Re: [-empyre-] the "conversation"

[William Bain]

--empyre- soft-skinned space--Dear Empyreans, 
Iagree, Simon, that the /debunking of wiretapping/ by FBI director James 
Comeyand NSA director Mike Rogers is an important move against the whole fake 
newsthing. I don’t suppose I’m the only one here concerned about the threat of 
a soclled Goebbels  or /big lie/ effecttaking hold. Like mass hysteria or 
collective obsessional behavior—but perhapsin(cluding) virtual reality 
platforms. It may be that all ships of state havetwo starboard sides and 
excessively large poop decks. /Epistemic bubbles/ laterpopping when punctured 
by extra linguistic things. Agree too on Alan’s commenton the importance of 
failure (and especially glad to get those book titles).Belief/Deception: You 
never know. Shelley in ‘A defence of poetry’: ‘[Poets’]language is vitally 
metaphorical; that is, it marks the before unapprehendedrelations of things, 
and perpetuates their apprehension, until the words whichrepresent them, become 
through time signs for portions or classes of thoughtsinstead of pictures of 
integral thoughts; and then if no new poets should ariseto create afresh the 
associations which have become thus disorganized, languagewill be dead to all 
the nobler purposes of human intercourse […]. In theinfancy of society every 
author is necessarily a poet, because language itselfis poetry; and to be a 
poet is to apprehend the true and the beautiful, in aword the good which exists 
in the relation, subsisting first between existenceand perception, and secondly 
between perception and expression.’ Best 
wishes,Williamhttp://tinyurl.com/pkemmhk___
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Re: [-empyre-] the "conversation"

[Alan Sondheim]

--empyre- soft-skinned space--

On another, less theoretical, breezier, level, check out Adam Alter's 
Irresistable, The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping 
us Hooked, Penguin, 2017. The level of addiction and its basis in 
localized feedback loops is analyzed, as well as the engineering of these 
loops. We all internalize them.


I wonder why Brenda Laurel's older book, Computers as Theater (which I see 
has been updated, 2013) isn't mentioned.


And I wonder as well how many of us, from any political position, think we 
understand the 'other side,' and have 'the other side's picture' so to 
speak.


For 'epistemic bubbles,' the literature on addictions is enormous; I think 
even back to Terry Winograd's block world, microworlds, on one hand, and 
his later prescient book on Understanding Computers and Cognition: A New 
Foundation for Design (with Fernando Flores), with its emphasis on the 
potential of failure (if I remember correctly), from 1986.


And it's the idea of failure which pierces bubbles, allows new knowledge/ 
learning - whereas the failure of Trump and company leaks out only as fake 
news; they continue to totalize, suture, processes which are embraced by 
their followers ('Trump is my hero'); and perhaps we do the same 'on the 
other side' - if there is another side. The w/hole is troubling within and 
without...


- Alan

On Wed, 22 Mar 2017, simon wrote:


--empyre- soft-skinned space--


==
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email archive http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/
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Re: [-empyre-] the "conversation"

[simon]

--empyre- soft-skinned space--
Dear <>,

...another brief comment: in the wake of FBI Dir. James Comey and NSA 
Dir. Adm. Mike Rogers's debunking of claims of presidential wiretapping, 
a BBC commentator said that the president will want to "move the 
conversation onto other subjects"...


...corollary to online radicalisation by ISL using social media, online 
radicalisation by alt-right through social media (enhanced by filter 
bubble type effects*) (other radicalisations may be substituted for these):


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/15/alt-right-manosphere-mainstream-politics-breitbart

*..."describes the tendency of social networks like Facebook and Twitter 
to lock users into personalized feedback loops, each with its own news 
sources, cultural touchstones and political inclinations. We seem to 
like these places, and so do social media companies — they keep us 
clicking from one self-affirmation to another." - from here 



...since they are micro theatres of consciousness itself, I doubt that 
this goes far enough in explaining the power of epistemic bubbles (as 
systems of internal resonance, the gratifications of which are 
internalising and internalised, like a language, like the promise one 
makes to oneself, to be reinforced at every opportunity: /I am a ... /) 
(tell oneself something often enough and it will engage belief). For 
effects of epistemic bubbles to take hold no prior disaffection is 
necessary but is a matter of contingency, of the contingency of what is 
/outside/ (which externality is annulled and from which one is freed by 
belief).


On 21/03/17 07:43, William Bain wrote:

Micro Theatre

Best,
Simon
http://squarewhiteworld.com/





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