Does anyone have examples of other (more modern) software in this category of "software built to help the user change the way they think"? What are people trying and is it effective?
>The Cyber Punk The Individual As Reality Pilot, By Timothy Leary (1988)
https://archive.org/details/the-cyber-punk-the-individual-as...
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
https://moviewise.substack.com/p/movies-that-are-frightening
Start by self-rating yourself on these (and maybe more) dimensions: "bossy", "dumb", "free-living", "gung-ho", "square", "low-key", "by-the-book", "grumpy", "proper", "encouraging", "enthusiastic", "worldly", "forceful", "well-informed", "influential", "innovative", "friendly". Register your self-model for the system/with yourself.
And then model the ideal self. Pick what attributes you want to embody. Let this program help you shift from the state you are in to the state you want to be. (The parallel here to, not quite a Kubernetes Controller/Operator, but an assistant to, to encourage forward iteration towards the desired result, is striking. Register intent, iterate towards outcome.)
Source: a TV interview with some screenshots, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oabRxvjf9k
"There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda.… You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning.…
And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave.…
So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."
sed 's/acid/Internet/'
Alternate reality is alternate reality, man.
I am very cautious of recommending anything, peoples time is precious. And different people will find different things interesting.
I think its relevant on the topic (Learys interaction with the digital), but further then that its up to the interests of the reader.
And Learny himself wanted us to push on. This software saw itself as a toolkit for observing where we are/were and where we ought head.
I would back down from calling it inevitability. The dark conservative clutching forces could overtake hope & growth & possibility, consign our shared fate to shitty sad ruin. Both Leary & HST seemed to be co-aligned though, in believing that a vibrant spirit, aware, with some basic shit at it in the world, could go far, could, if conditions allowed, have potential to make a real difference. Whether we believe that opportunity is open widely & wish to support that, or think that chance is rare & special & only some have it within- it's a self fulfilling prophecy that dictates whether we opt to let & support humanity's chance, or whether we insist it's only a few, whether we dont bother to support & aid one another.
There's a kind of ever-dawning Gaianism I see in both TL & HST. Both require embracing a bigger humanity. Neither is prestined-both rely on consciousness, on deciding, on tuning out to the what is, and becoming consciously a part of what will be. Feom another comment talking about 1968 Leary's The Cyber Punk The Individual As Pilot:
> He gives a definition of cyberpunks in the first sentence (people who use all available data input to think for themselves https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32612648
As I've said yet again elsewhere in these comments, a huge part of this all is finding & deciding what we each are & ought become. Cybernetics we see very closely resembling the controller model of systems like kubernetes.
> think for themselves
That always interests me.
[edit]
I just read this paper in detail. Adding to coincidence here, I kept thinking back to Lem's Pirx the Pilot series and The Cyberiad. It makes me want to read more about the Lindbergh family. Also, it touches on another topic I was thinking about tonight, the thread on HN about Finnish as a universal language when Leary writes:
> French philosophy, for example, has recently stressed the importance of language and semiotics in determining human behavior and social structures.
this also extends to computer languages, IMO. Pointy haired bosses and their languages of choice is the modern equivalent of the mutation of the "pilot" to the "steerer" in his Greek to Roman example. I found this paper thought provoking, but like his LSD campaign, misguided in its exuberance of the benefits of the "Cyborg" experience. There are drawbacks. Who's to say the computer as rudder won't become the steerer, among other "bad things"?
The Greeks also gave us the example of Pandora's Box.
A mostly earnest man addressing the real problems of the military/industrial dystopia, the world's break from reality, with a bit of wisdom and a lot of snake oil. Cannabinoid snake oil ("It's an aphrodesiac, but not like in Reefer Madness, it's more cosmic than that."), lysergic acid diethylamide snake oil. Back to the Garden of Eden lures, generational politics (one's age determines one's potential for spiritual advancement?), dulcet, lyrical, hypnotic sales pitches. It was "don't trust anyone over 30" until they turned thirty, then their mind expanding experiments led to "don't trust anyone under thirty and grab a big pile of money, depriving the subsequent generations of their livelihood". What did they learn during their acid trips?
By Leary's measure, at the time of this recording, Jack Kerouac (a pioneer himself in examining the modern world) would have been 44, past Leary's 40 year old age limit. In Leary's Cyberpunk I learned yesterday that he appealed to "silicon snake oil", the world's current obsession. Dropping out isn't a ticket to Eden, I know through personal experience. No Harvard endowment paid my or Kerouac's bills, nor did free software. "Tune in, turn on, and drop out" if you have to, but "pay attention to what you are doing and who you listen to, and what you are dropping in to" would be a corollary.
Leary didn't say, "Due to regressive laws in the U.S., which I respect but we need to change, I cannot pursue my double-blind clinical trials of LSD-25 for treatment of depression in America. I have therefore moved my research to Mexico." Leary was infamous for popularizing LSD, and was part of the problem for authority's long road to accept it. I know sometimes civil disobedience is in order, but we are not talking about sarsaparilla root here.
He said (paraphrased), "People over 40 want to put me behind bars for helping people discover the cosmic candles of the night sky on the Mexican beaches...the fair-haired elven princess in the tree house...the verdant fields... Why are the mean rational adults picking on me?" which are outside of the generally accepted principles for the treatment of mental illness, I would think. It's way beyond therapeutic use and into snake oil territory when advertised as an aphrodisiac and spiritual guide. Yoga and Buddhist meditation also have therapeutic benefits and very safe--why not use those until (and after) the clinical trials of LSD are completed?
Nor you! I was just returning to thank you for posting your original idea to listen to this--I was only clarifying my thoughts before--Leary was human like any of us and I think a progressive, truth-seeking one. It is good to make up our own minds about history with direct sources like this. So, thanks for that and these new comments, which do make sense too.