A Muse

Thursday and Friday I was feeling really worn out -- maybe all this freezing weather. I resolved to get up this morning, take the dog out, and go back to bed. Which I did around 8.

So back in bed, I'm in the hypnagogic state, half awake, half dreaming, and I notice three times that the hit parade (the music that always plays in my head) is playing original songs! Brand new! Just then made up! And of course, completely forgotten now.

So, when I want to starting writing songs, here's the methodology: stay abed late, with a recorder, and record these new songs as they come in.

Interesting, the way your mind puts together random memes to produce your dreams -- the exact thing seemed to be happening with the background music to the dreams, hence the new songs. Hmmm, memes recombining frantically, this is probably a good source of creative input for most things. Just a little directed dreaming when you stay in bed too long with a recorder handy. I had a really good idea about work that is now forgotten.

I'm blogging this hot of the presses so I don't forget it. You know how dreams are.

Who'da Thunk It?

Happy New Year! I was looking for a file from late 2000 on my computer and stumbled across ... the outline for a book I was apparently thinking about writing, dated November 18, 1999. I had completely forgotten about this. A post-humanist manifesto!  It does look like topics that were covered in the blog. Anyway, here it is:

In Our Childhood – 

The Human Race Emerges from its Infancy

“There is nothing new under the sun”

History of Human Intelligence 
follow outline from Bicameral Theory

Bicameral Theory 

Modern Theory – the Influence of Computing 

Traces of our Infancy 

Primate Social Patterns

• male social models – hierarchy – mapped into most governments
• female social models -- networks 

Religion

• statistics on belief in a god, life-after-death
• UFOs and modern cults 

Gambling

• history of gambling???
• Similar activity in other species?
• Risk-taking behavior as a variant? 

Substance Abuse

• background and history
• other species that use mind-altering substances 

Collecting

• things people collect – include books, skills, ideas;
• other species that collect 

Cult of Personality

• suspension of disbelief for actors
• role-playing games
• fanhood 

Signs of Maturation

• are we putting “pecking order” behind us? No -- look at mating patterns in high schools -- still totally instinctive alpha/beta. Columbine -- video/role-playing games short-circuit normal alpha dominance reinforcement rituals. 

Future of Human Intelligence

• interfaces to computing
• engineered memes