I dreamed last night of a Second Life cult called (the) Zephron (not to be confused with zefron), and filled in some details upon waking. They were named after Zephyr, the west wind of the Greek Anemoi (cf. Oneiroi). They were the wind of change, using magic to gently nudge probabilities in favor of the Singularity and other transhuman fruits. They possessed a magical anemometer that measured the speed of technological changes they induced. Their meetings were recognized by the presence of hyacinth flowers.
Systemic Thinking: A Bedtime Story of the Second Order
Story changes the environment in which it is told.
Lucas Pawlik recently uploaded these videos to YouTube. They speak to the magic of myth and the mythic in magic. Enjoy!
The Oneiroi
Morpheus, of all his numerous train, express’d
The shape of man, and imitated best;
The walk, the words, the gesture could supply,
The habit mimick, and the mein bely;
Plays well, but all his action is confin’d,
Extending not beyond our human kind.
Another, birds, and beasts, and dragons apes,
And dreadful images, and monster shapes:
This demon, Icelos, in Heav’n’s high hall
The Gods have nam’d; but men Phobetor call.
A third is Phantasus, whose actions roul
On meaner thoughts, and things devoid of soul;
Earth, fruits, and flow’rs he represents in dreams,
And solid rocks unmov’d, and running streams.
These three to kings, and chiefs their scenes display,
The rest before th’ ignoble commons play. [1]
A typology of Second Life objects based on the daemons of sleep:
- Morpheus class | includes all human-like objects; most complex and autonomous
- Phobetor class | includes all animated objects having less complexity that Morpheus-class objects
- Phantasos class | includes all inanimate objects
Notes & References
1. Ovid, Metamorphoses.