The Cabinet of Invisible Counselors

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

Putting some work into this, I came up with this list:

Charles Babbage
Ben Franklin
Herbert Marshal McLuhan
Kurt Godel
Nikola Tesla
John Von Neumann
Uncle Al Crowley
Teilhard de Chardin

I've noticed a couple disturbing trends in that list, though. I have two famously unsuccessful businessmen, two catholic mystics, and at least one guy who went nuts and killed himself after spending too long contemplating infinity. I'm not convinced that there are enough successful businessmen, pragmatic non-catholics, or non-suicidal non-mathematicians to balance things out.

However, Crowley and Franklin are both so evenly balanced that they make everyone else look like nutters.

[Oysters Rockefeller]

I was going to say Miles Davis too. Here's why:

During an interview, after growing aggravated about questions on the subject of race.

If somebody told me I only had an hour to live, I'd spend it choking a white man. I'd do it nice and slow.

Gotta think about the rest.

Holy shit, that's the exact quote I was thinking of when I put down Miles Davis.

I tip my internet-hat to you, sir.

[Oysters Rockefeller]

Heh, I did wonder about Gautama...but then I figured I'd just get either 1. The runaround or 2. The Thunderous Silence.  That is an interesting combo though....mile davis? lol

Yeah, I like the guy. He was fairly brilliant, assuming he actually existed.

Also, Gautama plus Byron could only equal hilarity.

[Kai]

Charles Darwin (Chair; Secretary of inquiry and Decorum)
Thich Nhat Hahn (Secretary of Human Ethics)
Homer the Blind (Secretary of Epics)
Barbara McClintock (Secretary of Mystic Naturalism)
Carl Sagan (Secretary of High Truths)
Richard Feynman (Secretary of True Explanation)
Aldo Leopold (Secretary of Deep Ecology)
Tom Montag (Secretary of Plain Seeing)

ETA: ++

Steven Covey & David Allen (Joint Secretaries of Productivity and Efficiency)
Eliezer Yudowsky (Secretary of Rationality)

[minuspace]

Parmenides
Pythagoras
Socrates
Aristotle
Heidegger

Limited in scope but good for general banter?

[Kai]

Since starting this yesterday, I have been getting a LOT of advice from Homer. Maybe too much. And Nhat Hahn and him have been arguing like something out of Shinji and Warhammer 40K. Somehow I knew that would happen. 

[Cain]

Machiavelli
Quirrell from HPMoR
Nietzsche
Kierkegaard
IOZ
Voltaire
Hannibal

Mostly, this leads me to doing things which make me giggle inappropriately when I think about them.

[Oysters Rockefeller]

Voltaire and Machiavelli...good choices.

[Triple Zero]

I'm thinking Douglas Adams (I figure he'd be really nice company) and yeah maybe Feynmann too.

That said, I recently watched a talk by Adams (something about endangered species, yet very entertaining) and in my head popped up the strange thought that maybe it's a good thing he passed since I read in The Salmon of Doubt he considered Richard Dawkins to be a personal friend (fixing his computer etc). Since Dawkins kind of went off the loopy end, I worried about how Adams would have handled that and whether he'd pick his side out of sheer atheism or said "Hey Rich you're going too far with that bollocks about muslim women". I don't like thinking "maybe it was a good thing" at all, but it just popped into my head and kind of weirded me out, not sure what to make of it.

[Bu🤠ns]

Okay so far I think I'm going with ...

Thich Nhat Hahn -- Thanks Kai, I think he was sort of "in there" anyway...so he might as well get recognized.
Ben Franklin -- Thanks, Phosphatidylserine, Although I have to read more of his stuff...I mean I've been meaning to read the Poor Richard's Almanac for quite some time now. Like, um, the sixth grade?
Machiavelli -- Thanks, Cain, would balance out TNH quite well I think.
Lao Tse
Mark Twain

I'm considering Zig Ziglar, Dale Carnegie, Tony Robbins...i mean they all sort of echo each other, right?

Hasn't been set in stone yet...i wanna do this technique right

lol@Trip

Also, Cain, Who/What is IOZ?

[Salty]

ITT I learn I need to read more. A lot more.

Starting with The Prince, apparently.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Of the top of my head...
Zarathustra (Good thoughts, good words, good deeds)
Johnny Cash (No explanation needed)
Oscar Wilde (For Irishness and pretty ways to tell you to go fuck yourself)
Jesus of Nazareth (for uncharacteristic fits of rage)
Richard Nixon (for colorful language and environmental concern)


Made up character: Toki Wartooth (because I'm a softy)

[minuspace]

+1:
Quasim Cassam (b/c I would totally have him on retainer, anyways)

Fictional:
Nikolai Ztavrogin (why not?)

[Cain]

Also, Cain, Who/What is IOZ?

http://whoisioz.blogspot.com

[Bu🤠ns]

  well i guess that explains it