Recreating (and advancing) pk’s censored domains: Macroinformation.org &
Knatz.com / Teaching / Society / Survival / Integrity /
Mission: to point out than humanity died a long time ago leaving behind robots too stupid to see what they are
Once upon a time, before the Russian revolution, Queen Catherine thought it would be a good idea to visit an actual peasant village and see how her Russians actually lived: you know, like Twain had his King Arthur do. Uh oh, thought his courtiers, there go our sinecures. The queen thinks she’s a good mother to her people. Now Sir Boss got King Arthur to disguise himself as an ordinary human being. The courtiers though saved their deceptions by preparing a theatrical set: at Potemkin: a village of painted pasteborad false-fronts: crafted to look healthy, prosperous, content. The Queen was conducted to this fakery and indeed received from it the intended impression: all is well. And ever since, all such governmental “self”-deception has been called a Potemkin Village.
thanx madamepickwick
(The poor Russians: even their revolution came long after those of the Americans, the French … and way long after the English.)
Ah, but once something has been tried, others can imitate on it, expand … until the original looks puny in comparison. Take civilization as a whole by the beginning of this Twenty-First Century. Government has not only leached all meaning from language, nearly all learning from school, nearly all value from life … it’s substituted fake people for real: Potemkin People!
And the best thing is these Potemkin people are programmed to believe that they really are people. In Blade Runner the replicants, however much they strived to pass as human, knew that they were not. Not so today’s citizens. But there are tests that can be used. I say that it would be impossible for a real human being to read Hamlet (for example) and not emerge with an original thesis. Now, ask any of today’s citizens about Hamlet (that includes teachers, including university teachers). How many original theses did you get?
Wait, the problem with that test is you’d have to be human to give it as well as to take it successfully.
This little jou is created in the same spirit as my Turing Test.
Notes
2003 12 23 The Tsar:
I post my ignorance at K. for all to see. I write on impulse, then check my facts. I originally said it was the Tsar for who<m the Potemkin Village was arranged: late 1700s. Catherine traveled along the river and the scenery was moved to stay just ahead of her. But also see: the Matrix is real.
