[ExI] Artificial Battles

[Natasha Vita-More]

Please remove my name from this thread!

Thank you.

Natasha


-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Mike Dougherty
Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2012 11:04 AM
To: ExI chat list
Subject: [ExI] Artificial Battles was Natasha's brand new doctorate

On Sat, Jul 14, 2012 at 11:13 AM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
> My proposal for our race: get rid of those artificial battles which 
> are physically dangerous: the kinds that involve military anything or 
> any kind of physical injury or serious death to anyone.  Keep and 
> nurture the rest of them, while inventing new and interesting 
> challenges in which humans and corporations may compete, the result of 
> which is excellence for all and superiority for some.

Have you never seen an infomercial?  These mind-penetrating jingles and
artificial gotta-have-it responses are masterful exploitation of psychology
and culture.  Sure you may be immune to the want/need for a hand-puppet
attached to a blanket*, but you are caught in the crossfire when your child
becomes infected with this meme.  Even if you say "No" there are
grandparents whose immunity [so strong when you were a child] failed the
moment your own kids arrived.

The marketing environment is producing arguably toxic levels of competing
memes.  I'm horrified and fascinated by where evolution will take this
trend.

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UFUwjvYtsU
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