Robot Wisdom auxiliary

my favorite paragraph
of EO Wilson's 'Sociobiology'
is where Robert Trivers demonstrates
that any species which can
recognise individuals
should evolve towards
altruism
(because selfish individuals
will be held accountable)

because it supplies a cornerstone
for any future
leftwing evolutionary ethics

not me-first libertarianism
but honor-first superchivalry

where (eg) lying to get ahead
is unthinkable

but i've yet to see this clue
fleshed out into
the full, necessary
blakean christianity

in which personal experiment/experience
is the driving force
unconstrained by those damned
social 'braces'

acknowledging we've been bogged down
for some millennia
in inauthenticity
that has been overriding our finetuned
billion-year-old
genetic wisdom

encouraging non-conformity
local experimental communities

exploiting the internet
to hand government back
to the people

eliminating corporations'
bogus claim to privacy
so communities can freely
monitor their ethics




one stubborn quandary
that bugs me still
is
dog-eat-dog
vs
the nanny function

whether the state steps in
when individuals behave dishonorably

or instead insists
the victims learn
to defend themselves...?

consider a spreadsheet of
just a single cell
of type 'TREE'
whose value
is the particular real Tree
we're all living in/on

now split that cell
across two rows
with the new lower cell
representing
life before humankind

and the new upper cell
human history

(subdivide further
as desired)

or instead
split the Tree
across two columns
with left representing (say)
Earth's western hemisphere
right the east

so when we merge these splits
into a four-cell spreadsheet
humanity's western-hemisphere history
(cell A1)
is empty before c20,000BC

or we can multiply the columns
without limit
effectively zooming in
on narrower and narrower
ranges of places

or, ultimately
assign one (or more) column(s)
to every creature
that's ever lived
with one cell each
of type 'PLACE'
and optional additional
variable cells

but since most lifespans
are one-billionth the height
of the full Tree
this wastes a
lot
of empty cells

so normally we filter out
a few individuals' columns

most often generalising
timeless placeless interactions
between abstract persons
noting only significant
relative changes

(some of these may be too hard
or even impossible)

(you score extra points
if you manage things so subtly
that readers don't even notice)

emotional morse

using only 'DUM', 'dee'
and punctuation
(eg dee-DUM DUM-dee-dee, DUM DUM DUM-dee...)
convey the rhythms
of three negative emotional states
three positive states
and three mixed or neutral
(eg negative: criminal executing plan
positive: schoolkids on fieldtrip)

now find words to fit each rhythm
that describe a person or group
in that emotional state
so that the rhythms subtly reinforce
the description

now try using a positive rhythm
while describing a negative state
and vice versa

write a scene that alternates
villain's and victim's
points of view
with appropriate rhythms

translate passages
from your favorite authors
into this emotional morse




emotional color

imagine assigning a color to every word
based on its emotional connotations
(eg 'viper' a poisonous yellowgreen)
and picture the pages of every book
with each word replaced
by a patch of its own color

some authors strive for colorless prose
others for color extremes

some are scrupulous about
subtle color patterns
others unconsciously coarse
or chaotic

try to suggest an emotion
without using obviously-colored words
or even using oppositely-colored words
(cf Lynch's 'Blue Velvet'
drawing menace from Anytown USA
or the opposite
an innocent scene
built despite menacing wordchoices)

experimentally add
appropriate and contrasting rhythms




the 4th dimension

real places have histories that offer
depth of context
which authors may or may not
exploit

describe a real or imaginary
town or neighborhood
so that the features mentioned
allude
in sequence
to its broad history
(eg 'Farmers regularly plow up
arrowheads...' for the
precolumbian era)

choose a sequence of living citizens
with one biographical detail each
so that the recent history of the town
is recapitulated
(eg 'Wilbur lost his wife
in the flood of '27')

explain a complex situation
from scratch
by introducing the characters
one by one
and giving a new
piece of the chronology
with each
(lecarre's 'mission song' is exemplary)

set a scene entirely in terms of
the ultimate fates of its
persons/places/things
(eg 'this car will have 3 more owners
in the next 12 years
before being recycled')




microcosms

make a list of good points
and bad points
that are currently stirring debate
in the town

give a god's-eye view
at some particular instant
of some particular day

so that each of these
good or bad points
is subtly illustrated
in the doings
of a scattered set
of citizens

(eg 'Bobby has snuck into
the toxic waste dump
at the edge of town...')

(MemeWatch)

perhaps the most sinister trend
in the fiasco of 20thC social science
is the near-total disappearance
of the topic of will

wm james gave it a whole chapter in 1890
but more recently
the predominant characteristic
of college-educated liberals
is the weakness of their wills
as if
the sinister 'They'
can't abide
strongwilled liberals
preferring bloodless eunuchs
like Chomsky or Nader

and marginalising anyone who manifests
a streak of Blake
(or Christ his Tyger)
as emotionally unstable
tying gentilepeople in knots
of guilt over Original Sin

while Their secret societies'
satanic initiations
require ritual shedding of
guilt and conscience

a process mirrored more graciously
but slowly
for the deeply spiritual
as karma-burning

(joyce had miraculously mostly achieved this
by 1904
but silently, cunningly
exiled it into his work

with an occasional attested oral slip
systematically marginalised by Ellmann
as emotional instability)




but how strange
that our nervous systems
so easily hand themselves over
to others' wills

how unfamiliar
the physiology of mind-wrestling [broken link there]
as we strain to resist
Their persuasive evil

what might it look like
in an nmri scan?

the most elegant design
ought to employ
one of the two available brain hemispheres
jungianly
as acting-agent-of-the-Other

but i think too
the muscles of the will
must be mainly in the face
especially around the eyelids
showing worry and strain

(wilhelm reich taught an exercise
for breaking down
character armor
involving slow alert 360-degree
rolling of the eyes)