At 02.43 +0000 0-03-11, Judy Diamondstone scrobe:
>I've been thinking about the limits of
>reflexivity, ever since Eugene put up his voting booth, and how play might
>come into play at the limits of reflexivity.....
>
>For a moment, I wanted a meta systemic reflexive instrument that would
>monitor the limits of reflexivity so play would kick in in time...
and old man Bateson starts kicking and fussing in my bookshelf. I live by
quotes these days, until I get time to think for myself:
<begin Bateson quote>
What I encountered at the zoo was a phenomenon well known to
everybody: I saw two young monkeys *playing*, i.e., engaged in an
interactive sequence of which the unit actions of signals were similar to
but not the same as combat. It was evident, even to the human observer,
that the sequence as a whole was not combat, and evident to the human
observer that to the participant monkeys this was "not combat".
Now, this phenomenon, play, could only occur if the participants
organisms were capable of some degree of metacommunication, i.e., of
exchanging signals which would carry the message "this is play".
<end Bateson quote>
it's from p.179 in my paperback version of *Steps to an Ecology of Mind*,
essay called *A Theory of Play and Fantasy*, first read at an APA
conference in 1954.
play it again, Judy ;-)
Eva
PS, Renee: Erewhon -> Samuel Butler (1871) ...
a satire that ended up coming true??
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue May 23 2000 - 09:20:37 PDT