Notes for the Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul - Rudy Rucker

Notes for The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul, by Rudy Rucker
Since the base sample for this table is from a news magazine, there are many
mentions of the U. S., which is why we see “u” and “s” as frequent words.
Web Hype
The Web provides us with an unprecedented level of knowledge amplification; in
effect we have access to a global mind.
Memes
One final thought. It could be fruitful to think of cultural artifacts as independent
beings that travel about in the hive mind. Mind parasites, as it were. The meme theory of
artifacts views them as agents competing with each other in an evolving environment.
Memes are a type of life.
Bifurcation
Social movements, such as the stock market, are day-to-day unpredictable while
being globally limited to some specific strange attractor. The most dramatic social upheavals
occur when a fundamental change alters the system’s parameters, leading to a bifurcation and
an entirely new computational strange attractor.
On my McLuhanizing
Never forget that Ph. D. stands for “piled high and deep.”
Table of Emulations
At this point, I’ve introduced all five of the computational levels that we’re going to
think about. Now, in the next chapter (6) I’ll talk a lot about having computations of various
kinds emulate each other. So at this point I’d like to look at some of the kinds of emulation
that I have in mind.
p. 92