[FRIAM] the Commons and Convenience

[uǝlƃ ☣]

Thanks for the link to the Stengers book. Re: your idea that we *could* learn from marketing tricks like bells on slot machines or the hooks that keep us glued to phones to encourage good behavior ... like a carbon offset app that rewards you every time you substitute meat for seitan or Impossible, take a bike instead of a car, ride a train, etc. Surely someone, somewhere is doing that.

On 11/11/19 8:36 PM, Carl Tollander wrote:
> I find that if I have a more economical vehicle, that I'm somehow motivated to drive more.  " Fuel Economy" may here be more of a dimensional collapse to a more easily apprehended category.   Anyhow....
> 
> Why is that?   The hybrid car (RAV4 hybrid) will gradually train me, via feedback availability ("look how 'our" regenerative braking is working, hey, don't watch the dash screen too much") and tiny rewards ("good work, your eco score is 80, try to work on your acceleration") to drive in a certain way.   I can see that happening, and that I'm slightly uncomfy about being so trainable, but yes, at 50MPG I feel somewhat virtuous, even if I am driving 25 up Agua Fria.  Works better than the "Your Speed" implied threat of a ticket devices placed around the city.  Not unlike being glued to a phone screen.
> 
> Despite all that, I suspect people rebel at things that are good for the commons because they dislike the idea of giving up some notion of their free will as a consequence of (even indirectly) serving the commons.
> 
> In a similar vein, I find myself reading Isabelle Stengers these days, alas in many respects because I am an English major and am easily attracted to (deceived by?) interesting usage of commas.  http://openhumanitiespress.org/books/download/Stengers_2015_In-Catastrophic-Times.pdf .  I used to enjoy Thomas Carlyle, on the other end of the political spectrum, and the rhythm of the prose is, seems to me, similar.


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