Joe Velikovsky's Blog, page 10

SRN2021 - Screenwriting Research Network 2021- Research Seminars Online

SRN2021 - Screenwriting Research Network 2021- Research Seminars Online
(A live blog post by JT Velikovsky)
31st August 2021

So I'm "pushing the boundaries", by attending & live-blogging: SRN2021 ... !
( SRN2021 = Highly recommended, for all screenwriters & screenwriting researchers!)
And, just for some context/backstory - here's a blast from the past --
(i.e., 9 years ago, but who's counting?):

"So - I just attended the 2012 `Words & Images' annual international SRN (Screenwriting Research Network) Conference - held this year (2012!) in Australia, at UTS (University of Technology, Sydney), and also at Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW.

It was a great conference, & very well attended (over 200 international delegates) - and brilliantly organized (by Alex Munt of UTS and Kathryn Millard of Macquarie University).

I shot some short videos on my phone-camera and cut them together (see below). The video memoir is 17 mins, and features `12 x 30-second grabs' of various speakers at the 2012 SRN conf..."

2012 SRN Conf - video memento mori

For more, see: My SRN2012 Conference blog post...

[End of excerpt, from 2012 SRN Conf blog post]

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Question: What is the SRN?

Answer:

Only about 700+ screenwriting researchers, from around 60 nations...!

(...& If you're a researcher &/or practitioner, you should join - it's free! And, it's great!)

See the SRN website:

Visit: https://screenwritingresearch.com/

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This year (2021), the SRN conference is an online series of Research Seminars on Zoom... Great stuff! Congrats to Paolo Russo, Rafael Leal, & Francisco Sticchi - and all the organizers at Oxford Brookes University... & Paul Whitty & Daniela Trevari Gennari (...& anyone I forgot...)

(And of course, to Ian W. Macdonald, & all the founders of the SRN!)

And get this -

...SRN2021 - (so far...) has 260+ registered delegates, from over 40 countries!!!

(...Holy wow!)

& so here's a Zoom-still, from the first great session of Day 1:

In case you missed it, Session 1 was:

Day 1 - Session 1

8.30 am – Welcome address

9 am – PANEL 1… STRUCTURE

[C]hair/Host: Ronald Geerts (VUB-ULB, Brussels, Belgium)

Brett Davies (Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan), The hero’s journey in the ‘perfect’ ensemble screenplay: The Big Chill as case studyPhil Mathews (Bournemouth University, UK), ‘What is love?’ Negotiating romance genre conventions in screenwriting practiceChris Neilan (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK), Unconventional narrative structure in crime cinema

10 am – PANEL 2… TECH 1 (VR, IMMERSIVE)

Chair/Host: Paolo Russo (Oxford Brookes University, UK)

Pedro Alves (Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Porto, Portugal), Jose Luis Rubio Tamayo (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain), Estefany Durán Fonseca (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain), Screenwriting and Virtual Reality: renewing concepts and methodologies on narrative and spectatorshipKath Dooley (Curtin University, Perth, Australia), Creating Impact: Scripting an immersive 360-degree documentaryJodi Nelson-Tabor (University of Greenwich, London, UK), Storyframing: finding the holy grail of a formalised narrative language as a framework that can finally utilise VR technology

11 am – HAPPY HOUR

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Some random notes I made, during the Discussion/s
(i.e., a non-exhaustive summary of: great things that people said / great points various people made - I was in a rush, so...watch the recorded Zoom-video for details of who said what, when it's up online)
Somebody, (in fact, lots of somebodies) made the great point(s):
(Warning: Spoiler alerts. Maybe watch the Zoom video first...? Your call.)
Full Metal Jacket & No Country For Old Men, & Chinatown - all have a lack of resolution / lack of sense-making; all depict a forsaken (and absurd) world, etc ...So too, Game of Thrones (e.g., The Red Wedding is like the shower scene in Psycho!), & Walking Dead (killing off the main characters, early!)Alec McAuley: Infernal Affairs, The Departed - so too...
(The Existentialist Turn, in popular screen media...!)
Re: Adaptation, (eg: the film Arrival) ...how much do adaptations affect film genre conventions?
Re: The Hero's Journey, see also: Heroism Science
& Random Side Note, re: adaptations: maybe see also, Bookscribs (new site/service, officially launching in 2 months, which uses computational analysis, to assess the adaptability of a novel/story/etc.)
(& full disclosure: I sometimes do some consulting for Bookscribs - JTV)
In No Country For Old Men - the death of [character name removed] "takes you out of the film" ! (no spoiler alert)
A great general Q: How to do unconventionality (or, creativity: new, useful, & surprising), without puncturing: the viewer's suspension of disbelief...?
Great point: A film (every film) presents a Worldview - & (in `standard' mainstream narrative), a worldview in which, our actions (the characters' actions) are filled with meaning...
But - "non-closure" films - like say Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket - denies the viewer `closure' at the end: just like the Vietnam war itself-!
Re: Pedagogy (some great advice to, learning screenwriters): Look at the meaning that is produced by the story structure, to reflect the writers' (i.e., your) worldview...
...See, also, Kubrick (in: Ciment) on: `movies' as (1) entertainment (e.g. melodrama) vs. (2) films as art (what life is really like)
(& see also Simonton 2011 (Great Flicks) on: `Films as Art' vs `Movies as business'...)
More on, Kubrick (if you like that kind of thing):
StoryAlity #13B – Creativity, Cinema, Stanley Kubrick & GeniusStoryAlity #151 – My article on Stanley Kubrick, Charles Darwin and Joe Campbell’s monomyth, in The Journal of Genius and Eminence (March 2018)StoryAlity #155 – Kubrick on problem-solvingStoryAlity #1 – About my Doctoral Research – on Film / Screenwriting / Transmedia

& randomly - a new book, out now: After Kubrick

(on the influence of Kubrick on some other amazing filmmakers... & on cinema, as a domain of culture)

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Re: Interactive Narratives/Immersive Locative Media (e.g. VR, AR experiences)

Interactive storytelling comes back to: Agency/Structure...

On the `agency & structure duality' in traditional media (e.g., film, TV, radio) vs. interactive media (VR, AR, locative media, games, etc) - a couple of my articles, on that:

Velikovsky, J. T. (2012). Animation and Narrative in Videogames: A case study – Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal. Animation Practice, Process & Production, 2(1-2), 11-48 (38). https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/ap3.2.1-2.11_1

Avery, B., Thomas, B. H., Velikovsky, J. T., & Piekarski, W. (2005). Outdoor Augmented Reality Gaming on Five Dollars a Day. The Sixth Australasian User Interface Conference, Newcastle, NSW. http://arrow.unisa.edu.au:8081/1959.8/28020

& some of my random past papers/presentations on interactive scriptwriting:

https://on-writering.blogspot.com/2011/10/on-matrix-augmented-reality-games-has.html

https://on-writering.blogspot.com/2011/10/game-writing-nywf.html

https://on-writering.blogspot.com/2011/10/transmedia-from-nywf-2011.html

https://on-writering.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-history-of-videogames-from-1889-to.html

https://on-writering.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-science-art-craft-of-being-game.html

(...How's that for the Einsteinian relativity of space-time?)

& a Film/Art installation (The Very Near Future) I worked on, where the architecture of the space guides the user/participant experience... (kinda like: a game). Also there's The Magic of Cinema, as audience members get secretly filmed, and inserted to the film that is being made/edited, in realtime. (Seriously.)

---------------

And, some excerpts of the public Zoom-chat from Session 1, which, was all very informative and helpful!

21:11:30 From Lindsay Steenberg to Everyone:

Women, Celebrity and Cultures of Ageing https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137495112

17:37:29 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone:

Speaking of `10 years ago' as Paolo mentioned (ok, this one was 9 years ago)... https://on-writering.blogspot.com/2012/10/2012-words-images-srn-academic.html :)

18:23:05 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone:

ScripThreads free download link: http://www.scripthreads.org/?page_id=8

19:32:49 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone:

Great talks! A comment: Ernest W Adams' PhD thesis `Resolutions to Some Problems in Interactive Storytelling' covers many of these fascinating issues of interactive (including AR & VR) storytelling: http://www.designersnotebook.com/

19:35:13 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone:

& Henry Jenkins also writes on `VideoGames as spatial stories' (which applies to Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality) (and how player/viewer/participant freedom, annihilates `character'!)

20:13:27 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone:

(Yes, I'm: Newcastle NSW Australia, Sheridan :) ...Another great panel, thank you all!

20:54:05 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone:

haha Lindsay yes, not Newcastle UK :) To your great question/point, SRN member Craig Batty has done some great research on `screenplay as creative output (creative artifact)', so, a script itself as, much like Chris was just saying (about poetry chapbooks as publication outputs, etc :)

21:04:29 From Chris Neilan to Everyone:

The skills are quite transferable across creative writing as a whole - imagist poetry, concise prose. There are a lot of crossovers between the skills screenwriting hones and literary short fiction I think in particular - it's so concise and image-focused

21:07:12 From Sheridan Humphreys to Everyone:

Multidisciplinary, cool!

21:20:56 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone:

Nice to meet you all!!

[Zoom session / mtg / ends]

[...short Intermission, till: Session 2...]

----------------------

Day 1 - Session 2

5.30 pm – Welcome address

6 pm – PANEL 3… AUTHORSHIP & LABOUR

Chair/Host: John Finnegan (Falmouth University, UK)

Patrick Cattrysse (Universiteit Antwerpen; Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium), The authorial assessment of (screen)writers: how neuro-science changes everything and nothingErica Moulton (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA), ‘Studio Style’ and Staff Screenwriters at Warner Brothers, 1938-1941Rinaldo Vignati (University of Bologna, Italy), John Fante, novelist and screenwriter

7 pm – PANEL 4… ART & VIOLENCE

Chair/Host: Maite Galarza (Universidad de Cuenca, Ecuador)

Juan Carlos Carrillo (Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City, Mexico), From national to transnational. Unity in the trilogy by Alejandro G. Iñárritu & Guillermo Arriaga (Amores perros, 21 Grams, Babel)Lindsay Steenberg (Oxford Brookes University, UK), Lisa Coulthard (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada), Scripting action: an analysis of the production of the Hollywood fight sceneStephanie Schwarz (University of Vienna, Austria), Let’s talk about art. Deciphering the symbolic and cultural capital in Woody Allen’s screenplays

8 pm – HAPPY HOUR

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Some selected, varied & transmitted excerpts, of the Zoom-chat:

Random thought (re Patrick's great point): Do we have free will?

(...Yikes; this stuff can really keep you up nights. I mean, DO WE? ...Do we? No, really.)

One solution to the problem (or: mystery) of free will:

...We have Agency (choices/decisions) and Structure (the "rules" we have to live inside)... (So, for now, let's all sidestep the very thorny "free will problem / question", for now? :) (...And maybe just let The EthiSizer make all the tough decisions, that we humanimals don't have all the data/info/good `decision rules' for i.e., [IF / THEN / ELSE])

For More Good Stuff on Agency/Structure (aka structuration theory), maybe see: Margaret Archer, and Anthony Giddens...

e.g., stuff like

Archer, M. S. (2002). Solving the problem of structure and agency by developing realist social theory. Economic and Social Research Council.

Archer, M. S. (1995). Realist Social Theory: the Morphogenetic Approach. Cambridge University Press.

Giddens, A. (1984). The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Polity.

Giddens, A. (1987). Social Theory and Modern Sociology. Polity in association with Blackwell.

One example of Structure & Agency (rules, & choices about/within those rules/structures "rules of the (Bourdieuian) game") is: writing a script in "accepted industry format" (e.g., Courier 12 point font, `standard' script layout, & length, etc)... (...Which `game' do you want to `play'...?) As you can always throw out some, most, or even all, the `rules' (structures). (But - are you still in the `right': game? For you, personally-? ...Decisions, decisions...!)

Another example (of Agency/Structure) is: using APA 7th citation style. Like those Giddens and Archer refs do. (Learn (and `do') the rules, before you go and break 'em... etc)

Or - if you do bend (or even break) 'em, you better do it so well that: nobody cares :) In fact, they: like what you did there. (...A tricky line to walk; gotta `suck it and see'. i.e. Try it, and see if it works! But, know the risk you're taking. Creative people take calculated risks. Sometimes, it even works!)

04:02:53 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone:

I'm live-blogging this, btw: https://on-writering.blogspot.com/2021/08/srn2021-screenwriting-research-network.html (...unless anyone has any objections?)

04:03:50 From Paolo Russo to Everyone:

@JT: go ahead. Actually, if anyone wants to also post on Facebook or Tweet, please do share

04:04:11 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone:

👍

04:05:44 From Rosanne Welch to Everyone:

Epic!

04:08:11 From Lisa Coulthard to Everyone:

https://www.87eleven.net/pre-vis/

https://www.dukeupress.edu/experts-in-action

04:13:35 From Paolo Russo to Everyone:

Q for Lisa: in compiling your database, have you run some quantitative/qualitative statistical analysis of, for instance, how many subsets (or sub set pieces) recur in the scripts you have investigated - i.e. based on the “type” of fight?

04:15:38 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone:

Q for Lisa: Is the fight scene in `Barry Lyndon' the greatest fight scene in cinema, ever? (I have a theory on this... :) But no spoilers.

[ok - spoiler alert - the spoiler is: Barry, (a) is facing a yuge opponent; and (b) never once gets hit...!!!! Kubrick's `first' film was Day of the Fight (a boxing documentary), so he understands how important not getting hit is, in real boxing/a real fight (as opposed to: a Hollywood/fictionalised one)... John Wick (just for example) on the other hand: gets creamed, pretty regularly :) (...which admittedly, can be visually/viscerally spectacular, to watch)

(...the difference between movies as business (entertainment) versus. films as art ...) ]

(...not that there's anything wrong with: either. Well; if you like that kind of thing-?)

& a Random Thought: Be nice to see, the cultural evolution of fight scenes (fighting styles) in movies, in tandem with, the rise in popularity of MMA (mixed martial arts), since, for eg UFC 1, in 1993 , etc.

(e.g. When, exactly, did James Bond (in the Daniel Craig era) start doing: mixed martial arts? And when did he learn Parkour, etc? I don't recall those in the Ian Fleming novels, which are all very surprisingly well written; even the female character, in The Spy Who Loved Me; the novella I mean. Well, unless you disagree. In which case, Yes; No; Right; Ok.). I mean are we judging it by Tolstoy/Melville/Austen/Dostoyevsky/etc standards, or by pulp fiction standards? What are the rules (structures) and, who moved my cheese?

& noting also (in the evolution of cinema fight scenes), any UFC/MMA crossovers? (in: casting) eg The A-Team (e.g. Quinton `Rampage' Jackson), & Inherent Vice (Keith Jardine as Puck Beaverton, etc).. & Mamet's Redbelt, etc. (I blame Janos (Johann) Peter Weissmuller, in Tarzan.)

[end of random thought;

then again all thoughts are random, BV-SR, if we don't have free will]

04:52:14 From Rosanne Welch to Everyone:

Here is a female of color stuntwoman -Lauren Mary Kim - on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncXJMxiq5gw

04:52:36 From Lisa Coulthard to Everyone:

Yup there are some fantastic ones!

5:01:50 From Francesco Sticchi to Everyone:

Thanks for the great panel!!

05:07:19 From Chris Neilan to Everyone:

Heroic effort JT

05:11:33 From Rosanne Welch to Everyone:

Due to being online we ended up ‘pushing’ boundaries in how many more folks have been able to attend. :)

05:19:47 From Sheridan Humphreys to Everyone:

Molly Ringwald reflecting on working with

with John Hughes https://www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/what-about-the-breakfast-club-molly-ringwald-metoo-john-hughes-pretty-in-pink

05:32:07 From Velikovsky of Newcastle to Everyone:

Forthcoming book I just pitched @Happy Hour: https://storyality.wordpress.com/2020/12/21/storyality170-p3-of-ec-book/

05:33:33 From Chris Neilan to Everyone:

Pitch from me: I'm thinking of trying to put together an edited collection on the screenplays of no budget films. If anyone's interested, pop me an email: c[dot]neilan [at]napier[dot]ac[dot]uk

05:46:33 From alan taylor to Everyone:

as promised https://kinowords.wordpress.com/books/

Alan Taylor also made a great (and very amusing) point, about lesson plans: they are scriptwriting ! (e.g.: The first `part' of the semester is "Act One", then it's on to Act Two, and we all know what happens in the climax/"Act Three", etc...) :)

So; yeah. all of life is doing science, as every film (in fact, every single unit of culture, including every: book, joke, new word, etc... - is, a scientific experiment...

i.e., (1) Expectation; then (2) Experimental Test, of that (author's) expectation/theory/hypothesis... via Trial, and-hopefully-not-Error (but if so, do Error-Correction. If you're still alive that is :)

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...So, 3 more great presentations! &a fun Happy Hour - Yay!

--------------------------

Afterthought:

The conference/seminar's Theme: "PUSHING BOUNDARIES"

is about: Agency & Structure, too...?

(As: we collectively push & expand the literal boundaries of the possible, with our agency...

bending the old `rules' (structures),

expanding the scope, of: Screenwriting Research... )

(...to infinity & beyond ! etc)

--------------

So: great webinar. I learned a lot! (JTV)
& Met lots of great people / scholars.
...What's not to like?

Tune in next week to the SRN online seminars for much more!

Same Bat-channel!

THE END

ROLL CREDITS.

--------------//---------------

Ok you can stop reading now.

Nobody ever reads the End Credits.

So... my PhD blog (on screenwriting / movie creativity), if of interest: The StoryAlity weblog

& my 2016 PhD dissertation (free online)

The StoryAlity PhD (Velikovsky 2016)
(Or, direct link to the free PDF, without all the backstory)
(...it even has stuff in it about Writeur Theory, which is a direct challenge to `Auteur Theory', from the point of view of: the screenwriter. ...Who knew?)

& my online multimedia showreel

& my oeuvre

Wait, why are you still reading this?

Nobody ever reads the End Credits.

& forthcoming book: (due out early 2022):

P3 of EC (Principles, Protocols & Practices of Evolutionary Culturology)

(...the book is an expansion of a scientific discovery [of: the unit of culture - in movies, music, books, inventions, ...everything in culture] that fell out of my Ph.D, in 2016)

i.e. expanding this frequently-reprinted chapter, out to full book-length:

Velikovsky, J. T. (02020). Technology: Memes (Units of Culture). In M. A. Runco & S. R. Pritzker (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Creativity (3rd ed., pp. 585-604). San Diego, Calif.: Elsevier Science & Technology Books.

Velikovsky, J. T. (2019). The Holon/Parton Structure of the Meme, or The Unit of Culture. In D. B. A. Mehdi Khosrow-Pour (Ed.), Advanced Methodologies and Technologies in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Simulation, and Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 795-811). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Velikovsky, J. T. (2018). The Holon/Parton Theory of the Unit of Culture (or the Meme, and Narreme): In Science, Media, Entertainment, and the Arts. In IRMA (Ed.), Technology Adoption and Social Issues: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications(pp. 1590-1627). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Velikovsky, J. T. (2017). Chapter 405: The Holon/Parton Structure of the Meme, or, The Unit Of Culture. In M. Khosrow-Pour (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Fourth Edition (pp. 4666-4678). New York: IGI Global.

Velikovsky, J. T. (2016). The HOLON/parton Theory of the Unit of Culture (or the Meme, and Narreme): In Science, Media, Entertainment and the Arts. In A. Connor & S. Marks (Eds.), Creative Technologies for Multidisciplinary Applications (pp. 208-246). New York: IGI Global.

Maybe even visit the official book site: P3 of EC (which also includes: a brief description)

So, it's a simple tool (The Three Laws of HOLON/partons), for measuring
the Units & Levels of culture.
In, any domain of culture.
e.g.: (just an example, in the domain of: cinema)FilmActSequenceSceneBeatStill frameAlso; Narremes (units of story.)
And, the same universal tool (the 3 Laws of HOLON/partons) applies to: all units of culture. (e.g. Songs/music, which are often `inside' movies, and text, which is also often `inside' movies, well unless they're a silent film; but even those usually have titles, & intertitles)

But, I still don't get why you're even reading this part (of the whole).
These are the End Credits: (Nobody cares about them).
This is all just paratext, in Genette's terms.

And, Yet...
...here you still are...?

(I think, maybe there's something wrong with you? You really should see somebody about that.
Then again, there's something wrong with everybody, so; all good.
...You are in good company :)

K,
well,
since you made it this far

...Sit back, buckle up, and Get Ready, for the ride of your life.*

* Results may vary

--------------//---------------
THE
EXTENDED DIRECTOR'S CUT
of the
END CREDITS

Well, it seems that's about all we have time for, folks.
You have been reading / viewing / listening to an audio-described
blog-post
by:
Dr J T Velikovsky Ph.D

(aka: Velikovsky of Newcastle)
& Evolutionary Culturologist & AI Researcher & Enthusiast & Information Scientist & Systems Scientist & Filmmaker & Writer & Artist & Actor & Muso & Random Guy & Rugged Frontiersman (and, also The StoryAlity Guy) aka Humanimal (or, The Artist formally known as Dr J T Velikovsky)

BTW - This blog post is not official SRN literature, or anything; any errors are my own;
I am just a big fan - and, member - of the SRN...

...Join today!
(It's free!)

---------
Still More Stuff. Seriously.
This `sign-off' never ends.

Transmedia Blog: On Writering
IMDb (Movies, Videogames):
Music: Texas Radio & Zen Stupidity
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee (over 100 videos, some are even: good)
Academia page: https://newcastle-au.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
ResearchGate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jt_Velikovsky
My ouvre... etc etc.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6741-066X
Forthcoming book (early 2022): https://www.igi-global.com/book/principles-protocols-practices-evolutionary-culturology/267379
Ok, I'm pretty sure that's it.
But still;
It goes to show you never can tell,
(as the late great philosopher, Charles E A Berry once sang.)

View more on Joe Velikovsky's website »

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Published on August 31, 2021 10:11

TVoL's Examined Lives: Lies & Deception(Webinar of: ...

TVoL's Examined Lives: Lies & Deception

(Webinar of: 19 Aug 2021)

See: https://thisviewoflife.com/examined-lives/

A blog-post by Velikovsky of Newcastle

--------------

So - I just attended this great webinar!

(& Happy 1-year Anniversary to X-Lives !!!)

Thanks to Andy & Sage & TVoL for all the great Evolutionary Philosophy !

-------//--------

TVoL's Examined Lives

ABSTRACT (by Andy Norman):

`Lies and Deception'

Why do we humans lie and deceive? How common is the practice, and what forms does it take? Is the penchant to lie inborn, or is it something we learn? Can lying become habitual? Can lying to ourselves become habitual? What happens to us when it does? And what light does evolutionary biology shed on all this?

In a fascinating article linked below, David Rothkopf suggests that habitual dishonesty can render us incapable of distinguishing between truth and lies. Not only do we lie to ourselves all the time, we build institutions that lie to us, thereby rendering our society vulnerable to things like “the Big Election Lie” about the alleged theft of the 2020 U.S. election. Is Rothkopf right about this? It will be fun to discuss.

Rothkopf’s Article

Additional background readings for the ambitious...

The Evolution Of Lying
The evolution of cooperation led also to the evolution of lying.

Cooperation creates selection for tactical deception.

The Origins of Lying and Deception in Everyday Life
How do children make sense of the complex social code that dictates when they should or should not lie? When is lying a pro-social behavior vs an antisocial behavior?

Robert Trivers’ The Folly of Fools (a classic work of evolutionary psychology on self-deception)

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And, am happy to report we solved all the world's problems, in that great webinar.

THE END.

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& below FYI, is my Scribbled Notes I took down, during the webinar. (er, "I", Velikovsky)(Though sometimes I can't read my own writing...?
So, I wouldn't take the below as `True News', or anything :)
Could all be: Fake News. You be the judge.

------------

Some of the Zoom-chat is below: (mostly, anonymized) - & mainly just presented here, for the links/URLs, which are very informative! (thanks especially to Sage @ TVoL)
------
Questions & Comments made in the Zoom-chat:

01:42:52 From Gail Greer to Everyone : On good deception in fiction - Ibsen's The Wild Duck
01:46:04 From Vivek Babu Girija - MSSRF, India to Everyone : Hi all, I wish to share with you all a popular couplet in Tamil language's philosophical book named Thirukkural, which was written in 31 BCE.
குறள் 292:பொய்மையும் வாய்மை யிடத்த புரைதீர்ந்தநன்மை பயக்கும் எனின்.
01:46:30 From Vivek Babu Girija - MSSRF, India to Everyone : Transliteration(Tamil to English):poimaiyum vaaimai yitaththa puraidheerndhananmai payakkum enin
English Couplet 292:Falsehood may take the place of truthful word,If blessing, free from fault, it can afford.
Couplet Explanation:Even falsehood has the nature of truth, if it confer a benefit that is free from fault.
01:47:18 From Kathleen Hart to Everyone : A chapter on that in Wright’s The Moral Animal.
02:25:55 From Kathleen Hart to Everyone : “As if”: we’re separate physically but to be social conduct ourselves “as if” we were part of a “social fabric” or “body”
02:31:39 From Kathleen Hart to Everyone : Egalitarian syndrome is real.

----------------
A few points I thought of, but didn't get round to mentioning:
`The Problem of 100% Honesty' - Imagine if, we all had to be 100% honest, all day every day :)(e.g. see the movie: Liar, Liar), etc! Hilarity ensues. (As: The truth often hurts, & especially: peoples' feelings!)
There's a (bell-curve) Spectrum of lies - from harmless to neutral to harmful - eg Dangerous Lies, Useful Lies, Adaptive lies, Adaptive Fictions... etc
Ontogeny recaps Phylogeny, (fractals, small vs large) (eg Children: Santa Claus / Fairy Tales... Adults: Religion...)
Q: When is a kid old enough to be told: Santa isn't real (?)Q: When does humanity become `old enough' (adult enough?) to ditch: Religion?(Dennett's idea of religion as a `nurse crop'...)
Andy mentioned he's writing a kid's book, (but a truthful one!)
I too love writing `Ugly Truth Fairy Stories - with a dose of hard truth at the end' There's a few at https://outrageous-bullshit.blogspot.... (eg:

Once upon a time, a Prince and Princess met, fell in love and got married, and they all lived happily ever after.

PS - Hey Kid, by the way, 50% of marriages end in divorce (so, take the above with a grain of salt)

The great Rothkopf article - reminds me of: `Lying about lying', gaslighting (eg `Stop the steal') -ie Wait a minute there, who even said it was stolen? You calling a truth a lie? And you think we can't see what you're doing by lying then accusing us of lying? That's 2 insults for the price of one... You're really asking for it now
Louis CK, on Colbert: (on - lying about lying & then, accusing the audience of lying!)
Colbert: Louis CK calls Trump a lying sack of [language alert] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNxG2...

(In summary... All: Lies, damned lies) ...& statistics! :)
-------//--------

And - I can highly recommend, Andy's new book: Mental Immunity (2021) !

Mental Immunity (out now: as of May 18th 2021)

(& I notice, you can pre-order it now on that Amazon link, above... & I did ! )

--------------

So: great webinar. I learned a lot. (JTV)
& Met lots of great people / scholars.
...What's not to like?

THE END
ROLL CREDITS.
--------------//---------------
Well, that's about all we have time for, folks.
You have been reading / viewing a blog-post by:
Dr J T Velikovsky Ph.D

(aka: Velikovsky of Newcastle)
Information Scientist & Systems Scientist & AI Researcher & Enthusiast & Evolutionary Culturologist & Filmmaker & Writer & Artist & Actor & Muso & Rugged Frontiersman & Random Guy
(and, also The StoryAlity Guy)
aka Humanimal
(or, The Artist formally known as Dr J T Velikovsky)

More stuff:

Transmedia Blog: On Writering
IMDb (Movies, Videogames):
Music: Texas Radio & Zen Stupidity
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee (over 100 videos, some are even: good)
Academia page: https://newcastle-au.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
ResearchGate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jt_Velikovsky
My ouvre... etc etc.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6741-066X
Forthcoming book (November 2021): https://www.igi-global.com/book/principles-protocols-practices-evolutionary-culturology/267379

View more on Joe Velikovsky's website »

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Published on August 19, 2021 10:22

Some of my fave quotes from Plato's `The Republic'

Some of my fave quotes from Plato of Athens's `The Republic'

by Velikovsky of Newcastle

14th Aug 02021

---------------

Hey, so, did you ever read Plato of Athens's The Republic?

"Brains down everyone, pizza's here!"

He really says some great and classic (`timeless') stuff in there, I sh*t you not.

Also some of it's funny. Like the bold stuff below. He really brang the funny.

(Just been re-reading Pinker's The Sense of Style, and wanted to put the unit of culture, the HOLON/parton, the word, `brang' in a sentence; such a funny word)

Like check this Plato-ey goodness:

`BOOK II

SOCRATES - GLAUCON

With these words I was thinking that I had made an end of the discussion; but the end, in truth, proved to be only a beginning. For Glaucon, who is always the most pugnacious of men, was dissatisfied at Thrasymachus' retirement; he wanted to have the battle out.

So he said to me: Socrates, do you wish really to persuade us, or only to seem to have persuaded us, that to be just is always better than to be unjust?

I should wish really to persuade you, I replied, if I could.

Then you certainly have not succeeded. Let me ask you now: -How would you arrange goods--are there not some which we welcome for their own sakes, and independently of their consequences, as, for example, harmless pleasures and enjoyments, which delight us at the time, although nothing follows from them?

I agree in thinking that there is such a class, I replied.

Is there not also a second class of goods, such as knowledge, sight, health, which are desirable not only in themselves, but also for their results?

Certainly, I said.

And would you not recognize a third class, such as gymnastic, and the care of the sick, and the physician's art; also the various ways of money-making--these do us good but we regard them as disagreeable; and no one would choose them for their own sakes, but only for the sake of some reward or result which flows from them?

[He's so right; nobody really wants to do Leg-Day at the gym. Also, having a job sucks. The EthiSizer would fix this, with Universal Basic Income (see Rutger Bregman on all that), and, tax the rich, and the robots, and the rich robots. Probably. I mean, I don't know yet, we'd have to wait and see what The EthiSizer said...

The EthiSizer knows all. That's the whole point of the great and omnipotent: EthiSizer. Thus Spake The EthiSizer, and all that. Though it has nothing to do with Nietzsche, so I wouldn't go jumping to incorrect conclusions, based on insufficient evidence or data. See Bayes Theorem, and Minimum Message Length. Wait till you see The EthiSizer and what it can do, and then - and only then - judge it. Just sayin'. The EthiSizer is like a much better computer AI autodidact version of Plato's The Republic. So give it a chance. You won't regret it. Probably.]

There is, I said, this third class also. But why do you ask?

Because I want to know in which of the three classes you would place justice?

In the highest class, I replied,--among those goods which he who would be happy desires both for their own sake and for the sake of their results.

Then the many are of another mind; they think that justice is to be reckoned in the troublesome class, among goods which are to be pursued for the sake of rewards and of reputation, but in themselves are disagreeable and rather to be avoided. page I know, I said, that this is their manner of thinking, and that this was the thesis which Thrasymachus was maintaining just now, when he censured justice and praised injustice. But I am too stupid to be convinced by him.'

Anyway; some very funny - and also wise and profound - stuff, there. Nice one, Plato of Athens.
Also how's this - I love that fun little story of the magic invisibility rings:

`According to the tradition, Gyges was a shepherd in the service of the king of Lydia; there was a great storm, and an earthquake made an opening in the earth at the place where he was feeding his flock.

Amazed at the sight, he descended into the opening, where, among other marvels, he beheld a hollow brazen horse, having doors, at which he stooping and looking in saw a dead body of stature, as appeared to him, more than human, and having nothing on but a gold ring; this he took from the finger of the dead and reascended.

Now the shepherds met together, according to custom, that they might send their monthly report about the flocks to the king; into their assembly he came having the ring on his finger, and as he was sitting among them he chanced to turn the collet of the ring insidehis hand, when instantly he became invisible to the rest of the company and they began to speak of him as if he were no longer present.
He was astonished at this, and again touching the ring he turned the collet outwards and reappeared; he made several trials of the ring, and always with the same result-when he turned the collet inwards he became invisible, when outwards he reappeared. Whereupon he contrived to be chosen one of the messengers who were sent to the court; where as soon as he arrived he seduced the queen, and with her help conspired against the king and slew him, and took the kingdom.
Suppose now that there were two such magic rings, and the just put on one of them and the unjust the other; no man can be imagined to be of such an iron nature that he would stand fast in justice.
No man would keep his hands off what was not his own when he could safely take what he liked out of the market, or go into houses and lie with any one at his pleasure, or kill or release from prison whom he would, and in all respects be like a God among men.
Then the actions of the just would be as the actions of the unjust; they would both come at last to the same point. And this we may truly affirm to be a great proof that a man is just, not willingly or because he thinks that justice is any good to him individually, but of necessity, for wherever any one thinks that he can safely be unjust, there he is unjust. For all men believe in their hearts that injustice is far more profitable to the individual than justice, and he who argues as I have been supposing, will say that they are right.
If you could imagine any one obtaining this power of becoming invisible, and never doing any wrong or touching what was another's, he would be thought by the lookers-on to be a most wretched idiot, although they would praise him to one another's faces, and keep up appearances with one another from a fear that they too might suffer injustice.
Enough of this.'

Yeah! Enough of all that.
Except, with rings of invisibility - check out H G Wells' The Invisible Man (omg I heart H G Wells!), and, see all the units of culture (ideas, processes, products) descended from that idea Plato talks about there.
And even Lord of the Rings when Frodo slips on the ring of invisibility.
An idea (like a ring of invisibility, or even just the idea of invisibility, even with or without the magic ring) is a unit of culture, a HOLON/parton.
Like, say, (functionally speaking) camoflage, in nature (e.g. stripes on a tiger, etc. Or desert beetles the same color as sand. Or pepper moths changing color due to industrial pollution, and whatnot.).
Or a cloaking device in Star Wars. Or whatever. It's: a problem-solution.
Some of these units of culture (ideas. processes, products) are obviously convergent evolution. Some are descended... You hafta make The EthiSizer (an ancestor simulator) to figure out the exact details there. Or, maybe a time machine.
Hey there's H G Wells and his memes, or units of culture, or HOLON/partons , again.
Back to Plato proper:

`Then God, if he be good, is not the author of all things, as the many assert, but he is the cause of a few things only, and not of most things that occur to men. For few are the goods of human life, and many are the evils, and the good is to be attributed to God alone; of the evils the causes are to be sought elsewhere, and not in him.
That appears to me to be most true, he said.'

That bold bit above reminds me of David Benatar's philosophy, and books. And Schopenhauer. And whatnot. So that's a meme (a unit of culture, a HOLON/parton) that goes back a long way...? Back to Plato's day in the sun. Anyway the EthiSizer should fix it all, so there's more good things than bad in life.
Also I like this line (in bold, below):

`And what do you think of a second principle? Shall I ask you whether God is a magician, and of a nature to appear insidiously now in one shape, and now in another--sometimes himself changing and passing into many forms, sometimes deceiving us with the semblance of such transformations; or is he one and the same immutably fixed in his own proper image?
I cannot answer you, he said, without more thought.
Well, I said; but if we suppose a change in anything, that change must be effected either by the thing itself, or by some other thing?'

[Hey - He's talking about evolution... Kinda. See, the SVT evolutionary algorithm. Selection, Variation, Transmission. It works on units (HOLON/partons) in both biology, and external culture. But biology also has culture [information] in it. Systems are made of information, energy, and matter.]

`Most certainly.
And things which are at their best are also least liable to be altered or discomposed; for example, when healthiest and strongest, the human frame is least liable to be affected by meats and drinks, and the plant which is in the fullest vigour also suffers least from winds or the heat of the sun or any similar causes.
Of course.'

Hmm. maybe now he's talking about antifragile things (see Nassim Taleb on that).
Like Paul Stamets talks about with at 5 mins 25 secs to 5 mins 45 secs, though he never uses the term antifragile. (But that's what it is.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7agK0nkiZpA
Indeed, Biodiversity is Biosecurity. (See E O Wilson on Half-Earth. And, the importance of preserving biodiversity. I mean the EthiSizer would know all this, that's also why we need it. To enforce this.)

Hey he (Stamets) also says: the largest organism in the world is a mycileal mat, 2200 acres in size, over 2000 years old (hey, just like Plato!) at: 4 mins 25 secs of the above talk.

Anyway back to Plato: I love this: `Nothing great is easy'.

`Since then, as philosophers prove, appearance tyrannizes over truth and is lord of happiness, to appearance I must devote myself. I will describe around me a picture and shadow of virtue to be the vestibule and exterior of my house; behind I will trail the subtle and crafty fox, as Archilochus, greatest of sages, recommends. But I hear some one exclaiming that the concealment of wickedness is often difficult; to which I answer, Nothing great is easy. Nevertheless, the argument indicates this, if we would be happy, to be the path along which we should proceed. With a view to concealment we will establish secret brotherhoods and political clubs.'

I just like that meme, that unit of culture. "Nothing great is easy." Tucked away, in there. (Ignore the context, in the quote above. Or don't. Or do.) I love folks who speak in epigrams. Like say, Gilbert Ryle in The Concept of Mind, or whatever. Putting the nail in the coffin of Descartes' `dualism'. Things are not dual, they're whole. HOLON/partons. Well; unless you chop them up, which is a thing you can do, but, that's getting into mereology, which frankly is a real confusing mess of a domain, so, maybe let's not go there, at least till it's all cleaned up.

Also, hey I kinda dig that comic, and movie, The Watchmen. Check this out:

`The cause of all this, Socrates, was indicated by us at the beginning of the argument, when my brother and I told you how astonished we were to find that of all the professing panegyrists of justice-beginning with the ancient heroes of whom any memorial has been preserved to us, and ending with the men of our own time-no one has ever blamed injustice or praised justice except with a view to the glories, honours, and benefits which flow from them.
No one has ever adequately described either in verse or prose the true essential nature of either of them abiding in the soul, and invisible to any human or divine eye; or shown that of all the things of a man's soul which he has within him, justice is the greatest good, and injustice the greatest evil.

Had this been the universal strain, had you sought to persuade us of this from our youth upwards, we should not have been on the watch to keep one another from doing wrong, but every one would have been his own watchman, because afraid, if he did wrong, of harbouring in himself the greatest of evils.'

Indeed, who watches the Watchmen?
Who judges the judges?
Answer:
The All-Seeing Eye of THE ETHISIZER.

Anyway - the EthiSizer will watch over everybody, as it's vastly better at doing it, than a corruptible, biased, prejudiced, human. Or even, better than groups of humans. (You just can't trust those guys. Except when you can.)
And so then, Plato bans the `imitators' from his perfect State/Republic, as, he just loves them `IDEALS' or IDEAL FORMS, (kinda like, Popper's `World 3'), and, according to him, it's bad enough, down here on Earth we're all just a pale imitation of the ideals (`shadows and dust', on the cave wall, etc), but then - with an actor (or `imitator') or whatever - you have: a copy of a copy, and for Plato, that's getting too far away from: the ideal(s).
Oh well; that's how Idealists think...?
They really needed an EthiSizer back then in Ancient Athens, to see (to: simulate, to model) these `ideal forms' or whatever.
Mind you, i=P in Evolutionary Culturology kinda ends up as a form (a type) of the same idea that Plato was getting at and harping on about.

`And therefore when any one of these pantomimic gentlemen, who are so clever that they can imitate anything, comes to us, and makes a proposal to exhibit himself and his poetry, we will fall down and worship him as a sweet and holy and wonderful being; but we must also inform him that in our State such as he are not permitted to exist; the law will not allow them.

And so when we have anointed him with myrrh, and set a garland of wool upon his head, we shall send him away to another city. For we mean to employ for our souls' health the rougher and severer poet or story-teller, who will imitate the style of the virtuous only, and will follow those models which we prescribed at first when we began the education of our soldiers.

We certainly will, he said, if we have the power.

Then now, my friend, I said, that part of music or literary education which relates to the story or myth may be considered to be finished; for the matter and manner have both been discussed.

I think so too, he said.

Next in order will follow melody and song.

That is obvious.

Every one can see already what we ought to say about them, if we are to be consistent with ourselves.'

And then, he edits the sh*t out of the Odyssey and Iliad, as well.

He's a hard marker, I'll say that.

Anyway, it's a great read, the old Republic by Plato of Athens.

I reckon The EthiSizer is a better way to reach utopia, or a close approximation of it. But that's just me. Just sayin'.

Also I dig this meme, for `the content and style', or the `matter and manner':

`Then now, my friend, I said, that part of music or literary education which relates to the story or myth may be considered to be finished; for the matter and manner have both been discussed.

I think so too, he said.'

So; there you go.

& I'll likely add more quotes that I like from The Republic, here, as I think of them.

Afterthought: I wonder if, anyone ever told Plato that, in his ideal Republic, by his own rules, he wouldn't be able to tell that story about `the two magic rings of invisibility'...? As he only wanted truth to be told, no imitations or fictions.

Units of culture are tools, for solving problems. He used that story to illustrate his point.

So; turns out Plato, like us, wasn't perfect. Hmph.

----------

Source of quotes: Plato's The Republic, from Great Books of the Western World, or, whatever.

--------------//---------------

& thanks to Ed Gibney, Andy Lord, whoever else for helpful discussions about all this... (Ethics & whatnot)

--------------//---------------

Well, that's about all we have time for, folks.
You have been reading / viewing a great blog-post by:
Dr J T Velikovsky Ph.D

aka: `Velikovsky of Newcastle' aka `The (great) Velikovsky' aka `The Man with HOLON/parton Eyes'

Dr. J T Velikovsky Evolutionary Culturologist & Information Scientist & Systems Scientist & AI Researcher & Enthusiast & Evolutionary Culturologist & Filmmaker & Writer & Artist & Actor & Muso & Rugged Frontiersman & Random Guy
(and, also The StoryAlity Guy)
aka Humanimal
(or, The Artist formally known as Dr J T Velikovsky)

More stuff:

Transmedia Blog: On Writering
IMDb (Movies, Videogames):
Music: Texas Radio & Zen Stupidity
Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee (over 100 videos, some are even: good)
Academia page: https://newcastle-au.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
Researchgate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jt_Velikovsky
My ouvre... etc etc.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6741-066X
Forthcoming book (November 2021): https://www.igi-global.com/book/principles-protocols-practices-evolutionary-culturology/267379--------//----------
PS - Now that you know about The EthiSizer , is it unethical, NOT to tell everyone you know, about it?(As, if it `takes root' somewhere, and happens, then maybe in the future, it will unite the globe, and save Humanity?)No, wait - that's Roko's Basilisk I was thinking of....Forget you ever read any of this.---------------------

View more on Joe Velikovsky's website »

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Published on August 14, 2021 05:11

In Praise of `The Science of Writing Characters' (Pelican 2020)

In Praise of

The Science of Writing Characters: Using Psychology to Create Compelling Fictional Characters

(Pelican 2020)

Pelican (2020)

A super-brief & super-glowing book review

by JTV

----------------

Finally got to read this great book by my friend Kira-Anne.

In short: ATB.

A Terrific Book!

...& more of `The Scientific Turn' in screenwriting/drama/narrative/storytelling! Yay!!

It should be a textbook in all screenwriting / novel-writing / short-story writing / videogame narrative design (etc!) courses!

Loved all the helpful (script) examples, the exercises at the back, and all the fascinating models of character that can be used as tools - for clueless folks like me, who can't write character.

(Well, unless I can, but: that's a matter of opinion. I tend to hate everything I write.)

Love how comprehensively Kira-Anne has drawn on:

`...theories and research from personality psychology, evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, narrative psychology, media psychology and developmental psychology.' (Pelican 2020, p. 6)

(Not much left out there! :)

Bravo & encore.

And, the diagram on p 75!!! (omg, genius - I never thought about it that way before!!! Brilliant stuff.)

& the great charts from The Bestseller Code, etc... And all the cool little Tables of character Analysis.

...So, I could rave on and on, but no spoilers here - I simply suggest: buy and read, this great book! Not just because, Kira-Anne is awesome. Her Ph.D was awesome too.

So: very highly recommended -

The Science of Writing Characters: Using Psychology to Create Compelling Fictional Characters

(Pelican 2020)

Pelican (2020)

You can even take a Big 5 (OCEAN) test free online here, and find out: all about yourself.

(Careful though, you might not like what you find. Yikes.)

& a Random Observation: A few of my old screenwriting mentors/teachers/editors went on to become Life Coaches. Because: it's all the same thing / the skills are transferable. ...Interesting, no? (Well; unless it isn't.)

& Thanks for reading, if you did.

THE END

--------------//---------------
& now...
THE
EXTENDED DIRECTOR'S CUT
of the
END CREDITS

Well, it seems that's about all we have time for, folks.
You have been reading / viewing / listening to an audio-described
blog-post
by:
Dr J T Velikovsky Ph.D

(aka: Velikovsky of Newcastle)
& Evolutionary Culturologist & AI Researcher & Enthusiast & Information Scientist & Systems Scientist & Filmmaker & Writer & Artist & Actor & Muso & Random Guy & Rugged Frontiersman (and, also The StoryAlity Guy) aka Humanimal (or, The Artist formally known as Dr J T Velikovsky)

---------
Still More Stuff. Seriously.
This `sign-off' never ends.

Transmedia Blog: On Writering
IMDb (Movies, Videogames):
Music: Texas Radio & Zen Stupidity
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee (over 100 videos, some are even: good)
Academia page: https://newcastle-au.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
ResearchGate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jt_Velikovsky
My ouvre... etc etc.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6741-066X
Forthcoming book (early 2022): https://www.igi-global.com/book/principles-protocols-practices-evolutionary-culturology/267379
HOLON/partons

Ok, I'm pretty sure that's it.
But still;
It goes to show you never can tell,
(as the late great philosopher, Charles E A Berry once wrote.)

Here's a very simple - and very useful - scientific tool, from the new scientific meta-paradigm of Evolutionary Culturology :

P.S. - Also, I reckon Characters are HOLON/partons, too...

-------//-------
Hey, you read all the way to the end..!
(Holy wow!)
Thx for reading!------

View more on Joe Velikovsky's website »

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Published on July 20, 2021 04:02

AppEEL webinar #7 (July)

So we had AppEEL webinar #7 of 2021...

It was great!!! (Just like AppEEL webinars #1, #2, #3, #4, #5 & #6; but who's counting.)

By the way, this post you're now reading isn't the Official Page for the AppEEL webinars.

This is just: my NOTES... (Velikovsky of Newcastle)

--------

The video, from AppEEL webinar #6

(featuring AppEEL Director, Nathalie Gontier

[To Be Added... watch this precise space]

AppEEL Webinar #7 on YouTube

For more, see https://www.youtube.com/user/appeellisboa/videos

& speakers:

July 9th 2021 - In collaboration with CLES

* Peter Gärdenfors on the evolution of causal thinking

And, which reminded me of this: (I believe that's an orangutan, not a `monkey' as captioned there, but still.)

Not sure how to interpret the reaction there: surprise, amusement, humor...(?)

(Or am I just: ape-ropomorphizing? :)Peter mentioned: laughter (in response to tickling) is clear in some primates...

All very fascinating

---

* Przemyslaw Żywiczynski on protolanguage

Fascinating...

---

* Slawomir Wacewicz on two types of pantomime

Also fascinating

(at first, for the title slide image above, I just saw a `blue splash'

(like: a very `artistic' parenthesis symbol } ),

...then the 2 silhouettes (or silhouette and blue shadow) suddenly resolved, in a `flash'...

to: a hominin face (side on, facing right), and: gorilla?)

& how... I love that `gestalt-switch' moment!

Understanding.

Or, recognition,

or whatever that is.

(What a thrill / `natural drug-rush' that is...!

I like this article on that sort of thing...

PS - Disclaimer: Kids, don't do drugs.)

Also some Notes I made/thoughts I had:

Imitation vs Emulation? (copy the process vs copy the product) - in Teaching

(Przemyslaw mentioned Cecilia Heyes' recent paper on this) Koestler 1964 (The Act of Creation) on screen acting: shifting from `explicit' to `implicit' style - ie reduced vs exaggerated (pantomine) Tomasello - co-op vs selfish, bonobos vs chimps Communication: to Inform (Altruism) vs to Convince (Selfish)

AppEEL webinar #6 (June 2021)

So we had AppEEL webinar #6 of 2021...

It was great!!! (Just like AppEEL webinars #1, #2, #3, #4 and #5)

By the way, this post you're now reading isn't the Official Page for the AppEEL webinars.

This is just: my NOTES... (by Velikovsky of Newcastle)

--------

The video, from AppEEL webinar #6

(featuring AppEEL Director, Nathalie Gontier

AppEEL Webinar #6

For more, see https://www.youtube.com/user/appeellisboa/videos

& speakers:

* James Shapiro on Mobile Genetic Elements and Evolution, a View from the 21st Century

* Benedikt Hallgrímsson on Epigenetics

* Francesco Balzan on his Erasmus Plus fellowship @ AppEEL: The Free Energy Principle

-------------------------

And just in passing, a few items of News:

the 2021 CES Conference https://on-writering.blogspot.com/2021/06/ces-conference-2021-sapporo-japan.html------//------

& for more about AppEEL, see also:

The Applied Evolutionary Epistemology Lab

------------//------------
Anyway, another terrific AppEEL webinar - I learned a lot! & met lots of great people/scholars.
What's not to like-?
--------------//---------------
Well, that's about all we have time for, folks.
You have been reading / viewing a blog-post by: Dr J T Velikovsky Ph.D

(aka: Velikovsky of Newcastle) Information Scientist & Systems Scientist & AI Researcher & Enthusiast & Evolutionary Culturologist
More information:
Transmedia Blog: On Writering
IMDb (Movies, Videogames):
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee (over 100 videos, some are even: good)
Academia.edu page: https://newcastle-au.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
Researchgate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jt_Velikovsky
JTV's ouvre... etc etc.
ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6741-066X
& Forthcoming book P3 of EC (November 2021): https://www.igi-global.com/book/principles-protocols-practices-evolutionary-culturology/267379

------------------------------------------

& please stay tuned, for more: AppEEL webinars !

& Thanks for reading!

View more on Joe Velikovsky's website »

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Published on June 18, 2021 12:12

AppEEL webinar #6 (May 2021)

So we had AppEEL webinar #6 of 2021...

It was great!!! (Just like AppEEL webinars #1, #2, #3, #4 and #5)

By the way, this post you're now reading isn't the Official Page for the AppEEL webinars.

This is just: my NOTES... (by Velikovsky of Newcastle)

--------

The video, from AppEEL webinar #6

(featuring AppEEL Director, Nathalie Gontier

AppEEL Webinar #6

For more, see https://www.youtube.com/user/appeellisboa/videos

& speakers:

* James Shapiro on Mobile Genetic Elements and Evolution, a View from the 21st Century

* Benedikt Hallgrímsson on Epigenetics

* Francesco Balzan on his Erasmus Plus fellowship @ AppEEL: The Free Energy Principle

-------------------------

And just in passing, a few items of News:

the 2021 CES Conference https://on-writering.blogspot.com/2021/06/ces-conference-2021-sapporo-japan.html------//------

& for more about AppEEL, see also:

The Applied Evolutionary Epistemology Lab

------------//------------
Anyway, another terrific AppEEL webinar - I learned a lot! & met lots of great people/scholars.
What's not to like-?
--------------//---------------
Well, that's about all we have time for, folks.
You have been reading / viewing a blog-post by: Dr J T Velikovsky Ph.D

(aka: Velikovsky of Newcastle) Information Scientist & Systems Scientist & AI Researcher & Enthusiast & Evolutionary Culturologist
More information:
Transmedia Blog: On Writering
IMDb (Movies, Videogames):
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee (over 100 videos, some are even: good)
Academia.edu page: https://newcastle-au.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
Researchgate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jt_Velikovsky
JTV's ouvre... etc etc.
ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6741-066X
& Forthcoming book P3 of EC (November 2021): https://www.igi-global.com/book/principles-protocols-practices-evolutionary-culturology/267379

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& please stay tuned, for more: AppEEL webinars !

& Thanks for reading!

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Published on June 18, 2021 12:12

TVoL's Examined Lives: Optimism, Cynicism, and Realism (Session 10)

TVoL's Examined Lives: Optimism, Cynicism, and Realism (Session 10)

(Webinar of: June 17th 2021)

See: https://thisviewoflife.com/examined-lives/

A blog-post by Velikovsky of Newcastle

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So - I just attended this great webinar!

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TVoL's Examined Lives

ABSTRACT:

Optimism, Cynicism, and Realism (Session 10)Date and Time: Thursday, June 17th, 12-1pm ET (4-5pm UTC)

Is realism invariably corrosive of hope? Or can realists also be optimists? Do we need delusions to maintain psychological stability? If so, delusions about what? Ourselves? Human nature? Our fate? Dark portrayals of human nature are often hailed as starkly realistic, and rosier portrayals are often assumed to stem from “rose-colored glasses.” But is this right? Or is it the cynics and pessimists that suffer from “negativity bias”? What light can the science of evolution shed on the subject? What will happen when we pool our insights?

Care to explore a bit beforehand? Start here:

"Logicality in regard to practical matters is the most useful quality an animal can possess, and might, therefore result from the action of natural selection; but outside of these it is probably of more advantage to the animal to have his mind filled with pleasing and encouraging visions, independently of their truth; and thus, upon unpractical subjects, natural selection might occasion a fallacious tendency of thought.” —Charles Sanders PeirceCosts and benefits of realism and optimism
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4323577/

Perspectives on depressive realism
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0005796794E0016C https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0005789406000840

Mindfulness, Negativity Bias, & Optimism
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1948550610396585

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And, am happy to report we solved all the world's problems, in that great webinar.

THE END.

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& below FYI, is my Scribbled Notes I took down, during the webinar. (er, "I", Velikovsky)(Though sometimes I can't read my own writing...?
So, I wouldn't take the below as `True News', or anything :)
Could all be: Fake News. You be the judge.

------------

Some of the Zoom-chat is below: (mostly, anonymized) - & mainly just presented here, for the links/URLs, which are very informative! (thanks especially to Sage @ TVoL)
------
Questions & Comments made in the Zoom-chat:

02:01:36 From Sage Gibbons (TVOL) to Everyone : Costs and benefits of realism and optimism

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

Perspectives on depressive realism

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...

Mindfulness, Negativity Bias, & Optimism

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/...

Other (anonymized) comments:

Isn't the Legend of Pandora saying that hope is a two-edged sword? John Cleese "Its not the pessimists that hurt, it's the hope that kills you"

Bregman (optimist) & Harari (realist? cynic?) conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp9h3...

Is it interesting to compare Eastern religions like Buddhism and Western religions like Christianity? Buddhism says that bad things happen and we need to accept that fact of life, while the West says we are in control?

George Lakoff’s work on authoritarian vs. nurturing parenting and politics.

Andy's introduction assumes that pessimism is a maladaption of an evolutionarily adapted trait but is there evidence for that?

Might these be “attachment styles” (Belsky)

Random Side Note: Andy's recent chat with David Pakman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoASE... (15 mins)

I don’t hear anyone saying they’re maladaptive. Just excesses of them

One of the teachings of Buddhism is the construct of CLINGING. THIS MAY BE A TOOL TO CREATE AND MAINTAIN BALANCE. DETACHMENT MAY BE ANOTHER

I agree with emotion being central

Further to Rob's (Swigert's) point, this (Teacher's Guide) makes me optimistic (for the future): https://sites.google.com/view/globale...

I would oppose that emotion is not useful, it is a question about emotion being adaptive/maladaptive, it is useful in itself to be informed by emotion

https://www.amazon.com/Good-Reasons-B...

Anyone familiar with Emotion-focused Therapy developed by Leslie Greenberg?

But one can be attached to seeking or desiring non-attachment.

`I was feeling pretty religious' by Tony Hoagland

How about the legend of the ancient Chinese farmer...his horse went missing, and all the neighbors tried to comfort him over his bad fortune. But he said, who knows what is good or bad? The next day his son found the horse, to much rejoicing in the neighborhood. But the farmer said, who knows what is good or bad? The son went out with the horse, but fell and broke his leg. Once again the neighbors exclaimed over the bad luck. But again, who knows what is good or bad? Before long the military conscriptors came, but could not take the son with his broken leg....and so on and on.

Very good story!

Irvin Yalom: “Stop hoping for a better past.”

Depends on what is going on “now.”

If I’m starving and in pain I need to focus on a hopeful future...

Awe is in the now, neither optimism nor pessimism.

“Normative adaptation"

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And - I can highly recommend, Andy's new book: Mental Immunity (due out: May 18 2021) !

Mental Immunity (due out: May 18th 2021)

(& I notice, you can pre-order it now on that Amazon link, above... & I did ! )

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So: great webinar. I learned a lot. (JTV)
& Met lots of great people / scholars.
...What's not to like?

THE END
ROLL CREDITS.
--------------//---------------
Well, that's about all we have time for, folks.
You have been reading / viewing a blog-post by:
Dr J T Velikovsky Ph.D

(aka: Velikovsky of Newcastle)
Information Scientist & Systems Scientist & AI Researcher & Enthusiast & Evolutionary Culturologist & Filmmaker & Writer & Artist & Actor & Muso & Rugged Frontiersman & Random Guy
(and, also The StoryAlity Guy)
aka Humanimal
(or, The Artist formally known as Dr J T Velikovsky)

More stuff:

Transmedia Blog: On Writering
IMDb (Movies, Videogames):
Music: Texas Radio & Zen Stupidity
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee (over 100 videos, some are even: good)
Academia page: https://newcastle-au.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
ResearchGate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jt_Velikovsky
My ouvre... etc etc.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6741-066X
Forthcoming book (November 2021): https://www.igi-global.com/book/principles-protocols-practices-evolutionary-culturology/267379

View more on Joe Velikovsky's website »

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Published on June 17, 2021 10:16

CES Conference 2021 - Sapporo, Japan

CES2021 - Sapporo

Cultural Evolution Society conference - CES2021 (Sapporo, Japan)

==============================================

So; am attending this great conference, June 9-11, 2021...!

Great talks/papers by: Kazuo Okanoya, Alex Mesoudi, Joe Henrich, Marcus Feldman, Brigitte Pakendorf, Heidi Colleran, etc!!

Selfie of me in CES2021 Gathertown:

====================================

& my own paper... (if you like that kind of thing):

CULTURAL EVOLUTION SOCIETY 2021/SESSIONS/DISCUSSION SESSION 2The HOLON/parton structure of units of culture, & Evolutionary CulturologyJT Velikovsky

My Abstract:

The landmark 2016 discovery of the HOLON/parton structure of all units of culture - deriving from a 2016 PhD study, and first published in the book Creative Technologies for Multidisciplinary Applications (2016) - has since been applied in other domains of culture, being subsequently republished in the Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology (2017, 4th edition), also Advanced Methodologies and Technologies in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Simulation, and Human-Computer Interaction (2019), and the Encyclopedia of Creativity (2020, 3rd edition).

This powerful new tool - integrating the Three Laws of HOLON/partons - enables scientific identification and analysis of units of culture, including Numerals (Mathematics); Words (Languages); Narremes / units of story (Narratives); Transmedia (Narrative); Movies (Cinema); Television (Screen Media); Novels (Prose Fiction Books); Factual Literature (Prose Non-Fiction Books); Videogames (Games);; Plays (Theater); Popular Song (Music); Poems (Literature); Jokes (Standup Comedy); Paintings (Visual Art); Myths (Narrative); (Adaptive Fictions); Conspiracy Theories (Adaptive Fictions); Scientific Models/Theories (Science); Ideologies (Political, Economic, Religious); Inventions (Technology); Art (Communication Media); Values & Ethics.

When used in conjunction with the Fractal Systems Meta-model of Bio-cultural Evolutionary Creativity, these two scientific models enable examination of the units, levels and mechanisms of cultural evolution, in any domain in culture.

The 5 prior book chapters on this discovery (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020) are currently being expanded to a full-length book (due for release, November 2021). This talk presents these two new scientific models - as powerful tools - for use by students, scholars, and scientists of Cultural Evolution.

And my Official Bio, on the CES2021 site:

JT Velikovsky

J. T. Velikovsky, PhD (Communication and Media Arts) is a member of the Future Work Research Group (FASTLab Research Center) at University of Newcastle, Australia; the Applied Evolutionary Epistemology Lab (http://appeel.fc.ul.pt/); and the CES. He is also a million-selling, multi-award-winning transmedia writer (videogames, movies, television, books, songs, comics), filmmaker, songwriter, and game designer. He has been a judge for Australian Writers Guild and Australian Directors Guild, and serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Art, Culture and Design Technologies. His PhD weblog is at: https://storyality.wordpress.com/ Research interests include Applied Evolutionary Epistemology; biological and cultural evolution; creativity, and consilience.

...And, that's just about enough shameless self-promotion for now, thankyou very much.

And - hey, a Tree of Culture:

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Anyway, another terrific conference... am learning a lot! & meeting lots of great people/scholars...
What's not to like-?
--------------//---------------
Well, that's about all we have time for, folks.
You have been reading / viewing a blog-post by: Dr J T Velikovsky Ph.D

(aka: Velikovsky of Newcastle) Information Scientist & Systems Scientist & AI Researcher & Enthusiast & Evolutionary Culturologist
More information:
Transmedia Blog: On Writering
IMDb (Movies, Videogames):
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee (over 100 videos, some are even: good)
Academia.edu page: https://newcastle-au.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
Researchgate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jt_Velikovsky
JTV's ouvre... etc etc.
ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6741-066X
& Forthcoming book P3 of EC (November 2021): https://www.igi-global.com/book/principles-protocols-practices-evolutionary-culturology/267379

------------------------------------------

View more on Joe Velikovsky's website »

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Published on June 06, 2021 04:48

Culture-Conference 2021 (Stirling UK)

Culture-Conference 2021 (Stirling UK)

Attended this great conference on Cultural Evolution (Jun 7th & 8th 2021)

Culture Conference 2021 (Stirling UK)

The Conference abstract, from the website:

Culture Conference 2021: “Evolutionary Perspectives on Culture”

The 2021 Culture Conference aims to broaden the scope of previous years themes by hosting an interdisciplinary workshop with the theme “Evolutionary Perspectives on Culture”.

Our primary objective is to bring together diverse researchers in the fields of animal behaviour, culture and evolution to exchange knowledge and expertise, and promote interdisciplinary discussion of cutting edge research on the study of culture. We aim to foster an environment where researchers from fields as diverse as ecology to economics can collaborate to address pressing current issues as well as advance human knowledge.

We hope that all attendees can contribute towards the same goal: participation in an open forum of discussion regarding how culture has come to be defined and operationalized in their fields, and how these unique yet varied evolutionary perspectives can inform each other – methodologically and otherwise.

Source: Culture Conference 2021 website

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Keynotes by Alex Mesoudi, Fiona Jordan, Christopher Krupenye, Katie Slocombe !

& some great Zoom sessions:

& especially enjoyed:
Mathieu Charbonneau Is Fidelity a Causal Concept?

&

Silas Elliott How can digital mediation influence biases to cultural transmission?

Also, just a sample of some of the presentations:
Short Talks
Talk 1- Eva Reindl - Young children spontaneously invent different types of associative tool use behaviour
Talk 2- Sadie Tenpas - Does coordination stabilize cultural traits in chimpanzees?
Talk 3- Mathieu Charbonneau - Is Fidelity a Causal Concept?
Talk 4- Valerie van Mulukom & Micia de Wet - Forgotten culture, ignored imagination: An evolutionary, dual-pathway, embodied cognition model of how humans navigate and make sense of reality
Lightning Talks
1- Alba Motes Rodrigo - The Method of Local Restriction: In search of potential great ape culture-dependent forms
2- Yoav Ram - Cultural evolution of cooperation: the role of non-vertical transmission
3- Claudio Tennie - How likely are self-enculturation effects in apes and early hominins?
4- Anthony Formaux - The experimental emergence of convention in a non-human primate
5- Dominik Deffner - Effective population size for culturally evolving traits
6- Natalie V Wareham - Cross-cultural variation in human reproductive success: Testing Bateman’s principles
7- Silas Elliott - How can digital mediation influence biases to cultural transmission?
8- Carlo Vreden & Zanna Clay - The development of empathic concern across two cultural contexts

& loads of great Research Posters in the conference booklet...

A big congrats to the #CultConf21 organizers!!!

------------//------------
Anyway, another terrific conference... learned a lot! & met lots of great people/scholars...
What's not to like-?
--------------//---------------
Well, that's about all we have time for, folks.
You have been reading / viewing a blog-post by: Dr J T Velikovsky Ph.D

(aka: Velikovsky of Newcastle) Information Scientist & Systems Scientist & AI Researcher & Enthusiast & Evolutionary Culturologist
More information:
Transmedia Blog: On Writering
IMDb (Movies, Videogames):
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee (over 100 videos, some are even: good)
Academia.edu page: https://newcastle-au.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
Researchgate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jt_Velikovsky
JTV's ouvre... etc etc.
ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6741-066X
& Forthcoming book P3 of EC (November 2021): https://www.igi-global.com/book/principles-protocols-practices-evolutionary-culturology/267379

------------------------------------------

View more on Joe Velikovsky's website »

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Published on June 04, 2021 08:44