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[avad]

thinking...about the search through something like LJ for a 'friend'- how would you visualize that process of random or linked reading of messages that are sent out to no 'One' destination but are there to look through....until you find someone's thoughts that intrigue you or connect with something in you enough to interact...

I picture looking down on the Earth at all these points and being able to listen in at random to 'thought broadcasts', one by chosen one, looking, searching...checking in on some friends and family, making sure everyone's ok...then looking on, listening in, swimming about...offering a bit of comfort if you come across someone in pain or particularly lonely, looking, learning about life from all different perspectives as you go, looking...:)

The colors could also indicate mood, tone, emotional state. If you wanted to find someone who was in a certain state of mind at the right time...You would SEE anger,loneliness, peace, confusion, in all the variety of shades of emotion blinking like city lights below...Here is someone who is ready to take a chance with life...someone whose heart just opened up...and they want to be of service to the world...see the color of that? Now go on down and listen in...

Comments

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Fascinating thoughts!

[writtenout.livejournal.com]

"I picture looking down on the Earth at all these points and being able to listen in at random to 'thought broadcasts',"

Isn't this a direct remembrance of Wim Wender's "Wings of Desire"
I mean the opening shot especially but the whole film?

Love the Art Pumpkin - have copied it to enjoy for a longer period off line.

Re:

[avad.livejournal.com]

That movie was SUCH a powerful visual for this feeling! I would watch just those opening scenes again and again...And then the library scenes...and the subway...
AH...but now we don't have to be 'angels' DO we?!And THAT is something worth pondering in awe.

Re: Angels & Awe

[writtenout.livejournal.com]

C'mon nowyou know I don't begin to agree with you on this. We don't pick up thoughts online. We pick up carefully constructed entries, or often as not caelessly constructedsemi-illiterate entries. No awe needed.No awe felt.

Re: Angels & Awe

[avad.livejournal.com]

*sigh* I think it's a Glass half empty/full thing again.
Tap someone on the shoulder in the supermarket and ask them how they are. Most likely you'll get a strange look and a "Um, fine" as they try to get away. Land on a diary and just listen. It's about as close as you, a stranger, can or should expect to get. What are 'thoughts'? In the movie...the angels listened in on 'thoughts'..."I can't believe this is happening again...I don't know what to do..I'm worthless...no, this time will be different.." etc. Same as I read online. Yes, this is a forum that can be used in countless different ways, we can spread lies, we can fabricate personas, we can post carefully constructed entries of fiction or semi-fiction or whathaveyou.... We can also use it as a place to put our sincere thoughts, hopes, fears, etc, and I think a lot of people do. I'm awed and happy to have any sort of access to that. And it's new. This wasn't around before. I think it's easy to just take things for granted, be cynical, but I'd much rather cultivate the wonder I feel. Growing up,I could read an edited,ultra- perfected, published diary of a select group of 'writers', most dead. None of which could I realtime, interact(!), send a word of appreciation, encouragement when it really might count even the slightest bit?. Now I can listen to the thoughts of many different types of people...yes, put into words, yes, edited to varying degrees... but these are thoughts, most of which you will never access in any other way.Many of which their real-life friends and family will not hear, for varying reasons, not the least of which is just plain and simple TIME. Depends what you're looking for, whether you're awed or not, I think. I don't feel naive at all being awed. It knocks me down. I'm nourished and I have opportunity to nourish.

Re: Angels & Awe

[writtenout.livejournal.com]

'Tap someone on the shoulder in a supermarket and ask them how they are' in my area and the glass, whether half empty or half full will end up in my face. It doesn't matter though because at the end of my street I can buy some dirty but effective smack to forget it happened.This is not awesome.

Re: Angels & Awe

[avad.livejournal.com]

Um, that's why I'm saying LJ is a just a BIT better, silly.(understatement). and sounds like you've got some moving to do. no smack for you. why the bitterness?

Re: Angels & Awe

[writtenout.livejournal.com]

Why the bitterness (excuse my hollow mirth) just put it down to the 20 odd years longer I've spent on this crappy little planet where the biggest connections are made with gun and bomb.
Subject closed

Re: Angels & Awe

[avad.livejournal.com]

gladly. hope you find your upswing again soon.

humans and the hive mind

[rokkitz.livejournal.com]

Tap someone on the shoulder in the supermarket and ask them how they are. Most likely you'll get a strange look and a "Um, fine" as they try to get away.

compare: "what's new?" with "what's good?" . what's new is not important, but people always seem to have an answer. ask about what brings joy to someone's life, and they seem confused... i dunno.

but i sincerely suspect that the communications revolution that we're living through is training us for non-verbal non-linear communication, something like telepathy, but more like calibration on some metagrid. serendipity seems to be on the rise. synchronicity is escalating. like we're all part of a single hyperdimensional organism that is what humanity will become... but maybe i'm delusional? ;o)

Re: humans and the hive mind

[avad.livejournal.com]

ah you're talking to the similarly delusional so it's FACT!!!;)

futuremapping

[rokkitz.livejournal.com]

one glorious day, you'll read neuromancer. and you'll remember this post.

Friend Network

[sendao.livejournal.com]

I think I'm going to make a program to slide through LJ friend lists.. mapping them as it goes. Every 5 levels of depth or so, the mapper will throw out anybody who doesn't connect in a circuit. Should be an interesting visual. ;)

Re: Friend Network

[avad.livejournal.com]

I'm intrigued (of course)!;)
I dream/fantasize of clickable maps of LJ....even just to get a general idea of where most of the users are geographically located....and contrast that with the 'communities' that are formed in cyberspace...*sigh* etc etc...I want VISUALS!!!! HELP SENDAO!!!;0;)
There's something called GuestMap that is well, a start...but the visitors to a site must enter in their own info. http://www.24fun.com/cgi-bin/gmapview.pl
Also, check THIS out.: http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=lj_dev&itemid=503628

Visual representation of networks and activities...

[voskull.livejournal.com]

Hi avad, was gliding though some Lj's and discovered you i've been quite interested by your posts, anyway. i though U might be interested in a program that tranform any kind of network activites into visuals according to some rules....
But i realize i wasn't home at this point of time, and don't have the URL.. anyway.. Will post it later this week-end, when I'll get back home.. Untill Then ... Have a good time n all..

Re: Visual representation of networks and activities...

[avad.livejournal.com]

That certainly sounds interesting!! Please let me know when you get a chance!:):)