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Arden
לנשום
Registered: 09/01/08
Posts: 7,666
Loc: Α & Ω
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Analyzing the Analyzers
#8931873 - 09/15/08 04:35 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Do you ever peak behind the psychedelic curtain and glance at the message board itself through dilated pupils? Have the deeper implications of this communication technology ever occured to anyone, if so, in what way?
Little smiley faces indicate a plethora of human emotions, all without using a real face; emphasis of semantic meaning exists in font colors, sizes, exclaimation points, etc. rather than tone of voice or other organic features. We stare at symbolic lines (words) on a brightly lit computer screen and learn about other's experiences, suggestions, and inspirations about psychedelic worlds that strangely resemble our own. But in normal, sober, waking reality, it all seems so subtle and common--"of course it is just a message board, an internet forum where what you see is what you get. Big deal." We have become completely adjusted to the existence of ideas that a century ago were completely unthinkable.
It is peculiar that we have a desire to share these altered experiences through media, art, music, dance, and humor. It is as though the experience itself is communicating to itself, designing itself in other people, by using inspiration as its influence. Jumping political hurdles, playing hide and seek in music speakers, meditating in paint brushes, dancing on the fingers of musicians, laughing in the lenses of microscopes and telescopes, swimming through networks that it creates. If one looks hard enough, you can find it anywhere.
Some people have expressed concerns that the gnostic wisdom of entheogens is fading, being trampled and replaced by novel ideas that aren't half as worthy. I think these individuals are misinformed, tricked into believing that something so old, so powerful, so integrated, can somehow become unimportant or obsolete. The natural world has supported us through its every means since the very beginning, from nutrients, to fuel, to psilocybin. The unified actions of our species--however detrimental it may appear--doesn't represent the independent branching off of nature or a turning against it. As it has always been, it represents a flowing stream of cohesive "inter-being" that cannot go away or be separated. Any movement within the system is itself a movement of the system.
What sort of conclusions have you come to about these forums? What sort of ideas or insights do you get from here that extend beyond its disquise as a message board?
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deCypher
Registered: 02/10/08
Posts: 56,232
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Re: Analyzing the Analyzers [Re: Arden]
#8932261 - 09/15/08 08:43 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Interesting post; but what's your point? Simply that an online message board is an altogether new thing in the history of communication?
-------------------- We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
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Arden
לנשום
Registered: 09/01/08
Posts: 7,666
Loc: Α & Ω
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Re: Analyzing the Analyzers [Re: deCypher]
#8932384 - 09/15/08 09:35 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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My point (there are a few) is that what appears on a blue background as a series of conversations to our visual system, can be interpreted in an entirely different way. More so, I was suggesting that when we look hard enough at things, we become closer to surmising its origin and function. In this case, it was applied to our Shroomery message board being better described as a network, data flow, meme games, a manifestion of the "cosmic giggle", and so on.
From a psychological standpoint, the signatures may represent personalities, or life mottos, or even a lack of creativity. The avatars may represent how we see ourselves, or rather how we want to be seen. I wanted to explore the symbolism and metaphors here in general.
Is this all merely energy flow, are we intellectuals on the verge of something new, or mere potheads meandering the same pseudo-scientific bullshit since the 1960's? Is the philosophy forum a place of discussion and inquiry, or is it a place to flaunt your ego and continue conflict? Are some of the cultivators looking for a get-rich-scheme, a hobby, or are they looking for enlightenment?
What you see is never what you get, as opposed to what a member said on another thread earlier. I wanted to ask what people see whenever they look around here--on a level that goes beyond w o r d s.
I wasn't being overly specific. Just analyze the analyzers.
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deCypher
Registered: 02/10/08
Posts: 56,232
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Re: Analyzing the Analyzers [Re: Arden]
#8932429 - 09/15/08 10:02 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Arden said: Is this all merely energy flow, are we intellectuals on the verge of something new, or mere potheads meandering the same pseudo-scientific bullshit since the 1960's? Is the philosophy forum a place of discussion and inquiry, or is it a place to flaunt your ego and continue conflict? Are some of the cultivators looking for a get-rich-scheme, a hobby, or are they looking for enlightenment?
All of the above. Trying to pin down the nature of something so vast and individual-specific as this is ultimately futile--as the Internet, ideas, and the world evolves, so too will The Shroomery.
-------------------- We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
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figmentfragment
leaving shroomery
Registered: 04/10/07
Posts: 1,226
Loc:
Last seen: 13 years, 3 months
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Re: Analyzing the Analyzers [Re: Arden]
#8932445 - 09/15/08 10:07 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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I contemplate different levels of this place all the time. I observe the way people speak, just as much as what they say.
I contemplate their motives and attitudes.
Sometimes I feel quite sentimental towards certain personalities, even the ones I dislike, simply out of frequency and familiarity.
Sometimes I find people tedious and repetitive, and I will ignore whatever they say instantly, to perhaps realise later, that it was actually worth some attention.
Having just broken off a long term internet relationship, I know all too well, the meaning of identifying with symbols. And the using the internet as a tool for emotional and mental bonding.
-------------------- Goodbye Shroomery.
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Arden
לנשום
Registered: 09/01/08
Posts: 7,666
Loc: Α & Ω
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Quote:
I contemplate different levels of this place all the time. I observe the way people speak, just as much as what they say.
I contemplate their motives and attitudes.
Sometimes I feel quite sentimental towards certain personalities, even the ones I dislike, simply out of frequency and familiarity.
Sometimes I find people tedious and repetitive, and I will ignore whatever they say instantly, to perhaps realise later, that it was actually worth some attention.
Having just broken off a long term internet relationship, I know all too well, the meaning of identifying with symbols. And the using the internet as a tool for emotional and mental bonding.
I feel very much the same.
A long time ago I used to be a moderator at the Lycaeum, and though there wasn't much drama there at all during the time, given a familiarity with the people and the various nature of those relationships, I found it became increasingly difficult to make unbiased judgments about the posters and the topics.
It is curious to me how much inference we are able to make from reading. Pictures and music aside, a lot can be assumed over time when exposed to someone's particular way of thinking. Much can be missed due to interpretation and the limitations of words, but there is also the potential to understand so much more when given a leisurely amount of time to describe whatever you so choose. For this reason, a lot of "internet relationships" can be meaningful and deep being that they lack some of the ambiguity that is found in face-to-face conversation.
Quote:
All of the above. Trying to pin down the nature of something so vast and individual-specific as this is ultimately futile--as the Internet, ideas, and the world evolves, so too will The Shroomery.
That is very true. Although my main goal in listing all of those presumptions was to illustrate the intention of my original post; to question something going on behind the scenes, not necessarily an individual scene in particular.
As an aside, if our political society keeps "evolving" backwards, the Shroomery may end up in the same cache pile as Overgrow.com.
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deCypher
Registered: 02/10/08
Posts: 56,232
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Re: Analyzing the Analyzers [Re: Arden]
#8932518 - 09/15/08 10:33 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Arden said: For this reason, a lot of "internet relationships" can be meaningful and deep being that they lack some of the ambiguity that is found in face-to-face conversation.
If anything, I'd say the opposite is true. Sheer text loses that whole emotional undertone and context that body language and hand gestures bring with face-to-face conversation. (And emoticons can hardly do these justice, although they try valiantly.)
-------------------- We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
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Lakefingers
Registered: 08/26/05
Posts: 6,440
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Re: Analyzing the Analyzers [Re: Arden]
#8932548 - 09/15/08 10:40 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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I am here for the the kaleidoscope of "semantic meaning" as you call it.
However, I don't think anything is disguised in the message board. I see it as a message board. As a message board it is a terrific and vast thing.
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Lakefingers
Registered: 08/26/05
Posts: 6,440
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Re: Analyzing the Analyzers *DELETED* [Re: deCypher]
#8932569 - 09/15/08 10:45 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Post deleted by Lakefingers
Reason for deletion: No reason.
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deCypher
Registered: 02/10/08
Posts: 56,232
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Re: Analyzing the Analyzers [Re: Lakefingers]
#8932583 - 09/15/08 10:49 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Right, and I'm not saying that online forum discussion is reduced to purely logical contemplation of ideas. Instead, the lack of underlying emotional context makes for a great deal of ambiguity in discussion, and this is correspondingly why so many flame wars and arguments hinging around single, trivial points pop up on here--because it's so easy to misunderstand the context of a person's statement, definitions, and mindset at the time.
-------------------- We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
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Lakefingers
Registered: 08/26/05
Posts: 6,440
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Re: Analyzing the Analyzers [Re: deCypher]
#8932606 - 09/15/08 10:54 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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My experience has also been that flame wars, etc, start off because there are a lot of (often young) immature males with pent up anger who suddenly discover the internet is like a rage-vent.
I agree. Speech, being in person... is still superior. At the same time there are aspects to communication here, that you cannot get when ItheRL presence of another.
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Arden
לנשום
Registered: 09/01/08
Posts: 7,666
Loc: Α & Ω
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Re: Analyzing the Analyzers [Re: deCypher]
#8932623 - 09/15/08 10:58 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
If anything, I'd say the opposite is true. Sheer text loses that whole emotional undertone and context that body language and hand gestures bring with face-to-face conversation. (And emoticons can hardly do these justice, although they try valiantly.)
On one level. Yet, unlike message boards, face-to-face conversation and the nonverbal language involved is usually instantaneous and irrevocable. Text is more open ended, and you can take as long as you want to decide upon your reply, and you are also able to use as many words as you please... as opposed to the impulsive nature of rapid conversation.
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deCypher
Registered: 02/10/08
Posts: 56,232
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Re: Analyzing the Analyzers [Re: Arden]
#8932639 - 09/15/08 11:02 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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True this. Better thought-out replies and the ability to calmly reflect upon an argument rather than let one's emotional impulses take control at the expense of increased ambiguity is the essence of message board communication IMO.
-------------------- We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
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Lakefingers
Registered: 08/26/05
Posts: 6,440
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Re: Analyzing the Analyzers [Re: Arden]
#8932644 - 09/15/08 11:03 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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If that were true, that the text here were open ended, I'm sure people would be much better at interpreting each other than they are. Or maybe it's just a question of how much text and states you've encountered yourself, which enables you to understand other things. Most of what I see in message boards is emotional response to some very thought-provoking or familiar thing, not openness.
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