TRP***GR**Singularity?
Seymour Landnau
seymourlandnau at gmail.com
Mon Jul 24 10:06:40 CDT 2017
Right, I totally agree. Binary stars are a collective consciousness.
Galaxies. Conglomerations of universes.
Telephones would be more of a symbol, reflection of telepathy.
The web as a cumulative knowledge base of this particular human matrix at
this particular point in time and space which most humans can easily access
anytime from anywhere, is more of a symbol, reflection--and I daresay as
damn pale one--of the collective consciousness of humanity on a much
broader scale, throughout times and dimensions.
DNA as a collective consciousness, yes indeed, I should think so. Human
DNA holds way, way, vaster, galactic tidal waves more information than the
human scientists of today are even fantasizing about. Human DNA is
multidimensional, and something on the orders of a solar quantum computer.
It doesn't simply replicate protein and cell structure. It is memory of
the details of every single life, every breath and every feeling and
emotion of the members of the species throughout time in this density and
dimension.
Actually DNA would be a far far more accurate, total, literal symbol of the
collective consciousness than the wimpy world web. Except that, because
human DNA contains portions of other races of what I don't mind simply
calling ETs, some of which are, like humans, themselves hybrid races, the
human DNA would then include not only the human collective consciousness of
this particular matrix, but at least large portions of eight other species'
collective consciousnesses.
On Sun, Jul 23, 2017 at 3:47 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
> > a type of collective consciousness
> so are telephones, radios, televisions , letters, singing groups, DNA,
> politics, families
> The web is a communication network which is an extension of life . life is
> also a communicaton network , nobody seems to know how it started or where
> it’s going but we may be collectively so mesmerized by electronic media
> that we are ignoring our fundamental interdependence with the rest of the
> biosphere. This is an issue of emphasis that should concern us in regard
> to collective survival. eymourlandnau at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Well, the web is a type of collective consciousness, after all. It is a
> reflection, a symbol, of this particular Earth matrix' collective
> consciousness.
> >
> > On Fri, Jul 21, 2017 at 6:35 AM, Monte Davis <montedavis49 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-
> we-may-think/303881/
> >
> > Yes -- even before / more broadly than the Internet and Silicon Valley,
> Bush's essay influenced *everybody* working on electronic computers from
> 1945 on, although it couldn't really get going until transistors and disc
> drives made GooglyMassEverything storage and retrieval a lot cheaper and
> faster.
> >
> > My own fave about that period is George Dyson's 'Turing's Cathedral,'
> focusing on von Neumann's group at Princeton IAS... not least because (1)
> Dyson was toddling around the hardware with his dad and (2) many traces
> were still around when I was on campus 15 years later
> >
> > https://www.amazon.com/Turings-Cathedral-Origins-
> Digital-Universe/dp/1400075998
> >
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Jul 21, 2017 at 6:58 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > "As We May Think" Vannever Bush, Atlantic Mag, 1945, considered by
> > many early Silicon Valley types THE foundational document re the
> > Internet.
> >
> > If I have known of it since before the WWW, you can bet your first
> > editions that anyone who read Norbert Weiner, Marshall McLuhan, among
> > others, surely knew of it in the fifties/ sixties.
> >
> > (Speaking of McLuhan, this appeared today...he is the Google Doodle)
> > http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/
> features/marshall-mcluhan-who-internet-predict-google-doodle-media-theory-
> philosopher-canada-a7852276.html
> >
> > And there is an echoing line in the GR section going around.
> >
> > And then DARPA while in California, yes.
> >
> > Sent from my iPad
> >
> > > On Jul 20, 2017, at 6:53 PM, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > There's got to be a reason the Pynchon List emerged within a year of
> > > the World Wide Web going public, right?
> > > I don't know if Pynchon knew about the internet before everyone else,
> > > but you can see it as one part of a much bigger and longer interest
> > > that he's maintained. The promise of a paradise of connectivity and
> > > communication and the various corruptions that promise suffers.
> > > Or even more macro - he's sometimes referred to as a systems novelist,
> > > and the systems he returns to most regularly involve communications
> > > networks.
> > > Although these days I'm doing some dilettante studying of computer
> > > networking for fun and once you look under the hood, the internet
> > > seems like a really, really obvious eventuality. I can't imagine
> > > people with Pynchon's engineering and info tech background weren't all
> > > tossing similar ideas around in the 60s.
> > >
> > >> On Thu, Jul 20, 2017 at 4:20 AM, da kid <peterock86 at live.com> wrote:
> > >> ________________________________
> > >> From: da kid <peterock86 at live.com>
> > >> Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2017 2:54:18 PM
> > >> To: miksaapja at gmail.com
> > >> Subject: Re: TRP***GR**Singularity?
> > >>
> > >> That's funny, I just read that Bill Joy piece. I've been getting
> creeped out
> > >> by Kurzweil and Elon Musk lately and been thinking alot about this
> virtual
> > >> movement as an emerging form of life. Kevin Kelly founder of Wired
> talks
> > >> about this. If I am not mistaken, the whole movement is a denial of
> entropy,
> > >> an artificial attempt to increase order.
> > >>
> > >> I am convinced that P. either knew something about the early
> internet. His
> > >> entire ouvre seems to be concerned with it: from W.A.S.T.E. to the
> Jesuit
> > >> Telegraph and the American frontier as metaphor for the internet in M
> and D.
> > >> At the end of ATD -spoiler- Miles refers to the emerging network of
> electric
> > >> light as "Lucifer Son of the Morning." Then of course DARPA in IV and
> > >> Bleeding Edge takes silicon alley as it's literal subject (haven't
> read that
> > >> one yet).
> > >>
> > >> Someone recently posted about that LSD Unabomber and the internet
> > >> documentary here which I also thought was an amazing coincidence
> because it
> > >> is a perfect documentary for Pynchon fans! I sensed Pynchon hovering
> around
> > >> every corner in that film. It is almost too conspiracy theory -y to
> be taken
> > >> seriously but I that is unfortunate because I think it is on to the
> same
> > >> trail that I'm interested in. Aaand it discusses that move from the
> > >> freewheeling hippie California to the high-tech culture of today.
> Actually
> > >> it was a direct evolution that the military was at least partially
> involved
> > >> with.
> > >>
> > >> Sorry I know this is rambling but I just wanted to type this before I
> have
> > >> to go to work.
> > >> So to take it back to GR real quick and the question of how close was
> > >> Pynchon to the beginnings of all this I just remembered the passage
> in part
> > >> 2 or 3 when Slothrop goes to Switzerland. P. talks about the new
> currency
> > >> being information which is true today right?
> > >>
> > >> ________________________________
> > >> From: János Széky <miksaapja at gmail.com>
> > >> Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2017 4:36:02 AM
> > >> To: Mark Kohut
> > >> Cc: Paul Cray; da kid; pynchon -l
> > >> Subject: Re: TRP***GR**Singularity?
> > >>
> > >> I think the "Heart-to-Heart, Man-to-Man" subchapter in GR, Pt4
> (shooting
> > >> "waves" into head) is crucial. It seems to describe the transition
> from the
> > >> 60s drug culture to a digital culture that we happen to live in. If
> anyone,
> > >> Pynchon could well have been aware of the first steps towards the
> Internet
> > >> in California (as recalled in Inherent Vice).
> > >>
> > >> 2017-07-18 0:21 GMT+02:00 Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>:
> > >>>
> > >>> My word "longer" was the wrong choice my meaning. I sorta meant
> longer
> > >>> back in conceptual time ...which deeper-bred also
> > >>> Meant to convey.
> > >>> But who knows. My projection maybe.
> > >>>
> > >>> Sent from my iPhone
> > >>>
> > >>> On Jul 17, 2017, at 2:56 PM, Paul Cray <pmcray at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>> It is much more likely that Vinge got it from GR and P could easily
> have
> > >>> come up with the AI/biotech juxtaposition for himself. There's a lot
> more to
> > >>> the Luddite essay than that, natch, although the novelette version
> of "Blood
> > >>> Music" is a strong story. Curiously, Doris Lessing was a big Greg
> Bear fan.
> > >>>
> > >>>> On 17 July 2017 at 19:51, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >>>>
> > >>>> I know a little about Vinge and his work and I doubt the social
> circles
> > >>>> speculation ...or we would have heard something?
> > >>>>
> > >>>> We know he has read SF but still? Luddite essay seems longer and
> > >>>> deeper-bred to me.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Sent from my iPhone
> > >>>>
> > >>>> On Jul 17, 2017, at 2:37 PM, Paul Cray <pmcray at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >>>>
> > >>>> I was very struck by the constant use of the term when I read GR in
> 2009.
> > >>>> I have often wondered whether Pynchon knew Vinge in SoCal. As far
> as I know,
> > >>>> Vinge first uses the S-word in "Marooned in Realtime" (1986), but
> it's
> > >>>> entirely possible that either Vinge got the word from Pynchon (via
> GR or
> > >>>> personal contact) or P got it from V in sf circles in SoCal in the
> late
> > >>>> 1960s/early 1970s. I suppose it is more likely V got it from P, but
> it is
> > >>>> interesting that they were both in SoCal at the same time and might
> well
> > >>>> have had overlapping social circles.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> The famous statement about AI and biotech in the Luddism article
> always
> > >>>> make me think that P might just have read Greg Bear's "Blood Music"
> in its
> > >>>> original novelette form, which is a seminal Singularitarian text,
> although
> > >>>> the S-word is not used. There's also plenty of Singularitarian
> subtext in
> > >>>> AtD, although I don't recall the S-word itself being used much if
> at all.
> > >>>>
> > >>>>> On 17 July 2017 at 19:36, Paul Cray <pmcray at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> I was very struck by the constant use of the term when I read GR in
> > >>>>> 2009. I have often wondered whether Pynchon knew Vinge in SoCal.
> As far as I
> > >>>>> know, Vinge first uses the S-word in "Marooned in Realtime"
> (1986), but it's
> > >>>>> entirely possible that either Vinge got the word from Pynchon (via
> GR or
> > >>>>> personal contact) or P got it from V in sf circles in SoCal in the
> late
> > >>>>> 1960s/early 1970s. I suppose it is more likely V got it from P,
> but it is
> > >>>>> interesting that they were both in SoCal at the same time and
> might well
> > >>>>> have had overlapping social circles.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> The famous statement about AI and biotech in the Luddism article
> always
> > >>>>> make me think that P might just have read Greg Bear's "Blood
> Music" in its
> > >>>>> original novelette form, which is a seminal Singularitarian text,
> although
> > >>>>> the S-word is not used. There's also plenty of Singularitarian
> subtext in
> > >>>>> AtD, although I don't recall the S-word itself being used much if
> at all.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>> On 16 July 2017 at 13:00, da kid <peterock86 at live.com> wrote:
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> Was Pynchon aware of the technological singularity back in the
> early
> > >>>>>> 70s? I know there are gravitational singularities and others, not
> just the
> > >>>>>> Kurzweil one and it has been awhile since I finished GR. However,
> with all
> > >>>>>> it's concerns with predestination, the end of history(?) and so
> forth it
> > >>>>>> makes me wonder. Also, I recall two scenes in particular that are
> towards
> > >>>>>> the end of the book. One is the scene about the rich guy
> practicing the
> > >>>>>> Masonic ritual stuff to try to transcend to a higher dimension.
> The other is
> > >>>>>> the lecture by is it Kekule? about the move from organic to
> inorganic
> > >>>>>> chemistry. From Carbon to silicon. Not to mention all the times P
> talks
> > >>>>>> about "singularities." Has this already been discussed to death
> here?
> > > -
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> > -
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> >
> >
>
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