do it directly. Like what would 'emulating arithmetic' mean?
[1] Guns, Germs and Steel, by Jared Diamond, gives a good explanation of how
people never moved anywhere unless they got kicked out by someone else or
had a natural catastrophe. Unless you believe that Eskimos left sunny Africa
to live in snow huts and eat seal blubber as a lifestyle statement.
--
William T Goodall
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk
