virus: maxims and ground rules

KMO (kmo@c-realm.com)
Sun, 09 May 1999 15:46:12 -0700

According to the CoV website, one of the current projects on the Virus list is assembling a set of maxims that we can all agree upon. Of what does that set consist at this point?

One neat thing about agreeing on a set of shared assumptions for guiding the project of creating a memetically engineered religion is that we could list them up front and say, "If you are interested in participating in an ongoing project based upon these basic ground rules, then we invite you to join the discussion."

That way, when somebody posts something that is off topic but pushes our buttons sufficiently to get us to abandon the Virus project in favor of running down the tail-chasing refutation checklist for the umpteenth time with the umpteenth contestant, we can simply remind everyone of the agreed-upon framework/ground rules. Anybody can still say anything they want, and threads can wander way off topic, but it will simply be understood that Virians are only committed to answering arguments and challenges that are on topic. Once a thread has been recognized as having strayed outside of the mission trajectory of consciously engineering an immortal religious memeplex, then a poster in such a thread cannot assume or assert with any legitimacy that their challenge has met with mute acquiescence or that a lack of response indicates any kind of concession.

So, what are we all agreed to here?

Are we all agreed that consciousness is better than/preferable to unconsciousness?

-KMO