Re: [-empyre-] [true/false] states

[ben syverson <ben@bensyverson.com>]

On May 13, 2004, at 12:03 PM, jonCates wrote:

> i agree w/ben that [community based/decentralized] models 
> [encourage/enable] ongoing [alterations/revisions] to false [+/or] 
> misleading nfo, however, this dynamic can also be easily reversed 
> increasing the [confusion/uncertainty/deceptiveness] of the nfo.

Yes, although on the whole, this doesn't happen. When it does, it is 
carried out by individuals, and their disruptions are [amended/altered] 
by the [community/collective].

> we should resist the impulse to make greater truth claims due to our 
> decentralized + community-oriented [approach/structure]. doing so 
> risks our enthusiasm being mistaken for technosocial positivism.

Yes, I should make it clear that when I say "truth" I mean it in the 
Sherry Miller Hocking sense, not the [absolute/objective] sense. I 
don't think I was arguing that liken allows for "greater truth;" simply 
that, as I mentioned in my final sentence, the climate for 
[mis/dis]information is rather inhospitable on liken, whereas the 
climate for [multiple/hyperthreaded] [hysteries/narratives] is 
extremely hospitable.

I should also take this opportunity to make it clear that seeing a 
liken model adopted for the nightly news is not one of our goals, and 
criticalartware as a group has no visions of a liken utopia. Also, 
personally I believe categorically that no piece of software in the 
history of computers has been "revolutionary." Maybe the rest of 
criticalartware would agree. Every individual piece of software in 
[hi/her]story has been iteratively built based on existing technologies 
and software, and is eminently "evolutionary."

So that may help inform the perception of my feelings on liken, a 
system which I think is an interesting and (to me) obvious 
[extension/conflation] of wikis, search engines and web forums. All of 
the coreDevelopers of criticalartware are excited about liken. However, 
we cannot stress enough that this excitement springs from the desire to 
see a resource of narratives and [hi/her]stories grow and intertwine, 
not from, as jonCates put it, technosocial positivism.

- ben