Comments on: Next Stage of the Slide

By: northanger

northanger — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 02:13:46 +0000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reappropriation
Reappropriation is the cultural process by which a group reclaims—re-appropriates—terms or artifacts that were previously used in a way disparaging of that group.

By: northanger

northanger — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 01:59:09 +0000

@sviga lae

Great links, thanks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/report-ties-100-plus-cyber-attacks-on-us-computers-to-chinese-military/2013/02/19/2700228e-7a6a-11e2-9a75-dab0201670da_story.html

“You can bend the rules plenty once you get to the top, but not while you’re trying to get there. And if you’re someone like me, you can’t get there without bending the rules.” –Working Girl

By: fotrkd

fotrkd — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 01:09:59 +0000

Yeah, but you know it will be slow, awfully boring and performed with dignity to the end. More seriously, I would be interested to hear how you would map your current US political/economic observations onto the UK situation.

By: admin

admin — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 00:40:09 +0000

The UK is so over.

By: fotrkd

fotrkd — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:41:32 +0000

It really doesn’t matter so long as you’re right, but yes, I largely agree. One story from the UK today that I did find amusing (no doubt the wrong word again) was: ‘Put disabled down’ councillor Collin Brewer resigns’ (www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-21612089) – In particular Mr Paget’s retraining suggestion: “I’m publicly calling on the council to provide disability equality training for all councillors. I’m appalled it has taken this long to reach a conclusion.”

By: admin

admin — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:22:50 +0000

The more biographical discontinuity the better, as far as I’m concerned. Essential psychological unity through time is a mostly mythical. Perhaps a pseudonym would have made more sense, but this episode in the grisly saga began in a work environment where that wasn’t even an option, and it has its own momentum now. (And it really doesn’t matter what ‘academics’, take in the aggregate, think about anything — that’s just politics and fashion, performed as a cultural sub-routine on behalf of Leviathan. The main message — Love the State — has already been decided.)

By: fotrkd

fotrkd — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:02:22 +0000

I didn’t take it so much as ‘dead’, more as ‘gone away and never coming back’ (think Anna Karenina’s social ‘death’ at the theatre; or if you want more contemporary Max Cohen drilling his head in Pi or Deleuze after he wrote his own ‘What is Philosophy?'; or more contemporary still: Pope emeritus). And it’s got to make you wonder whether you can come back even if you don’t go back, right? Or whether all of this is somehow still somewhere else. You can point to truth, but every one of God’s angels of death is following that path; hell, even Tony Blair is confidently awaiting the judgment of history. But then what else can you do? Relaxing gets pretty tiring after so long, so you may as well do something. A harsh, but true summary of academic interpretations of the current output (such as they exist and are communicated) would probably be akin to this (damning with faint praise) comment on Saul Bellow’s final book:

“One of the peculiarities of Ravelstein is that it is both an old man’s novel, much preoccupied with the imminence of death, and a book which plays games with the whole idea of an old man’s novel,” said Russell. “Ostensibly, the narrative drifts about in a hazy, at times even slightly gaga, sort of way. But while there are definite signs of frailty, one feels he’s also having a good deal of fun with readers’ assumptions about his state of health… Ravelstein may not be great Bellow – the structure is a little too wobbly for that – but in terms of richness of metaphor, fecundity of ideas and sheer undiminished curiosity, there’s still no one to beat him.”

By: admin

admin — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 02:09:37 +0000

More reading!
Thanks, it looks extremely interesting.

By: sviga lae

sviga lae — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 00:19:05 +0000

I think Venkat has the best feel for the future of complexity-driven society (plenty of jobs to go around for flexible morlocks to tend the wounds of the thrashing leviathan), as well as the most cogent historicist narrative of technology.

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2012/04/18/hacking-the-non-disposable-planet/

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2012/06/05/towards-an-appreciative-view-of-technology/ (all required reading)

I’d be interested to know how familiar you are with Venkat’s work, I am always pleased to see the web of so-called ‘insight porn’ collapsing in on itself (Venkat, Taleb, Moldbug, LessWrong etc.), and in fact I am pinning some hope on such an event, as I believe the disparate parts contain the critical mass for a powerful alternative body of thought.

By: admin

admin — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 22:40:55 +0000

On Tainter: I read the Oil Drum piece with great interest, but couldn’t really see the argument (it seemed to be more of an assertion, resting upon one significant but less-than-overwhelming historical example). His vision of complexity was so unlike anything I tend to associate with the term, that it made for a refreshing holiday from settled reflexes, but if bureaucratic expansion (rather than market tuning) is the model for complexification, it’s hardly surprising to see it facing diminishing returns.

On Acceleration: A riposte didn’t really seem appropriate, it was interesting to see the topic discussed, and it’s very relaxing to be dead. I’ve tried to follow the ‘speculative realism’ stuff, but I’m not there yet.