RE: >H Scorecard Mentalities vs. Sporing Memes

["O'Regan, Emlyn" <Emlyn.ORegan@actew.com.au>]

Transhuman Mailing List

John S. Novak III wrote:
> >Seems to me there is both room and requirement for both.
> >With only sparring ideas, one is necessarily left with a rather stark
> >and sterile field of thought.  With only sporing memes, one is
> >necessarily left with a head full of self-contradictory fungus.
> >
> >(I love metaphors....)
> 
> 
> How about the upside: With sporing, one could continue to reproduce and
> grow --leaving ample room for dealing with life's inconsistencies; or also
> play dormant, if necessary. Sparring could certanly eliminate conversation
> and keep someone from being hurt; or functon as a steardy liason between
> disparate thoughts.
> 
> Natasha
> 
This sounds like critical thinking (sparring) vs creative thinking (sporing)
to me. Logic vs intuition. I find (here we go on the warm and fuzzies) that
you need both to alternate in order to come up with something useful. First
a bit of inspiration (a bunch of crazy ideas), then some critical analysis
(perspiration) to prune things back and connect disparate concepts together
correctly, then a bit more creativity to build on what you already have,
then more logical reduction, etc.

I think that Natasha is suggesting that sporing memes is the important part,
with a bit of criticism to keep things on track. I'd suggest that this is
fine for the greater evolution of memes, but maybe not so hot for the poor
old hosts (that's us, by the way). In my experience (vast, towering,
megolith of crystalised success that it is), the 2% inspiration / 98%
perspiration rule holds up well (or is that 3%/97%, I can't remember). The
percentage for inspiration might be a little higher; the guys in the
creative department seem to do a lot of work offline. Still, I'd hold out
that the logical thinking stage of creative work far outweighs the
inspirational stage. Unless you create unmitigated crap. But that's a story
for another place and another time.

Good grief; end of ramble
Emlyn
The Land Canaan
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