Kissat ja koirat

Lainauksia Paul Harrisonin sivulta ja blogista: Pfh’s blog.

Cats and Dogs
There are two basic roles in a human dominance hierarchy. The roles are not "dominance" and "submission", at least not precisely. To avoid the baggage those words hold, I'll instead use an animal metaphor:

Cat: Scratch my ear. Ex-cellent. Now I shall sit on you, do not move. Well done. Now feed me.
Dog: You called my name, I'm coming, I'm coming. Here I am! You threw a stick. Ok, I'll go fetch it. Here it is! That was fun!

The distinction is this: cats propose things to do, dogs either accept or veto these proposals. In a hierarchy, whenever two people talk one will play the cat and one the dog. In larger hierarchies someone in the middle of the hierarchy may play the dog or the cat depending on who they are talking to.
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I don't know what form these systems would take, but peer-to-peer computer networks may provide some inspiration. Computer networks usually support only "client-server" interactions, in which the client machine initiates a request and the server machine responds. P2P software builds on top of conventional networks a virtual network of equals, in which computers play both client and server. P2P software must react swiftly to unexpected changes in the network, reassigning roles and responsibilites as necessary.

If society is to become more fluid, we will all first need to learn the habits and skills required for both the cat and dog roles, so that we can adopt either as necessary. How to teach these habits and skills is an interesting problem.

Dogs are problem posers
Every form of government we have tried has had cat leaders. Monarchy. Democracy. Fascism. Communism. Every form of government we have tried has been, well, really crap. The vision of a single person is not sufficient to run a country, or a multinational corporation or NGO, or a religion. It seems the one thing we haven't given tried is dog leadership. I reckon we should give it a go. Yes or no?

Over-clocking your body considered harmful
When slowing mentally, don't forcefully dismiss thoughts from your mind. Instead let them play out without giving them any extra energy. Take a back seat, as if watching a play. -- Slowing down can be a somewhat scary thing to do, and it has a distinct and peculiar sensation, as if allowing yourself to fall into the future.

Abnormal likeness
A child who talks about electricity pylons all the time is more likely to be thought oddly fixated than one who talks about horses or football teams.

Electronic Singing Tortoise – Ja lisäksi vielä loistava soittoääni kännykkään.