ITT: I take credit for your work and declare a New Project.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

The PDCOM Research Department has spent the past year or so researching the definitions and characteristics of The Machine(TM), delving into the psychological nature of the Black Iron Prison in which people trap themselves, and making up a lot of silly terms for almost every tendency people accidentally give themselves. Some have said that this is all a lot of intellectual masturbation, that we were going nowhere, or that there is no practical application of all this stuff beyond the off-chance that some of the propaganda we produced might snap somebody out of Robot Mode.

It seems, however, that all these naysayers were in fact wrong about everything, and we were right to call them Ass Bandits. Although even our researchers themselves were largely unconcerned with where our research was heading, it turns out that there may be a practical application of this knowledge after all.   To address what this application is, it might help to give a brief recap of some of the highlights of the PDRD's work.

First, we examined The Machine. The Machine is a difficult thing to define and is heavily nuanced, and it outside the scope of this paper to go all that detail. Suffice to say that The Machine is what happens when a society's internal power structures begin to lose absolute control over it. The Machine is the collective habits and unconscious reactions of a society's members, perceived as being almost an organism unto itself, with much the same behaviors, instincts, and requirements of a "natural" creature. A society at this point is characterized by political systems that, in spite of being enormous and powerful, are capable of directing the movement of the society, but incapable of outright declaration of the society's directions.

Secondly, we examined the Black Iron Prison. This is an individual-oriented concept describing the psychological, spiritual, experiential, and emotional "bars" we build and use to define our self-identities, determine our actions, and influence how we see the world around us and other people in that world. These "bars" often go completely unnoticed by a person until he is faced with a situation that forces him to re-examine his worldview in depth. They are constructed out of assumptions, religious beliefs, or anything else that is convenient to use when defining something we are initially unsure of or ignorant about. Because there is almost an infinite degree of information that can be learned about any particular subject, we almost always place a "bar" when dealing with things as a means to pin down what it is so we can move on to some other (usually more interesting) thing, and then tend to forget that the final definition we put on the thing was really only a convenient place for us to stop investigating it.

It is likely that both of these topics will be the subject of further exploration forever (and here I have hardly scratched the surface of what we already know), but we have gleaned enough usable information to move on to other things as well. Adding these to other topics of research such as Meme Dynamics and Military theory, we are at a point now where we can begin work on PDRD's next product. This product is exciting, because it steps beyond research and propaganda into the actual development of a testable model. This model has no official name yet but since I am egotistical and it fits with one of my posts, I'm going to call it the Game.

The central theory behind the Game is that it should be possible, knowing what we do about the nature of The Machine and the Black Iron Prison, to purposely construct an organization that uses human automation to produce pre-defined results in a larger society in which it is set in motion. The idea here is that a set of instructions would be introduced into a population, taking the form of a network among individual members, driven to recruit new members, and designed to produce a generally-defined effect.

This is not an organization in either the traditional hierarchical or flat-network sense. This system is designed to be self-sustaining and resilient to attack and dissolution like a network, yet share the benefits of deliberation and motive that are normally in the jurisdiction of hierarchical systems.

FURTHER INFORMATION PENDING RESEARCH.
DON'T YOU LOVE THE OPEN-SOURCE MODEL OF "RELEASE EARLY, RELEASE OFTEN?"

[tyrannosaurus vex]

Also: incorrect but convenient definition of Game:

Any activity with a finite lifespan and simple rules which define behavior and result in a predetermined outcome, while allowing for a wide range of internal events.

[Cramulus]

I applaud this motion, and think the name you've selected will resonate well with other Discordians.

I am starting to have more faith in this project.  It's now expanded to three threads instead of just one. Many of our projects never make it beyond that point. 

[tyrannosaurus vex]

they're all arbitrary tho. and there are 4 threads if you count Ratatosk's Cainad's recruitment thread.

[Cainad (dec.)]

I applaud this motion, and think the name you've selected will resonate well with other Discordians.

I am starting to have more faith in this project.  It's now expanded to three threads instead of just one. Many of our projects never make it beyond that point. 

My fread doesn't count. It died to death.

[König Bonifaz]

I'm horribly excited about this, to be honest.

[Cramulus]

okay okay okay okay okay

First, read my recent post in the FSM thread about "Golden Apple Seed" missions.

I think that idea crystallizes what we've talking about. A way to network a bunch of unrelated Discordjians and get them to work on each other's projects.

We all know that Discordians love games (it's one of those rare things all Discordians have in common). What about creating a scoring matrix of some sort? So here's the idea.

Over at (just tossing this out there) Discoflux.com we have the Golden Apple Seed roster. Whenever someone posts a new mission, they can award 1-5 points to people who participate. Then we can post a "high score board" sort of thing which will encourage people to compete to be a bigger Discordian activist.

So for example...

My cabal wants fake moustaches everywhere. I put up a Golden Apple Seed Mission (hereafter referred to as a GAS 'EM) which describes the project. Discordians read this post and spread it to their friends. Then people go out and draw fake moustaches on posters, ads, billboards, etc... You take a picture of your work and post it. Or you just tell about it, "I just moustached 25 posters in NYC". (hm - thereby violating the Keep Your Fucking Mouth Shut rule... will have to think about that...) Then I award you points based on the level of your participation. If someone sharpies a poster I'll give 'em one point. If someone spraypaints a prolific billboard I'll give em five points.

This makes Playing the Game a reward in itself, even if you're not 100% behind the causes that people are pushing for. For example, a lot of Discordians may not like pranking Ron Paul supporters. But we don't want their actual beliefs to get mixed up in this - the game itself is enough reason to participate.

(incidentally, that's the exact reason the Adam Weishaupt Society is framed as a game rather than a disinfo campaign)

thoughts?

[Cain]

Sounds like a lot of work to keep track of what everyone is doing, I must say.  It also implicitly creates a player/game master relationship which I don't believe will be conducive to results, and an element of competition that may decrease cooperation.

[König Bonifaz]

I really like the aspect of 'free for all' coordinated actions, but what requirements would they have to fulfill to be accepted? Or is there a group of inner circle 'game masters', as Cain phrased it, planning them?

I don't know about the 'highscore board', actually; I rather prefer the loose -system practised here to the marks/rating system... unless those points would be confined to the specific 'missions' they were earned in, rather than advancing your rank on some global highscore board.

I don't know, I'd rather play the Game to play the Game instead of upping my Disco-Points, but perhaps it actually would draw more people into it.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I really like the aspect of 'free for all' coordinated actions, but what requirements would they have to fulfill to be accepted? Or is there a group of inner circle 'game masters', as Cain phrased it, planning them?

I don't know about the 'highscore board', actually; I rather prefer the loose -system practised here to the marks/rating system... unless those points would be confined to the specific 'missions' they were earned in, rather than advancing your rank on some global highscore board.

I don't know, I'd rather play the Game to play the Game instead of upping my Disco-Points, but perhaps it actually would draw more people into it.

[Cramulus]

Sounds like a lot of work to keep track of what everyone is doing, I must say.  It also implicitly creates a player/game master relationship which I don't believe will be conducive to results, and an element of competition that may decrease cooperation.

well, not really. I post a task thread, and you reply when you do something related to it. The only part anyone has to keep track of is score, and I believe that could be automated somewhat easily. There's no game master - anyone who creates a task can award points.

I just think it's easier to motivate people if you give them some sort of reward. Points and competition are slightly more tangible than mittens.

anyway, we're talking about approaching this task from multiple angles. This is one suggestion.


What do you (plural) think about the Golden Apple Seed Mission meme? I think it actually (in part) satisfies Cain's suggestions about connecting multiple Discordian networks.



EDITED TO CLARIFY:

In my model, anyone can post a task thread. It never occurred to me that there would be "game masters".

[tyrannosaurus vex]

i think the GASM is an awesome idea. besides the fact that it is the 2nd syllable of orgasm (Organization foR Golden Apple Seed Missions?)

the challenge will be hosting multiple copies of the same list of missions. this is next to impossible without having a master server which defeats the possibility of keeping membership bases separate.

Cain, the player/game-master relationship could be avoided while allowing for much the same benefits, by making the 'game master' no more than a set of rules, without moderators.

[Cain]

I know, but someone has to wear the black hat around here.

I'll look it over again and get back to you tomorrow (connection pending, thank god my flatemate is getting his own wireless soon) after I've slept and thought on it.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I will probably voice a great deal of support and offer my resources, but never really follow through with the legwork.

[Cramulus]

I will probably voice a great deal of support and offer my resources, but never really follow through with the legwork.

You and the rest of the world.

What could we do that would encourage your participation?