h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In the search for a name, the lack of a name becomes a name.
The strongest are those who need no names.
Names associate with names. Those who control the names control us.

(Written at two in the morning, and feeling very sleep-stoned.)

I've thought in the past that names are just labels that restrict free-thinking. Labels also start a lot of fights ('This is an X', 'No it's not, it is a Y', etc, where X and Y are just labels, not the item itself, 'God' being a biggie.)

Study a book on semantics, to get a more academic and stuffier approach. If I say that all men are bastards, and the only bastards are men, that does not mean that X is Y. (I believe) X may be a Y, and Y's may be X's, while in my opinion, Z could be bad, but X's can't be Y's, Y's aren't X's, and Z's aren't bad.
Many people would agree, Zu. The only problem is, that's how our minds work, by associative labelling. I can't wait until the next step of evolution* - that will be in our minds alone, and transcendence will be coming.
* Evolution, not in its merely biological sense - I believe that social evolution is at least as important for humans.

Mr Zucchini,

Need you to change my guide entry. Have no idea what everyone is moaning about.
You are now a regestered editor.

Poor ol' Zucchini ain't online right now. Why post this on a thread for my homepage?

crankyboots

Aniki: Just because you added me as a contributing researcher doesn't mean that I can edit the page
Fnord: Bob Wilson suggested that we replace the word 'is' with 'seems to me to be'. This will solve so many arguments.
"This film is crap"
"No it's not, it's fantastic!"
"I completely disagree, now respect you less."

To be replaced with:
"This film seems to me to be crap"
"Fair, enough; you're saying that the sensation of crapness is emerging from a combination of the film's audio and visuals with your neural network, rather than you implying that the quality of crapness is inherent in the film itself, which is incorrect... er which would seem to me to be incorrect."

Also Hitler wouldn't have been able to generalise all Jews as being evil, etc.

I'm well aware of him writing that, the pity is it's not an original idea. I think it was Gurdjieff's or Leary's. But a rule like that would need to be enforced, and in Hitler's case, the conditions were such that even then many people would've followed him. It would however ruin free speech and the media, or at least cripple them. Isn't it a little ridiculous to have a rule for every one of man's speech patterns? This is how we talk. If we went around doing it, I fear the world would be a much worse and more scientific place. Artists would probably have to include an "opinion" clause on any works. Much, now I come to think of it, like writers currently have to.

I was kind of joking about the word change; a language structure where you effectively have to say '...in my opinion' after every 'to be' verb would be completely tedious... er in my opinion.
It can't be enforced, and in no way do I think that any language structure should be enforced; People _should_ think a little bit about what they mean when they say 'X IS Y' but most people I meet don't. They admit that it is just an opinion when pushed on the subject but this seems to be just a formality.
Even if the word 'is' _was_ replaced with a different 'seems to me to be' phrase the human brain is such that we would retain the new label but the meaning would revert back and arguments about whether Star Wars: Episode II is a good film or a crap film will continue.

"Well, that's just like... your opinion, man!" - I forget where that quote is from, I think it's Brad Pitt's character in True Romance. It's a great line to kill any kind of argument.

So was Bob Wilson, but it still has a grain of truth in it.
"No language structure can be enforced"? _Every_ language structure is enforced by the culture.
Everyone knows that they're the center of the universe. They may think that they're more evolved because they understand that science tells them differently, but they're lying to themselves. Nothing can be done to change that, or we would not be sentient.
The only way to accomplish this entire joke would be to change the or use a different language in which the entire "in my opinion" subclause is automatically contained and associated with the "is".
Fight Club is the best movie ever made, AND it stars Brad Pitt, AND it's a very clever social commentary. In my opinion.

So was Bob Wilson, but it still has a grain of truth in it.
"No language structure can be enforced"? _Every_ language structure is enforced by the culture.
Everyone knows that they're the center of the universe. They may think that they're more evolved because they understand that science tells them differently, but they're lying to themselves. Nothing can be done to change that, or we would not be sentient.
The only way to accomplish this entire joke would be to change the or use a different language in which the entire "in my opinion" subclause is automatically contained and associated with the "is".
Fight Club is the best movie ever made, AND it stars Brad Pitt, AND it's a very clever social commentary. In my opinion.

My vision of someone 'enforcing' a language is the situation in Orwell's 1984. So if I say 'excellent' instead of 'double plus good', the thought police come round and bag me up. Eek!
The 'in my opinion' subclause might work if it was taught early on in education. However, we've always been taught 'facts' rather than opinions. I'm rather quick to say 'The Earth IS a spheroid' because of this. Now I'm beginning to deprogram all the crap I was taught I can finally say 'The Earth, eh? What the hell would I know?'
Rather strayed from your posting on names, care to comment further on it?

Straying from the posting? What is there to explain? I tried to make a thought of mine easy to understand as an incitement to debate, that's all.
The best education is no education. Maybe I'll add that to the entry.
Being taught something at an early age to change our culture consciously - how is that different from 1984, or the end of Animal Farm? As long as our educators, our parents, continue to be ignorant of how to educate humanity into freedom, we can retain the hope of being free, but if we attempt to free ourselves actively, we lose it once again. A fine paradox, eh?

I just wondered if you had some hindsight annotation, no need to bite my head orf.
The way our language is programmed into us restricts our uh.. 'reality-view'? Although I can't exactly show that one way or the other. At the moment I'm pretty free to make up new words for new concepts and wibbly grammar without being eeblsparbed by govpolnids.
Remembered another quote (which you've probably already heard of): William Borroughs this time: Ginsberg and friends asked him if something needed to be viewed by other people for it to become art, or if it could still be art if it was constructed alone with no-one else seeing it. His answer was something like: "That's the stupidest question I ever heard of, it depends on how you want to define the word 'art'. Words don't have a built in definition."

I prefer the term "reality-matrice" or "individual universe".
As for the biting off of heads - just because I don't throw smilies carelessly after every sentence I stutter, doesn't mean that I'm not laughing...
Haven't heard the quote, actually. But while words may not have set definitions, they certainly have individual connotations that are strong enough to count as such - the word "n****r" springs to mind.

Do you mind if I ask you why today is a sad day? That spider in the corner of your room looks happy enough.

Ah I see now... No need to reply if you don't wanna. I'm sure a quick would clear everything up or maybe not.

I'd just been warned not to talk to P-C again, and then azahar shouted at me for a bit and said she didn't want me to be her friend. But the latter's all fixed up now. I really should change my intro, but what to? A poem? A story? A zen koan? Haiku? Just don't know anymore.

Wibbling inanely for eight or nine paragraphs is popular, I understand.