Terrence with a thousand faces

[tess marek]

--- David Gentle <Gentle_Family at btinternet.com> wrote:
> 
> The thing about pretending to be someone you're not
> on the internet is that it's an activity based
> on the false assumption that the internet is some
> alternate reality. 

I don't know anything about alternative reality, but
the stream of immeasurable events flows unendingly
toward eternity. All the problems of our cultures
which move men to act form themselves ever anew and in
different colors, and the boundaries of that area in
the infinite stream of concrete events which acquires
meaning and significance for us, i.e., which become
"historical," are constantly subject to change. All
things are in flux, and all things flow. As they flow,
additions are made continuously in place of the
effluxions, and the senses are transformed and altered
according to the times of life and to all other
conditions of bodies. I apprehend different things at
different times owing to my different dispositions.
Reality is whatever is most evident to us and whatever
is real for us. There are no alternatives, only
concrete variety and particularity. A photograph of
you is not you, but it is a real photograph of you. A
statue of Moses is not the real Moses, but it is a
real statue of Moses. It's not an alternative reality
that makes this true, it's the essentialness of
reality that does. What you perceive as deception
based on false assumptions is not free of your own
assumptions and perceptions.  For both the the reality
you think is not the "falaciously assumed" reality and
the one you assume is, is not reality at all since it
involves your contribution. What is real is what has
the power to cause such an effect on you. Or maybe, we
are all just shadows in the cave and reality is
something we can never know or know only when we
return to it be it above or below.  



The problem being that, largly,
> it isn't (blame Vinge and Gibson for the
> misapprehension). There are pockets of shared
> fiction but
> in most places acting out is kind of fraudulent. Of
> course, this is an unmoderated list, so I
> suppose you have to be ready for anything. Maybe
> that just makes things more exciting but it can
> also make them more frustrating.
> 
> David Gentle


Yeah, no one in here but us froads. 


__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com