Comment Twenty Two

From Barbelith

22. I term the Immortal one a plasmate, because it is a form of energy; it is living information. It replicates itself - not through information or in information - but as information.

(impulsivelad) Speaking of the plasmate (Logos?), supposedly it was rereleased into the world on 1974 (as a meme). It's mutating in order to thrive in our culture, spreading, and infecting everyone... The Valis Trilogy, Cosmic Trigger, Invisibles, The Matrix, etc. (It's obviously getting better.) I think it's safe to say a lot of people are now Homoplasmates (certainly most people on this board.) What released the plasmate on 1974?

(iivix) Of course, meme theory is now quite common (what with Dawkins, computer viruses and so forth) but it certainly wouldn't have been when PKD was writing. Where might he have got the idea of "living information" from? Of course we have reference to the Logos, which has its origins in the fragmented and incomplete writings of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, who we know that PKD was a fan of. In one version of Heraclitus' theory, what he refers to as Logos can be interpreted as something akin to living information, in as much as the Logos is some form of "word" (or language) that plays the function of "god". Make of that what you will.

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