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RE: Hi Steemit! I'm Harvey, let's change the human story together!
Welome! I was trying to remember where I might have heard the word "narrativism" before. It was in a theory of game design. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNS_theory
Yeah, I did google it, but it's a pretty much unused term. There is one article I found which talked about concepts that are vaguely similar... but it seems that link is down now. Anyway, it's our language, we can re-purpose it as we see fit, right? I just want to find a healthier way to look at the world and the social media phenomenon.
During the 1990s there was an academic movement called memetics, after Richard Dawkins's word "meme," which at the time meant not just a captioned picture circulating on the Internet but any piece of contagious information. I wrote a summarizing piece for IGMS called "Spelunking the Noosphere."
http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi?do=columns&vol=randall_hayes&article=009
And another one about using SF stories to help people think about public policy outcomes.
http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi?do=columns&vol=randall_hayes&article=011
These are interesting ideas.
I also thought about the idea of determinism in narrativism. which seems to line up tangentially with some of the stuff Dawkins wrote in the selfish gene. Notably, the point that we may not be as in control of our choices as we think.
One of the insights I had as I thought about that was that I don't really mind the idea that my actions might not be the result of deliberate conscious choice. In one way, it does violate the idea of free will, which is offensive to many, but at the same time I like the idea we are retrospectively telling stories about the things that we observe, even if we can't control the outcomes.
I guess I kind of believe that consciousness is a filtration system. We take energy in, transform it, and spit it out in a form that aligns with our preferences and experiences. In fact, all life does this, we just do it in a much more sophisticated way than, say, a plant.
The reason I don't mind the idea, is that it raises the importance of creativity over materialism, and to me that's a lovely idea.
I've always been made to feel somewhat frivolous in my pursuit of creative endeavours, and I think most creative people feel similarly. It's almost like it's a dirty secret you need to hide.
"I'm an electrician... oh, and I like drawing... well at least I did when I was a kid... I mean, not now, you know... Who has time? I'm doing adult stuff."
If we give up on this vague concept of free will and look at ourselves as the authors of our own story, it would validate creative pursuits and the instinctive importance I've always felt they hold.
I'll have to read through the second article when I get some time, but it sounds very interesting.
You seem to have jumped ahead quite effectively to where this line of thought eventually leads! I hope you stick around and help me stay on track.
I will seek out and read more of your stuff, as I like your ideas and writing style.
There are some evo bio type people who believe that art of any medium is first and foremost a display behavior, evolved to attract mates and compete nonviolently for status, which is either brilliant or just another example of exactly the bias towards frivolity that you mentioned. I'm not sure myself.