>Virus can have enormous effect even with smaller numbers of course precisely
>because of it's appeal to rational and intelligent minds. This is elitist
>sounding, I suppose -- Is Virus supposed to ultimately appeal to all?
It would be nice if Virus appealed to all, but if it did there would be
no reason for it (other than, perhaps, to disseminate some set of
distilled knowledge).
>Virus would no doubt become corrupt if it ever became a mass movement just
>as all previous enlightened movements have, but it could still potentially
I have already resigned myself to the fact that Virus will become
corrupted in the future. I don't see any way to prevent someone from
taking the ideas and changing them in a way I didn't expect and
wouldn't approve, especially since evolution is encouraged, not suppressed.
Of course the person doing it wouldn't view it as a corruption; that
seems to be a relative term. I can only hope that the heretics have
the etiquette to leave us the name or at least attach some differentiating
descriptors: The New Liberal Church of Virus, or The Church of Jesus
Christ Virus :-)
Actually, now that I think about, schisms may be beneficial to the cause
so long as they carry the core values with them. They're just new memetic
vectors. It has been pointed out to me numerous times that the presentation
of Virus (the name, the biohazard) a priori precludes a large segment
of our potential membership just on aesthetic grounds. That is entirely
true and I hope someone spins off a new denomination that attracts
people with a "nicer" facade.
>evolve to world domination in this altered form. Would that be considered a
>success? Is there a goal in mind?
I would certainly consider that a success. I have a few goals in mind:
in the short term the main goal is to fill out the content on the web
page by developing the underlying philosophy through discussions on this
list. In the medium term, propagate the philosophy through various vectors:
the net, hardcopy fiction and non-fiction, new denominations as mentioned
above, a new political party, TV infomercials... :) Simultaneously, in
the medium to long term, apply the philosophy to ensure our survival:
get into space, cure death. In the very long term, ad astra, universal
animation and infinite complexity!
Other goals?
-- David McFadzean dbm@merak.com Memetic Engineer http://www.merak.com/~dbm/ Merak Projects Ltd.