Modernity, Gaming, Flowers for Algernon

[tcpip]

Have been struggling for a few days with an article that I'm planning to submit to the Journal of Evolution and Technology. My working hypothesis takes aim the classic sociological arguments of Marx and Weber who, respectively, argued that the transformation from feudalism to capitalism (or traditional to modern society, if you like) was due to either changes in the productive forces or changes to the mode of consciousness. This 'chicken-or-egg' scenario has been part of a debate within social theory for the better part of a hundred years. My preferred option, which combines both, is that it was specifically the introduction of movable type press with an alphabetic script that initiated the successful change. My argument is reformative heresies would not be able to spread without these conditions, and that other technologies (seafaring, gunpowder etc) were either not unique nor critical for the social transformation. I am very interested in alternative ideas that readers may have on this matter.

Thursday night was a session of Masks of Nyarlathotep where the PCs made use of one of the plot exploits in the game, using a medium character to summon back the spirit of the McGuffin character, Jackson Elias, in a seance scene which included some revelation of what was being planned (the opening of the gate), when it was going to happen (the solar eclipse), and where (Kenya, Australia, and China). Turning the volume up to eleven in the HeroQuest Glorantha pbem game, the Red Moon has disappeared (and Harajallenburg has been taken over by drunk trollkin). I am also in the process of putting up a great number of GURPS books up for sale on the RPG Review store for those interested in that game system and will be submitting reviews for two books I received and read this week Never Unprepared and Odyessey. My initial thoughts is they are useful, but surprisingly (given that they make a point of an author being experienced in the field) lack as much project management input as I thought would be present.

Daniel Keyes, author of Flowers for Algernon, has recently died. I found myself quite affected by this, and found myself engaging in some soul-searching for the reasons. Flowers is, of course, quite a brilliant short-story and book in that genre of "contemporary science fiction". It is extremely well-written in its relevant style, and with great secondary thematic content and claims for people with an interest in artificial intelligence, neurology, and education (artificially-induced intelligence deteriorates at a rate of time directly proportional to the quantity of the increase). There is an obvious appeal for rodent fanciers as well; as a youngster shortly before I first read the story, I had pet mice, as an adult I have graduated from mus minimus to mus maximus. What is especially moving however about the story is that despite the rise and fall of Charlie Gordon's intelligence is that he remains a well-meaning, kind, and good person. The story is a reminder of humility for those who are intelligent, and an appeal to use one's intellect for good. If Charlie Gordon can be a good person what the hell is stopping you? That is, to me, the real genuis in the tale. PS: please if you get a chanse put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the bak yard

Comments

[leo-sosnine.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is brilliant. And after all, we are all in pretty much the same position as Charlie, because we are dumb when we are young, then we are excited about discovering cool things, then we feel ourselves almost almighty, then we realize that we actually move towards the end and we try to think this through and fight it, then we die. If there are some extraterrestrial beings watching us, they might feel something similar to people around Charlie, watching him grow intellectually, watching him shine and watching him fade in a very short period of time. That's a tragedy.

I hope some day human civilization will overcome death. And before that, I hope humanity will be able to put an end to all the evil, selfishness, violence, etc so this won't enter eternity.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Making the comparison between intellectual age and development is a very interesting one, and not one which I had considered. Mainly, I suppose, because people of at least pre-adolescent age tend to associate with their own age group. Charlie Gordon was in some ways a child's intelligence in an adult's body (to use the mental age metaphor.

The promise of modernity that it will reduce suffering and even overcome death through scientific inquiry has been a long standing one and even with a lot of optimism. Even in prison the Marquis de Condorcet wrote about the potential of the Enlightenment to provide such a promise..

It is manifest that the improvement of the practice of medicine, become more efficacious in consequence [290] of the progress of reason and the social order, must in the end put a period to transmissible or contagious disorders, as well to those general maladies resulting from climate, aliments, and the nature of certain occupations. Nor would it be difficult to prove that this hope might be extended to almost every other malady, of which it is probable we shall hereafter discover the most remote causes. Would it even be absurd to suppose this quality of melioration in the human species as susceptible of an indefinate advancement; to suppose that a period must one day arrive when death will be nothing more than the effect either of extraordinary accidents, or of the slow and gradual decay of the vital powers; and that the duration of the middle space, of the interval between the birth of man and this decay, will itself have no assignable limit?

From: http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1669

[delphipsmith]

...either changes in the productive forces or changes to the mode of consciousness. This 'chicken-or-egg' scenario... Chicken and egg implies a point of change/differentiation: it was this, now it's that. What if it's more a spiral, constantly on the move? Or a Moebius strip, which is always both this and that at one and the same time?

We've been watching Ricky Gervais' Derek. Algernon-y in many ways. Every episode includes at least one thing that makes me go leaky around the eyes.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting thought and one which I will have to explore further. At the moment, I am tending towards the chicken-and-egg because of course there is solution to that problem. The egg was laid by a pre-chicken which included an evolutionary species change towards chickendom. The related example is that whilst other societies had preconditions and sometimes advantageous preconditions for movable type print with an alphabetic script, it was really a combination of luck that put them altogether in the one place.

The Chinese, for example, had the printing press but with logographic characters it was great for cementing the bureaucracy, but not so good for the sort of social revolution that propelled Europe into modernity.

Not familiar with Derek (I'm terrible at popular culture, and increasingly so), so thanks for the heads-up on that. I'll have a look at it.

[delphipsmith]

As to other candidates for the catalyst from feudal to capitalist, what about the rise of corporations -- the chartered monopolies like the Dutch East India Company, the Hudson Bay Company, etc.? They came along later than the printing press, but are closely tied to the rise of the middle class as well as to government's involvement in business, both of which are key elements of a capitalist society, right?

Douglas Rushkoff's Life, Inc., is overtly slanted (as one can tell from the title), but the first part of the book does a great job tracing the influence of corporations on shaping modern life.

This would seem to straddle the fence between Marx and Weber. It isn't a new mode of production, although it sort of is since it involves business, and it isn't a new mode of consciousness, although it sort of is since it is (or led to) a new way of thinking about what constitutes an entity (corporations are people, agh).

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Yes, those monopolies were enormously important (an accounting textbook I had once claimed that modern society depends on double-entry bookkeeping!). They arose after the Reformation wars, which basically meant that the newly independent nation-states could apply their own political and imperialist agenda.

The history chain as I see it is:

printing press - reformation wars - mercantilism expansion - industrial revolution

I don't think the reformation wars could have succeeded without the (movable type, alphabetic) printing press, and as a result I don't think the mercantilist period would have followed either. If print didn't happen I suspect the reformation groups would have ended up rather like their fellow predecessors (e.g,. Bogomilists, Cathars, Hussites) and the expansion would have never occurred. Interestingly, by pure stumbling discovery, the industrial revolution may have occurred eventually, but still with a medieval religious-metaphysical worldview.

[delphipsmith]

Now there's an idea for an AU sf novel...

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

It would be quite terrifying... Rather like the rule of the religious fundamentalists in some middle-eastern countries. Premodern theology with modern technology? Think of the 20th century totalitarian systems but add a religious flavour.

[delphipsmith]

Muad'Dib's jihad :)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Australia as Dune would work quite well I suspect, especially with kangaroo mice.

I wonder what would make up for the Spice.