<<<Marketers, political organizers, and other social engineers are tracking, capturing, and controlling people right now. They track the marks you make, how you vote, the websites you visit, and where you spend your money. They know your timetables, they feed you the media you passively consume. Humanity was captured long ago by the meme of civilization, and ever since civilization has been working on humanity’s domestication. Domesticated animals are treated in a different manner than wild beasts. The emphasis shifts from finding and capturing individuals to managing and controlling the herd. The herders hand down schedules to determine in advance where the individuals will be, and when the...

<<<Marketers, political organizers, and other social engineers are tracking, capturing, and controlling people right now. They track the marks you make, how you vote, the websites you visit, and where you spend your money. They know your timetables, they feed you the media you passively consume. Humanity was captured long ago by the meme of civilization, and ever since civilization has been working on humanity’s domestication. Domesticated animals are treated in a different manner than wild beasts. The emphasis shifts from finding and capturing individuals to managing and controlling the herd. The herders hand down schedules to determine in advance where the individuals will be, and when they’ll be there. They worry about tracking the herd in clusters, and as long as the individuals remain within the bounds they’ve set, they’ll overlook the intricacies of individual behaviors. It is only those who stray out from the edges of the herd that the herders send the dogs after the lone individual, although it’s important to realize in this metaphor that even the dogs the herders send out are domesticated. Domesticated animals are the most predictable of all, as even their strayings are predictable so the herders eventually forget how to cope with the truly unpredictable.>>>

<<<Of course, looking at life in this kind of metaphor for too long will probably trigger some paranoid ideations. It’s all too easy to fall prey to a ludic fallacy of viewing all of reality as a virtual space constructed by our patterning brains busy assembling fragmented signals and then filling in the gaps between the connections of our associative networks. As our conscious experience lags behind the events and actions of our lives, reality looks like an explanation made up after the fact. However, a certain amount of life-as-game analogy does open up enormous possibilities for triggering change in the world. As a friend of the authors says, ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’
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<<<Of course, looking at life in this kind of metaphor for too long will probably trigger some paranoid ideations. It’s all too easy to fall prey to a ludic fallacy of viewing all of reality as a virtual space constructed by our patterning brains busy assembling fragmented signals and then filling in the gaps between the connections of our associative networks. As our conscious experience lags behind the events and actions of our lives, reality looks like an explanation made up after the fact. However, a certain amount of life-as-game analogy does open up enormous possibilities for triggering change in the world. As a friend of the authors says, ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’

When attempting to effect changes on others using memetic techniques, there are many layers of organization you can concentrate on, and many different angles of approach you can use. You could look at the linear causative structure of narrative, or instead focus on the underlying network structure of association. You could work with the cognitive layers of thought and emotion, or instead focus on preconscious drives and desires. You could target the aggregate predictabilities of market segments or the specific peculiarities of individuals. Whatever you are attempting to accomplish, your signal should be fine-tuned to affect it’s audience on the precise layers you have targeted.>>>

FT. I think you are right to point to other ('forward looking') faculties, and other levels of thinking. I think that you are able to distinguish between the use of discursive, symbolic communication (close, precise, logical, conventional or usage-agreed), and the appropriateness at times of using 'poetic', allusive language, creative thinking. My reference to <simile, metaphor,concept etc> by bringing together the use of imagery and the use of conceptual intelligence was very compressed, and I am sorry for being like this especially on a sunday, but in sum: there is discursive thinking, there is 'poetic' thinking, and a position that is aware of both. This sum is a highly simplified concept...

FT. I think you are right to point to other ('forward looking') faculties, and other levels of thinking. I think that you are able to distinguish between the use of discursive, symbolic communication (close, precise, logical, conventional or usage-agreed), and the appropriateness at times of using 'poetic', allusive language, creative thinking. My reference to <simile, metaphor,concept etc> by bringing together the use of imagery and the use of conceptual intelligence was very compressed, and I am sorry for being like this especially on a sunday, but in sum: there is discursive thinking, there is 'poetic' thinking, and a position that is aware of both. This sum is a highly simplified concept, and as such, as provisional and transitory as anything. I don't want you to be so far out on alimb that you risk falling off, but if you ever do I will try to catch you! Also, I will try to be less allusive and more clear in future. Promise!

I agree entirely with your last sentences, and tried to say the division was very simple (transitory, provisional) and that the recognition of this is the last sentence of your comment.
More importantly, totally agree with your general view of the memes issue. And so does the book, and its general sources on greylodge. Very much do I agree. I would not like to be thought disowning autonomy, but it is sunday and anyway not appropriate to go through all the stuffing of determinism etc. Agreement can be clouded by lack of clarity, and then clarification is called for, but there is a deeper level of agreement more characterised by interest, orientation, and values (not moral, aesthetic or politi...

I agree entirely with your last sentences, and tried to say the division was very simple (transitory, provisional) and that the recognition of this is the last sentence of your comment.
More importantly, totally agree with your general view of the memes issue. And so does the book, and its general sources on greylodge. Very much do I agree. I would not like to be thought disowning autonomy, but it is sunday and anyway not appropriate to go through all the stuffing of determinism etc. Agreement can be clouded by lack of clarity, and then clarification is called for, but there is a deeper level of agreement more characterised by interest, orientation, and values (not moral, aesthetic or political values). Have much fun in the wonderful playground!