Historically (Required) Speaking (Reading)
There are a couple of things I have done over the last three years while making those nearly 900 Evernote entries.
First, I got sick of constantly poking at Amazon Kindle’s web interface to sort books into groups, so I created a Bookwyrm account. The content there is sort into sensible categories. You would do well to note that I’ve read Heuer’s Psychology of Intelligence Analysis and the collaboration followup Structured Analytical Techniques for Intelligence Analysis. They aren’t available in book form, but the I’ve read all of the Occasional Papers from the Sherman Kent Center for Intelligence Analysis. Analytical pathology at a nation state level is understood to be a hazard, but it’s STILL something we seem unable to escape.
This is the grown ups table, your presence here is elective. You are free to close this tab and find something less demanding.
I revisited William Gibson’s Blue Ant trilogy, read both Peripheral and Agency, and then watched the marvelous Amazon original The Peripheral. I can also put in a strong recommend for Humans and The Feed. And if you have never read The Invisibles, you’d best get cracking. Talking With Gods would make a good intro to Grant Morrison’s work.
There is one prior project of mine that comes anywhere near the scope of what I intend here. Way back in 2011 when I first read The Invisibles and every single thing I could find by or about Jane McGonigal, without putting a lot of thought into it, I launched the Conspiracy Brokers. Below is the first post, reproduced in full.
Conspiracies Are Commodities
What do you know about conspiracies? I mean what do you truly know?
There are a lot of people who read about them, some who have varying level of skill in finding them, but never before has anyone revealed the shadowy world market where they are traded, the secret system whereby global elites purchase the things they need to shape world events.
We’ll get into that soon enough, but first let’s understand exactly what a conspiracy really is.
The dictionary has this to say as to the definition:
an evil, unlawful, treacherous, or surreptitious plan formulated in secret by two or more persons; a plot.
While correct, this definition is incomplete. A power player in this market would tell you that a conspiracy has the following attributes:
It can be real or fake
It can be concealed, secret, or public
It has a number of people involved
It has a number of people who both believe and disbelieve
It has an amount of time it spent in each of the three secrecy levels
Those are the fundamental attributes of a conspiracy. Next time we’ll talk a little bit about how to determine if a conspiracy is genuine, or if it’s a clever hoax. That’s not a black and white thing; some times a well done fake escapes control of its operators and becomes very real.
We’re working up to something here. This is the fourth installment in this series. Previously we’ve had:
Shall We Play A Game – Introducing Tactics, Techiques & Procedures
Mood Music – Atmospherics & Musical Influences
Time In A (Klein) Bottle – More Temporal Tools
The Kookpocalypse was the only admitted Conspiracy Brokers operation. Therein you’ll find the first time I ever mentioned the concept of a hypersigil. This time I’ve put a little more thought into things, while making no allowances for those whose brain chemistry or character are such that they misinterpret or intentionally misuse my work.
