"The wisest men follow their own direction
And listen to no prophet guiding them.
None but the fools believe in oracles,
Forsaking their own judgement. Those who know,
Know that such men can only come to grief"
EURIPIDES, Iphigenia in Tauris
The above is something I'd love to have written myself, or at least found
for myself in the original work, however I filched it from the front page of
"Feet of Clay - A Study of Gurus" by Anthony Storr. Having now read all of
this author's books I can honestly say that he has thus far been the most
influential writer of non-fiction stuff that I have read that deal with the
issues of being human, or more specifically, thinking and thinking about
being human, or more specifically, thinking about thinking <about thinking>.
As for fiction, well that's a different story. David Brin comes to mind, as
do a number of others.
Here's a wild swing/long-shot: I am interested in discussing the relevance of the so-called "affective mental disorders" to the topic of "memetics" with anyone who feels that these "human conditions" may be relevant. I'm still working <mostly part-time> on building an understandable case to show that they are extremely relevant, and have yet to find any good material on the subject, outside of the standard psychiatric texts, thus pointers/hints/advice would be useful and greatly appreciated.
I have almost no interest in "publishing" something "first" or "original" so
am willing to swap what I have found out the hard way with anyone/someone
that is looking for new stuff to write/think about. This will include hard
data that I have gathered from the only person willing to provide it thus
far, myself. In return I expect well considered answers to questions I may
ask in return. I am also willing to be wired up, scanned, probed by any
"scientist" willing to feed me during the process and share the gathered
data. However, probably due to being a "diagnosed" schizomanic, I'd prefer
to conduct such discussion outside of the "drunken beerhall atmosphere" of
mailing lists with people willing to stand in the sunlight and be seen.
Dave