[FRIAM] Metaphor [POSSIBLE DISTRACTON FROM]: privacy games

Steve Smith sasmyth at swcp.com
Sat May 30 02:01:55 EDT 2020


On one of my first trips to the Bay Area I remember driving up
telegraph? into Berzerkley and saw a "Bank of America" sign that had
been very artfully re-designed to say "Bank of Apartheid"

I've a good friend in Berk who said tonight that he was expecting the
grey haired hippies and beats to "March on Peets" at sunrise.   He's
still mostly pepper with a little salt, and post-boomer himself.

> Piedmont, for example, has a higher per capita income than Beverly Hills.
>
> On the other hand if one wants to drag a newspaper dispenser into the
> street and use it as a shield from rubber bullets, that’s an option
> too.   Oakland has got it all!
>
>  
>
> I mentioned this hackery.   Fun.
>
>  
>
> https://www.berkeleyside.com/2019/09/09/whos-been-hacking-digital-traffic-signs-in-berkeley
>
>  
>
> I saw someone on MSNBC tonight dreading the “global anarchists”.  
> Seriously?
>
>  
>
> *From: *Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> on behalf of Steve Smith
> <sasmyth at swcp.com>
> *Reply-To: *The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
> <friam at redfish.com>
> *Date: *Friday, May 29, 2020 at 10:03 PM
> *To: *"friam at redfish.com" <friam at redfish.com>
> *Subject: *Re: [FRIAM] Metaphor [POSSIBLE DISTRACTON FROM]: privacy games
>
>  
>
> I think I just saw Marcus blocking 880 in Oakland!
>
>     Nick, for the record, and this will not change from my end:
>
>      
>
>     Your right to be interested in whatever you are interested in is
>     sacrosanct, here or in any other forum.  I don’t think there are
>     thread boundaries on that, though there are all the normal
>     courtesies which I see more clearly for a while after I transgress
>     one.
>
>      
>
>     Eric
>
>      
>
>
>
>         On May 30, 2020, at 1:03 PM, <thompnickson2 at gmail.com
>         <mailto:thompnickson2 at gmail.com>> <thompnickson2 at gmail.com
>         <mailto:thompnickson2 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>          
>
>         All –
>
>          
>
>         I feel norm formation going on here, and it is making me a bit
>         nervous.  I am not sure what follows from that, but there it
>         is.  I thing that we at FriAM have long worked the boundary
>         between work and play.  I think that’s where the best work is
>         done.  
>
>          
>
>         But this is my thread, right?  Can a man bust his own
>         thread?  */_I  d o n t  t h I n k  s o_/*.  I want to talk
>         about metaphor.  And it’s relation to models.  And it’
>         relation to the concept of intentionality.  The question is,
>         To what extent do our norms allow me to bring those concerns
>         to other threads.  And the answer I am hearing from many of
>         you is, “Less than I have been”.
>
>          
>
>         Well, I will do my best.  But, for instance, I think the
>         “work” we did on “strawman” was tremendously important.  In my
>         introductory graduate lectures at Berkeley, where, one by one,
>         the the grey-backed gorillas  of the department laid down the
>         law.  Somebody, I think David Krech, announced that if “I say
>         that the number of rat turds left by a rat in an open field
>         maze is “anxiety”, then that is what anxiety IS for the
>         purposes of my research, and there’s no more discussion to be
>         had.”  And even in the tenuous position of a first year
>         graduate student I knew that was wrong.  Meanings have
>         momentum.   Words have meaning that is independent of their
>         users. I have fought for 50 years to rescue ‘teleonomy’
>         (=natural design) from the dualistic thieves that abducted
>         it.  And SteveG and I could be thought of as battling for nigh
>         a decade and half about which specification of the metaphor of
>         natural selection is best for the purposes of understanding
>         natural design.  (I thought we made a lot of progress on that
>         issue today.)   Much of what we do in scientific discourse is
>         fight over metaphors and we need to develop methods for
>         fighting fairly, skillfully, and expeditiously.  
>
>          
>
>         I don’t think I have EVER introduced the idea of metaphor in a
>         conversation where I didn’t think a clarification or
>         specification of the metaphors implicit in our conversation
>         might move the discussion forward.  I may be playing with
>         words but I am not /just/ playing with words.  God knows, I
>         may have been WRONG in many cases, but I absolutely defend the
>         idea that attention to the metaphors at play in a conversation
>         is often essential to any development of understanding or
>         convergence of opinion.  
>
>          
>
>         Is it /always?/  No.  Of course not.  And I will try to be
>         more careful about that. 
>
>          
>
>         Thanks, as always, for all your thoughts.   My life would not
>         be half of what it is without them.   Really.  It’s perhaps
>         pathetic for me to admit that, but it’s true. 
>
>          
>
>         Nick 
>
>          
>
>          
>
>          
>
>         Nicholas Thompson
>
>         Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology
>
>         Clark University
>
>         ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com <mailto:ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com>
>
>         https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
>
>          
>
>          
>
>         *From:* Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com
>         <mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com>> *On Behalf Of *David Eric
>         Smith
>         *Sent:* Friday, May 29, 2020 9:11 PM
>         *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
>         <friam at redfish.com <mailto:friam at redfish.com>>
>         *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Metaphor [POSSIBLE DISTRACTON FROM]:
>         privacy games
>
>          
>
>         Hi Jon,
>
>          
>
>         No, actually not any issue with any of what you had posted, as
>         also just affirmation toward various historical posts by Glen.  
>
>          
>
>         Yes, sorry about a thread-rudeness.  I had sort of dropped a
>         chunk of something that had been accumulating for a week in
>         the middle of your thread which was in the coarse of solving
>         other problems, where it didn’t belong.  Partly this was
>         because yours had been the latest snapshot, partly it was
>         because the overall frame you and Glen and Steve are building
>         is one that I would like to think of my own additions as
>         finding a place in, and partly I was probably using the
>         measured tone of this sub-thread as cover, since my own was
>         rather crabby and aggressive.  Strange that it seemed formally
>         impolite to me, to use your thread as a point of departure and
>         not direct the salutation to you, while I blew past the fact
>         that it was substantively rude to use the thread, rather than
>         to participate in it.
>
>          
>
>         Very good.  Thanks for calling me on this,
>
>          
>
>          
>
>         Eric
>
>          
>
>          
>
>
>
>
>             On May 30, 2020, at 9:43 AM, Jon Zingale
>             <jonzingale at gmail.com <mailto:jonzingale at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>              
>
>             Eric,
>
>              
>
>             I am not sure that I disagree with you anywhere, but I am
>
>             unsure whether you are taking issue with me? The proliferation
>
>             of threads are sometimes hard for me to follow, inevitably
>             I mis-
>
>             determine who is talking to whom. Are there places in my
>             writing
>
>             that you would suggest I revisit and reconsider? Pointing
>             things
>
>             out to another can be an expensive and thankless task, so
>             thank
>
>             you in advance.
>
>              
>
>             Jon
>
>             -- --- .-. . .-.. --- -.-. -.- ... -..-. .- .-. . -..-. -
>             .... . -..-. . ... ... . -. - .. .- .-.. -..-. .-- --- .-.
>             -.- . .-. ...
>             FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>             Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6  bit.ly/virtualfriam
>             <http://bit.ly/virtualfriam>
>             un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>             archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/
>             FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/
>
>          
>
>         -- --- .-. . .-.. --- -.-. -.- ... -..-. .- .-. . -..-. - ....
>         . -..-. . ... ... . -. - .. .- .-.. -..-. .-- --- .-. -.- .
>         .-. ...
>         FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>         Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6  bit.ly/virtualfriam
>         <http://bit.ly/virtualfriam>
>         un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>         archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/
>         FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/
>
>      
>
>
>
>     -- --- .-. . .-.. --- -.-. -.- ... -..-. .- .-. . -..-. - .... . -..-. . ... ... . -. - .. .- .-.. -..-. .-- --- .-. -.- . .-. ...
>
>     FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>
>     Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6  bit.ly/virtualfriam
>
>     un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>
>     archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/
>
>     FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ 
>
>
> -- --- .-. . .-.. --- -.-. -.- ... -..-. .- .-. . -..-. - .... . -..-. . ... ... . -. - .. .- .-.. -..-. .-- --- .-. -.- . .-. ...
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6  bit.ly/virtualfriam
> un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
> archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/
> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/attachments/20200530/6ccb0ba2/attachment.html>


More information about the Friam mailing list