Friday, May 27, 2005

Rise of the Plagiosphere

"The problem here is that while such rigorous and robust policing will no doubt reduce cheating, it may also give writers a sense of futility. The concept of the biosphere exposed our environmental fragility; the emergence of the plagiosphere perhaps represents our textual impasse. Copernicus may have deprived us of our centrality in the cosmos, and Darwin of our uniqueness in the biosphere, but at least they left us the illusion of the originality of our words. Soon that, too, will be gone."

Words are simply a means. If we reach a "textual impasse" then we will go about creating a new infrastructure for our ideas. Ultimately, we must "rub out the word" and graduate to a more intimate form of communication.

6 comments:

TheUltimateCyn said...

intimate communication is good.

Mac said...

I was thinking telepathy.

Seriously.

TheUltimateCyn said...

Well Mac - seriously - I have had some very extreme intimate/telepathic encounters with certain people. I always walk away from it feeling very "out of body" and a little surreal-ish. Sometimes, it creates physical reactions that are quite pronounced.
Also have very often the experience w.m.bear is talking about.

Seriously.

[you say that as if what I say isn't serious?]

Mac said...

"Seriously. [you say that as if what I say isn't serious?]"

No, that's not what I meant. I was just making it clear I wasn't referring to physical intimacy, which was what I thought your original comment alluded to.

(Nothing wrong with physical intimacy, of course.)

TheUltimateCyn said...

I am not always a perv you know!
Thanks for clarifying.

razorsmile said...

Don't overestimate the size of the human brain.