At 13:15 18/02/2008, you wrote:
>Laurie Slater wrote:
> > directed more towards the GPC as an institution
>
>There are no institutions. There are only specific individuals. There
>are us, and there may possibly sometimes be them, although SETI has not
>yet heard from them.
A somewhat Thatcherite and therefore deeply surprising stance.
Individuals tend to go native within institutions, and most of those
who are apparently successful within institutions pattern match and
add very little.
A few pattern match to aid communication while maintaining some
internal substance / cohesion (I'm not sure there is a word for what I mean).
Those who try to maintain their own "integrity" at the expense of
everything else tend not to get on in organizations and institutions.
There is society and there are societies. There are
institutions. They have their own culture, and these sometimes need
to be revised by people who have NOT gone native.
Julian
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