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#77: Dec. - Jan. 2010 (Non-Fiction)
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Joe Kelley
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Reading books are like searches into unexplored parts of my brain, going to places someone else went, in their brains. Progressing through the book opens doors into hallways, into rooms, and I find myself unable to return back to where I was before each threshold is passed, like passing through one way doors.

Some books alter my life, my way of thinking, insignificantly, my actions, my choices, and the paths I take do not change much, as far as I can tell. Other books bring to light new visions, uncover hidden things in previously dark rooms, and illuminate new doors, new paths, new choices that would have otherwise never been seen, not in the same time, not in the same place, not the same way.

Some books bring me to places, false places, places I’ve been, places I think I have rescued myself from, and I find myself rejecting that tired path, I put those books down.

Here is where I have an opportunity to tell other people a story, to bring them to a time and place, from my angle of view, concerning Howard’s new book.

I have had the luck, or have somehow earned the privilege, of reading the manuscript for The Genius of the Beast. I can tell the readers right now that my journey through this book is so far, as I move through page 268, a tough fight, a rocky trip, compared to my journeys through The Global Brain and The Lucifer Principle; which were smooth journeys, easy trips, and welcome experiences, without contention.

I am not the same person now as the person I was when I read The Global Brain and The Lucifer Principle. I made choices since then; I went on one way trips.

The Genius in the Beast brings me into battle with the Beast, and that is all I have time to express now.
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Excellent post, I hope you stick around. You'll find yourself in good company here.
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Joe Kelley
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Thanks,

I have some very specific contentions with the data in the book so far, while I also see new answers and new questions arriving as I read, new paths, new opportunities to search and digest.

New ways to think, to use the tool I have, to sharpen it.

I may have to wait until other's read it?

Has anyone read The Global Brain and the Lucifer Principle yet?

Previous to those books I did not have a working understanding of the word “meme”, for an example of what I am trying to say about reading in general.

The word “meme” passed my notice like more of the same useless fashionable noise, stuff for people seeking momentary entertainment – perhaps. I may be just babbling. The word “meme” is now a part of my thinking, a building block, a stepping stone, a higher step; I can see more, Seymour Butts.

A meme is a bridge builder, perhaps, a from of connective stuff, like the stuff that prevents all our cells from wandering apart, or like the stuff that keeps a metal paper clip floating on water.

Is a meme illustrated by an example of a meme, like a popular song is an example of a popular song? Is that like universal grammar being the common elements of all grammar, the stuff that causes the examples?

Search and digest, it seems, is one thing, but it is a process composed of two separate things.

Thanks again for the welcome, and the opportunity.
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You might want to check out the discussion of memes in the book discussion of the Selfish Gene.

http://www.booktalk.org/post56032.html#56032
-Colin

"Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don't tell them where they know the fish." -Mark Twain
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CWT36,

I am a timid, or conservative, explorer; so I am hesitant with following the suggestion.

I am more curious about this fish story thing than I am about the meme or the selfish gene discussion.

If, on the other hand, there was a link to a discussion on the book titled: Equitable Commerce, or The Science of Society, or even Trial by Jury, then it may be tough to keep me from it.

You can lead a thirsty horse to water, and try to stop it from drinking?
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Joe Kelley
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Hail,

I am now going to write freely, to search for words that are not specifically meant to move toward a specific goal in sight. This is a product of The Global Brain, a search mission I volunteer to go on, as inspired by the search mission I am on (where I am reading the book, and where I am commenting on this forum, step by step through time and space).

Howard has repackaged capitalism, so far in the book, as far as I can see; I am still digesting up to page 379. The thing is, from my view, capitalism was last packaged by people in the 19th century. People like Lysander Spooner and Karl Menger; Spooner was before Menger. Something happened in between. There was some overlap.

What had happened was profound to our generation. Good things were lost, bad things were created. Good things were starved and made scarce on purpose. Bad things were watered, fed, subsidized and those things grew large.

How can I get through to you, with words, how can I do this when bad things (words) have been subsidized, made stronger, more powerful, and these things destroy competition?

I can’t. That is my viewpoint. Then something happens. Something, from someone, opens a new door, the viewpoint changes, “I can’t” becomes less powerful, and the idea gains currency in opposition to “I can’t”. Competition is born again.

True stuff.
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Joe Kelley wrote:CWT36,

I am a timid, or conservative, explorer; so I am hesitant with following the suggestion.

I am more curious about this fish story thing than I am about the meme or the selfish gene discussion.

If, on the other hand, there was a link to a discussion on the book titled: Equitable Commerce, or The Science of Society, or even Trial by Jury, then it may be tough to keep me from it.

You can lead a thirsty horse to water, and try to stop it from drinking?
By fish story, are you referring to the Mark Twain quote?
-Colin

"Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don't tell them where they know the fish." -Mark Twain
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Joe Kelley
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"Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don't tell them where they know the fish." -Mark Twain
CWT36,

Yes. Does that refer to trade secrets?
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It's a bit of cautionary advice to people who post at booktalk. There are a lot of really intelligent people here so you want get away with telling any fish stories.
-Colin

"Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don't tell them where they know the fish." -Mark Twain
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CW136,

Your reply inspires more questions from me. I think I have a handle on the quote from Mark Twain…no….I thought I had a handle on the quote from Mark Twain, now I am less confident.

I thought that the fish, in that sentence, was referring to fish, now I am not so sure that there is any connection to fish, whatsoever.

My thinking previous to your reply conjured up a process where fishermen might learn how better to fish from the fish story teller, therefore the fish story teller is cautioned against passing on any trade secrets. The presumption there is that a scarce supply of fish may become even scarcer as too many people learn how to catch them.

Here is my new question: is the warning meant to warn a liar or meant to warn someone who tells the truth, and if the story, or the warning, is meant to warn a liar, then is the idea behind the story an example of support for lying, to improve the business – so to speak?

Hey: here is a tip for all the liars out there, just in case you are ready to make this mistake, don’t make it, a lie won’t work if the people you intend to fool are people who will recognize the lie, because they know you are liar, and if your lie concerns a specific fact: don’t even try to tell that lie to people who know those facts, the lie won’t work, get it, nudge, nudge, wink, wink?

I may be unusual in more than one way, you may be unusual too, in similar ways, and perhaps we two can avoid all that lying business?

As for the measure of intelligence anywhere and the measure of intelligence particularly measured in my brain, or my soul, or wherever intelligence is measured, I have a test question I like to ask other people; along those lines: those lines of measuring intelligence, or answering questions, and/or gaining knowledge; in a measurable way.

This question I ask is this: What is one absolute fact?

I have found only one so far (every attempt to prove it so far proves it and every attempt so far to disprove it proves it too).

I’ve asked more than one person, and as yet the number of absolute facts I have, so for remains to be one.

My experience on forums can be summed up in a few sentences. I have not just fallen off the turnip truck. I don’t intentionally lie. I seek the truth, and I prefer to stay on topic.

The book in question has stirred up my thinking process; as if my brain has been turned off, turned back on, rebooted with either/or fixed data or data that is bad, and I’m not yet sure which. Few things that I read have this effect on me. My thinking so far has managed to gain confidence in an ability to know; in a measurable way. Few things of late, challenge that confidence; concerning specific things, not all things.

An intelligent person working on questions involving how to catch fish better may gain confidence, in measurable ways, on how better to catch fish. An intelligent person working on questions involving how better to lie, isn’t my business. I don’t have any confidence in that employment of intelligence.

My work has been on political economy, and I can sum up my work in one sentence. I can also sum up my trouble with my new boot-up process, as I read Howard’s new book, and that summation concerns the new things in Howard’s book that challenge the application of my sentence to political economy.

I am not so much concerned about any flaws in the summation of all my work in political economy, my sentence, as I am concerned about improving it, if it is possible, based upon the new things that Howard teaches, with his new book.

My goals at this point have been met, as far as I can tell, so thanks for the workout. I took the warning as a challenge.

Did I meet the challenge, or am I just babbling again (or is this the end of this part of the discussion, or options I have not considered or seen)?

Discussions, from my view, are intentional efforts to trade brains, to borrow each other's brains, as a means of improving thought.
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