BS: Why are we all so different.........?

Subject: Why are we all so different.........?
From: Patrish(inactive)
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 07:57 AM

Cos we are - thats why.
Patrish

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: Gary T
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 09:11 AM

Technically, it's because we're not all the same. (BG)

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: jeffp
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 09:14 AM

Just remember you're unique -- just like everybody else.

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: sledge
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 09:15 AM

I just thank God that we are, looking in the mirror daily is bad enough. The thought of stepping out of the house and seeing lots of ME'S all over the place.........

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 09:40 AM

Patrish, it gets really interesting when you realize although we are all so different, at the same time we are all so very much the same.

Bonnie

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: GUEST,Crazy Eddie
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 09:42 AM

I'm not different! I'm the same. ;o)

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: Patrish(inactive)
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 10:18 AM

How long is a piece of string?
Patrish

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: Gary T
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 10:20 AM

My dad's answer to that, Patrish: twice the length from one end to the middle.

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: Patrish(inactive)
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 10:23 AM

he is so right.....
Patrish

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: GUEST,Joerg
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 01:17 PM

As Eddie I'm not different - you are different.

Joerg

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 01:56 PM

BonnAmie.....You are right in that we are the same. Any good sales pro will tell you that we are all at least 98% alike and though we like to focus in on the 2%, its really not relevant to making a sale.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: SeanM
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 02:33 PM

'spaw, I'll have to disagree... that 2% is VERY important... After all, without it, dating would be a lot more complicated...

M

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 02:51 PM

No Sean, we FOCUS on the 2% and we build our lives around it. We cherish and promote all those wonderful little nuances that make us special or make us stand out. Perhaps we focus on the ability to NOT be noticed and even that we may take pride in. But in the final analysis, the things that drive us, that make us tick are all very predictable and not in the least unique.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: ol'troll
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 03:01 PM

I'm just like Spaw. In fact, I use his picture to shave by.

troll

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 03:10 PM

Which explains why we're both all cut to hell and begone all the time troll!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: MK
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 03:17 PM

(further to the thread title:)

Just a wild guess but do you think there's a slight chance it could have something to do with our DNA, personalities, upbringing and environment, and our souls?

oh....and to save anyone else the trouble of starting a new thread on "Why Is The Sky Blue?"...the scattering of light rays across the earth's atmosphere reflect the blue end of the spectrum. *BG*

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: MK
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 03:20 PM

...and also.......1 light year is equal to 6 trillion miles.

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: Peter T.
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 03:33 PM

A chance to take issue with my esteemed catspaw colleague! (I keep trying!)

Human beings are predictable en masse -- check the highways at 4:30 -- and even more ominously can be made to be predictable by getting them to agree consciously or unconsciously on certain frame notions, e.g., this is how a person should behave, or a society should function. But the interesting part is the perversity (the 2% if you like). Dostoyevsky pointed this out in one of his famous fables: suppose for a moment that we were finally building the great utopia, and we were about to enter into it. At the last moment, one of the architects turns to the people and says: friends, we are about to embark upon perfection. Is it not a great day? And someone in the audience stands up and says: Let's tear the fucking thing down. And they do.

Similarly, there have been any number of experiments that have shown that as soon as people believe they are becoming predictable, they will change their behaviour just to be unpredictable. Now we could semanticise about how predictable unpredictability is, but the point still stands.

Given that you are a champion of perversity, I would have thought that you would embrace it as Dostoyevsky did as an expression of human original sin and freedom (simultaneously!). Dostoyevsky made it the basis of his Christianity and disgust with utilitarianism, statistics, and all forms of sociological and utopian prediction.

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 04:05 PM

Oddly (or not) enough Peter, you make the point quite well. The experiments include the fact that part of the 98 is that we will try to be the 2. Well that sounds weird, but I assure you that the very facts you mention are what a salesman (sorry, for the lack of PC)COUNTS ON as happening! Most closing techniques are based on the predictability of the desire to be different and unpredictable.

Ya' know, I'd love to spend a little face to face time with you Peter on this subject. Live examples of things are better than the written word in this case.....a little role play perhaps. Starting to write about this stuff has the feel of writing a book and we have plenty of authors around here already. My 2% is my pride in tripe and that I actually get a kick out of seeing the perverse in everything (go visit the "Experimental CD" thread) and enjoy wasting time writing things that only about 3 people will ever see. But then again, that's what we're all doing here in essence isn't it? Hmmmm....does that relate?

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: GUEST,Peter T.
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 04:17 PM

I always assumed Mudcatters were in the business of cultivating the perverse 2% so that it would at least hit double digits.

yours, Peter T.

P.S. I also think one of the other issues is the role playing -- the famous Turing test (can you make a computer that will respond so well that no one will be able to detect that it is not human, in which case it might as well be called human) which has so far only really worked well modelling paranoids who are governed by neurotic machine like responses, and other people whose responses are predictable because of the situations they are in. A salesman and the customer are in a particular rule-guided situation, which is governed by a set of possible responses and counter-responses, and so on. It is not automatically applicable to the rest of human behaviour.

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 04:40 PM

Oh Peter, we have GOT to get together!!! Gawd I love this place!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: Peter T.
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 05:18 PM

Some unpredictable day we certainly will! (click);
some unpredictable day we certainly will! (click);
some unpredict ----aawwwwwkkkkkk

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 05:48 PM

I was just thinking that everytime I think my sh*t smells better than yours or when I think my sh*t smells worse than yours, it is a freeing feeling to realize that both our sh*t smells the same.

Bonnie

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 05:51 PM

Actually Bonnie.....My shit don't stink!

(Predictable response)

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 07:54 PM

i am different cuz i dont even shit

Subject: RE: BS: Why are we all so different.........?
From: Ebbie
Date: 12 Jun 00 - 10:12 PM

Dear Guest: You're so full of it. (predictable response!)

Ebbie