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FleshFactor: Flesh (hold the Factor)
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A E C F O R U M - "F L E S H F A C T O R"
(http://www.aec.at/fleshfactor/arch/)
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On first hearing the name of this forum, "FleshFactor", I must admit
the hair on the back of my neck bristled a bit. The title calls to mind
recent crazes of science fiction... direct brain-to-net interfaces and
immortality through consciousness scans... stuff which makes for a
diverting read perhaps, but which is sadly, neurotically escapist if
taken seriously.
I am enheartened to see that, so far, the FleshFactor submissions
show little enthusiasm for body-denial sci-fi scenarios. If anything,
there seems to be a very healthy regard for Flesh in all its non-virtual
forms. The discussion seems to be centering around Nature, and how
it can help us understand what is happening on the Internet.
The illumination works both ways. In fact, I believe the MOST
important way the Net can inform us is in the way it leads us back
to Nature... not by its content, but by the way it WORKS. With its
bewildering mix of "hard" data and fantasy, insight and deception,
all functioning at cross-purposes, the Internet reminds me of an
illustration that Gregory Bateson used to describe cultural sanity:
One tidal pool contains a multitude of species, most of them hardly
noticeable, with all species engaged in activites ranging from mutual
consumption and competition to cooperation. Another tidal pool, its
fragile ecology once disturbed by an outside influence, now holds
only a few hardy species. Bateson regarded the first example to be
a "sane" pool; the second one, "insane".
If Bateson is correct, and I believe he is, then a "sane" ecosystem
displays not so much a condition of "anarchy" as "panarchy".
Every creature, in every crack, has influence upon the everyday
workings of the system. On a political level, panarchy cannot be
legislated, because legislation requires some sort of heirarchy.
It just happens. The best we can do is RESPECT it when and while
it happens.
The Internet at present verges on healthy panarchy. There are also
a thousand ways it can go insane. Perhaps its many cross-purposes
can co-exist for awhile. But whether the Internet grows wild, mutates,
or gets paved over, may it point us to the greater internet... the one
we call Nature.
Norman T. White
Durham, Ontario, Canada
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http://www.bmts.com/~normill/
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