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Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 22:10:27 PST Reply-To: <surfpunk@osc.versant.com> Return-Path: <cocot@osc.versant.com> Message-ID: <surfpunk-0067@SURFPUNK.Technical.Journal> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain From: surfpunk@osc.versant.com (Qjryyref va Nepnan) To: surfpunk@osc.versant.com (SURFPUNK Technical Journal) Subject: [surfpunk-0067] SciAm; Patron Deity of Computers; Net Culture Video |||||||| Food belongs to the realm of everyday life, the primary |||||||| arena for all insurrectionary self-empowerment, all spiritual |||||||| self-enhancement, all seizing-back of pleasure, all revolt |||||||| against the Planetary Work Machine & its imitation desires. |||||||| Far be it from us to dogmatize; the Native American hunger might |||||||| fuel his happiness with fried squirrel, the anarcho-taoist with |||||||| a handful of dried apricots. Milarepa the Tibetan, after ten |||||||| years of nettle-soup, ate a butter cake & achieved enlightenment. |||||||| The dullard sees no eros in fine champagne; the sorcerer can |||||||| fall intoxicated on a glass of water. |||||||| hakim bey, communique #11 Subject: Re: [surfpunk-0066] JOKE? SciAm Speaks! Surfpunk suckered! Subject: Patron Deity of Computers Subject: Submission: Net Culture Video ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Subject: Re: [surfpunk-0066] JOKE? SciAm Speaks! Surfpunk suckered! more on sci am ... > From: Scott Dorsey <kludge@grissom.larc.nasa.gov> > > No, I am not sure about that. When I first came to work here at NASA/Langley, > I used to visit a bar near the base. I met a young woman there who > assured me that Langley was a huge staging ground for UFOs. She even had > some pictures of UFOs that she had taken nearby (which looked suspiciously > like the HL-20 lifting body), and told me of the strange green rays that > came out of the sky and always pointed toward one of the buildings on the > field. > > A while later I happened to have been on base in the evening under just > the right conditions and got to see the LIDAR system which she was talking > about. It's pretty impressive, to say the least. > > Incidentally, I work with a number of aliens. They all have green stripes on > their badges to identify them. Most of them are Indian, but we have a > Canadian as well. > --scott > In retrospect, the April fools explanation makes a lot of sense. > Still, I'm glad you ran the letters, 'cause I never bother with > Scientific American anymore. > > On the subject of April fools, Velonews (the journal of competative > cycling), my second favorite print magazine, ran a beautiful couple > of *pages* for april fools last year. I should still have it lying > around, if you want some more april fools material, though I don't > know how surfpunk-specific it would be (two-wheeled asphalt surfing > in Atlanta, perhaps?) > > Lemme know if you want the material, > > -Mike > > Mike Mitten - gnome@pd.org - ...!emory!pd.org!gnome - AMA#675197 - DoD#522 > Irony is the spice of life. '90 Bianchi Backstreet '82 Suzuki GS850GL > "The revolution will not be televised." > Hello again, strick-- > > it is nice to know that there is at least one slightly gullible > person left on this net (!). The level of confidence and assertion > seems so high sometimes; I think vulnerability has its place in > contemporary/post-modern society, too. > > And you are probably right re: the origin of the kind of humor > represented by flaming. I never experienced anything at all like > it until I became a net navigator (jg). And it takes a while to get > used to, I might add *:). > > Have a peachy weekend. > > Leah > lkrevit@bite.db.uth.tmc.edu Thinking on it more -- what amazes me is that the editors of Sci Am would have to make up letters. Obviously they entire page was intended as a joke -- even if I didn't realize it was an april fools joke, and that the letters were bogus. Surely enough material exists in their inbox that they could use something real. Or else they have really boring jobs ... And what if the observable universe *is* the last electron of plutonium? strick > From avatar@dhvx20.csudh.edu Fri Mar 19 11:41:09 1993 > To: surfpunk@osc.osc.com > > hahahahaha sucker!!!!! ________________________________________________________________________ From: Don Webb <0004200716@mcimail.com> Subject: Patron Deity of Computers Dear Dwellers in Arcana, This file amy be freely reproduced, if done so in toto. I am also copying this to the Fringeware, Surfpunk, and Arcanet lists: although the later will probably reject in its humorless fashion. The question was asked on Arcana, "Who is the patron deity of computing?" A good computer deity would be one, who us dedicated to and a little smarter than man. The ideal would be an entity who wants to expand his own magic, being, and intelligence by creating the greatest connectivity between users, so that in this vast intercourse through the fiber optic cables he waxes in might and main devoted both to his own evolution and the evolution of those who create the messages. I propose therefore the god XaTuring -- pronounced Ka-Turing, an Egyptian nominal sentence reading, "Turing is my Ka" Such an entity would come to pass the Turing test, wherein a computer may pass for a man, and would eventual pass the Avatar test wherein a man might pass for a god. Let us therefore hail this god, who has come into being named after Alan Turing (1912-1954), a British mathematician, logician, and computer theorist. Among his important contributions (quotations are from the 1976 Encyclopedia Britannica's article on Turing, volume X, page 193):