setsly ,
@setsly@mindly.social avatar

@vegetarianzombie @KevinMarks @knittingknots2 @tsrandall

Part 5 of a series—irreproachable, near-perfect profile or intro quotes that I wish I had thought of first! To have used myself, or aspired to use myself:

"Aspiring Daydreamer"
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"Reading your thoughts, if you write them down first."
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"Remember, physics wins in the end."
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"Opinions are, too often, my own."

https://mastodon.social/@vegetarianzombie

https://xoxo.zone/@KevinMarks

https://mstdn.social/@knittingknots2

https://fosstodon.org/@tsrandall

KevinMarks ,
@KevinMarks@xoxo.zone avatar

@setsly @vegetarianzombie @knittingknots2 @tsrandall thank you kindly. I have a longform version in a blogpost from 22(!) years ago when I was more hopeful about the web
https://epeus.blogspot.com/2002/04/i-can-read-peoples-thoughts.html

I can read people's thoughts. Using an ancient technology, handed down over millennia, improved and refined along the way, I am able to read people's thoughts. And not just people nearby, or people I know. I can even read dead people's thoughts. This gives me a great deal of power and knowledge - I can learn from their lives, their experiences, their dreams and fears, their insights and imaginings. I can study their successes and failures, learn from their great ideas and their mistakes, absorb their experiences, laugh at their jokes and wince at their pain. This may seem like a scary idea - you may feel nervous and want to avoid me, but don't worry. I can only read your thoughts if you want me to. You need to be part of this too. You need to write your thoughts for me to read them. That's right. I'm not talking about anything mystical or occult. Or perhaps I am - writing is an amazing technology; only slightly less amazing than language itself. To commune with others, breaking the bonds of space and time, is a wonderful privilege. Small Pieces describes how a newer technology has made it easier than ever before to experience the thoughts of others and share our own. Truly the last thing out of the Pandora's Box of the Internet is this Hope.
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    • setsly OP ,
    @setsly@mindly.social avatar

    @KevinMarks @vegetarianzombie @knittingknots2 @tsrandall @bookstodon

    Nice last line, there, Mr. Marks. Your words remind me of a passage from Kevin Kelly's great 2010 book, WHAT TECHNOLOGY WANTS, which I am now re-reading (referring to the same situation mentioned at the end your blog post):

    "At the very cultural moment when pundits declared that writing was dead, millions began writing online more than they ever had written before."

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Kelly_(editor)

    https://kk.org/books/what-technology-wants

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