Interesting article. But in MMY's view of things, the author lacked something-- enlightenment. However, the man appeared to be respected among his peers.
--- In [email protected], "authfriend" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > A gently mind-bending address to Digital Biota 2, > the Second Annual Conference on Cyberbiology, in > 1998 by the late Douglas Adams: > > http://www.biota.org/people/douglasadams/ > > Excerpts: > > ...Money is a completely fictitious entity, but it's very powerful in > our world; we each have wallets, which have got notes in them, but > what can those notes do? You can't breed them, you can't stir fry > them, you can't live in them, there's absolutely nothing you can do > with them that's any use, other than exchange them with each other - > and as soon as we exchange them with each other all sots of powerful > things happen, because it's a fiction that we've all subscribed > to....If we were all to vanish, money would simply vanish too. Money > has no meaning outside ourselves, it is something that we have > created that has a powerful shaping effect on the world, because it's > something we all subscribe to.... > > ...The society of Bali is...all defined by the church; they have very > peculiar calendars and a very peculiar set of customs and rituals, > which are precisely defined and, oddly enough, they are fantastically > good at being very, very productive with their rice harvest. In the > 70s, people came in and noticed that the rice harvest was determined > by the temple calendar. It seemed to be totally nonsensical, so they > said, 'Get rid of all this, we can help you make your rice harvest > much, much more productive than even you're, very successfully, doing > at the moment. Use these pesticides, use this calendar, do this, that > and the other'. So they started and for two or three years the rice > production went up enormously, but the whole predator/prey/pest > balance went completely out of kilter. Very shortly, the rice harvest > plummeted again and the Balinese said, 'Screw it, we're going back to > the temple calendar!' and they reinstated what was there before and > it all worked again absolutely perfectly.... > > ...As we become more and more scientifically literate, it's worth > remembering that the fictions with which we previously populated our > world may have some function that it's worth trying to understand and > preserve the essential components of, rather than throwing out the > baby with the bath water; because even though we may not accept the > reasons given for them being here in the first place, it may well be > that there are good practical reasons for them, or something like > them, to be there.... >
