Algorithms And Red Wine: Is The 'Digital Hive' A Soft Totalitarian State? (Joe Bageant)

[Tace]

Joe Bageant -- World News Trust

Oct. 24, 2010 -- Ferrara, Italy -- Sitting in a bottliberia, one of those wine bars that brings out food to match your particular choice of wine, mystified by the table setting.

What was that tiny baby spoon for? Cappuccino surely, at some point, but why no big spoon to go with the knife and fork? The things a redneck American does not know grow exponentially in Bella Italia, starting with the restaurants -- not to mention several civilizations beneath one’s feet. Being in a house that has been continuously occupied for more than 1,000 years -- resisting the temptation to piss in the hotel room bidet, that sort of thing.

One thing the Italians can never be accused of is being a culture given to vinyl-sided sameness, fast food franchises. Another thing is lack of a good educational system, given that Italy’s is among the very best in the world. So here I am sitting with some college kids trying to hang onto my end of a discussion of evolutionary consciousness, and whether Italy can withstand the cultural leveling of globalism.

“And Mr Bageent, what do you think of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s concept of the hive mind and the noosphere? Can monolithism and totalitarianism possibly be resisted in the cybernetic age?”

Huh?

(snip)

Life is lived anecdotally, not algorithmically. And anecdotal evidence is not allowed in the new digital corpocracy. As one poster on Democratic Underground put it, “Anecdotal now has this enforced meaning such that no one is supposed to believe what they experience, what they see, hear, taste, smell, etc. The Powers That Be have basically extinguished the notion of inductive reasoning. Everything has to be replicated in a laboratory and since 90 percent of all the labs in this nation are operated by Corporate Sponsored monies, not much truth comes out of them.”

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http://worldnewstrust.com/algorithms-and-red-wine-is-the-digital-hive-a-soft-totalitarian-state-joe-bageant.html

[Skinner]

1. And a DU mention.

:thumbsup:

[alarimer]

2. Yes, except that poster is utterly wrong

And had to throw in a nice conspiracy theory on top of it.

Anecdotes do not constitute proof of anything. Memories are fallible, there are tricks of the the light, etc. Nitpicking I suppose, when Bageant's larger point is true as usual.

[Joe Chi Minh]

5. No. You're just plain wrong. There has been anecdotal 'evidence' throughout

history, and in every culture, that ghosts exist, as well as telepathic and psychic phenomena more generally. You'd be be a fool if you didn't believe the vast body of human cultures are all wrong on those topics, but modern man is too smart to fall for anecdotal stuff like that. If anything, he's too dumb.

Forget legal proof and scientific proof. Instead, as regards the latter, read the quotes in Wikipedia of Neils Bohr on the nature of what we know and what we don't know.

[Hissyspit]

3. The Hive Mind

Ha, just watched "Quartermass and the Pit" again the other night (aka "Five Million Years to Earth")

[The Magistrate]

4. An Excellent Movie, That, Sir

[Hissyspit]

6. Really scared me when I was a kid.

When I watch it again, I think 'no wonder it scared me, it's scary!'

Also, when a kid, I didn't quite get that the "demon" in the sky at the end was pure energy.

[KoKo]

7. Interesting Read...Something that makes one wonder...K&R!

[Tace]

8. Joe Knows He's Got Some Fans On DU

: )