[extropy-chat] For Us, The Living

[David Lubkin]

At 10:07 AM 1/6/2004 -0800, Adrian Tymes wrote:

>General trick: when someone seems to spout nonsense or
>impossibilities, see if there are alternate meanings
>of certain terms which, when used instead, would make
>what is said make sense.  If so, then it is most
>likely the case that this alternate was what was
>meant.

But it's not as much fun.

Harlan Ellison once wrote of his penchant for deliberate mishearing. The 
example he cited was: on seeing a sign for a Chinese hand laundry, he 
imagined a washing machine with tumbling Chinese hands.

Since I read this some decades ago, I have cultivated this knack myself. 
It's most entertaining when you have someone similarly warped to riff with.

4 -- alternate meaning is generated with the same meaning of the same words 
but a different intonation
3 -- different sense of one or more words
2 -- relying on homonyms
1 -- non-homonym puns

Besides its recreational side, it can be an effective source of story or 
product ideas.  Also, if you are writing something you want to be taken 
seriously -- a product name, a campaign slogan, a soundbite for the evening 
news -- it's useful to consider how your opposition (or Jay Leno) can 
misconstrue what you wrote.

And I think it has nootropic benefits.

Similar exercise: choose two words at random.

(a) Come up with a real-world linkage between them; or
(b) Come up with a fantasy or sf interpretation of their combination.

Or, take a random noun.  Put a technology buzzword, like "virtual," 
"remote," "collaborative," or "nano" in front of it.  See if the 
combination is new, interesting, and useful.

Any other techniques y'all use to limber up your creativity and imagination?


-- David Lubkin.

"somewhere between genius and a toaster"