From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Tue Jun 12 2001 - 19:15:33 MDT
Durant Schoon wrote:
>
> According to what I know of the book, the word "fnord" is supposed to
> be used by the mass media to induce a sense of panic and distress,
> used as a control mechanism to influence "the masses"*. Furthermore
> "the masses" are conditioned to subconsciously filter out the word
> fnord. It is never even noticed fnord by those who see it.
>
> * Note, I have read Eli's post about his dislike for the term
> "the masses". I use it here fully aware of these negative,
> over-simplified implications.
Not a problem. The Illuminatus Trilogy was supersaturated with the
standard Heinleinian group-polarization poison fnord, and quoting it
accurately and dispassionately is not something at which I take offense.
-- -- -- -- --
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://intelligence.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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