[Think] [FWD] An experiment in friendly contagion (the social in software)

[Fen Labalme]

=== another forwarded message - this will be all for now ===

Howdy, all

Tom Munnecke and I seek your assistance.  (Does that sound too much like
Nigerian spam?)  Tom is on a quest for ways that people could engage in
positive actions and emotions that might make other people to do positive
things, and so forth, rippling out to cause larger changes.

In Tom's words, he wants to find "scalable small things" that can provoke a
"cascade of uplift."  (Sci-fi author David Brin popularized the idea of
Uplift with his Uplift Saga, www.kithrup.com/brin/upliftbooks.html.)

I'm helping Tom with an experiment in uplift that takes place this Friday,
September 12.  To find out more about it, please visit
http://september12.org/

We've set up a wiki, a blog and a mailing list as the infrastructure because
(in the experimental spirit) we want participants to shape the event.  If it
doesn't make enough sense to you or seems to be missing something, please
help us identify and add it.

Please forward this message as you see fit.

Warm regards,

Jerry


To get us in the spirit of the experiment itself:

The Washington Post's Style Invitational once again asked readers to take
any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing
one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are this year's winners:

1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you
realize it was your money to start with.

2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

3. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops
bright ideas from penetrating.
The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in
the near future.

4. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of
getting laid.

5. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the
subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

6. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

7. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person
who doesn't get it.

8. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

9. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

11. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these
really bad vibes, right?
And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day
consuming only things that are good for you.

13. Glibido: All talk and no action.

14. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when
they come at you rapidly.

15. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after
you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your
bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

17. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in
the fruit you're eating.



And the pick of the literature:

18. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid AND an asshole.



-- 
Fen Labalme
Identity Commons <idcommons.net>, OpenPrivacy.org and Engage America
  Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens
  can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. 
                                   -- Margaret Mead 

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