Conversation

Simpler: are reified collective constructs like "community", "public" and "collective intention" real in a PKD sense? Ie do they go away when people stop believing in them, or are there parts that persist regardless of belief in them, that have no natural alternative locus?
Quote Tweet
Ontology problem. Can "interinstitutionality" (by analogy to "intersubjectivity") be considered the same as "public"?
Show this thread
Replying to
Ie, ontologically, are "community", "public", "commonwealth" etc. more like "god" that are entirely functions of belief in them (speaking as an atheist) or more like "ecosystem" that exist in a PKD sense independent of belief in them.
2
3
"Market" is another one. You could think of all these as pure egregores, existing only as long as belief in them persists.
1
3
Another way to ask the PKD-reality question is: what remains if all the *people* go away. Before computers, you'd only have material realities, but now with AIs you have the possibility of interesting perpetuation of robotic behaviors that might constitute egregores.
2
2
Replying to
Deleuze Guattari and Landa talk about assemblages. An assemblage emerges when a function emerges; ideally it is innovative and productive. The result of a productive assemblage is a new means of expression, a new territorial/spatial organisation, a new institution etc
1
3
Replying to
If I, individually, stop believing in the notion of "community", communities will continue to exist. If we collectively stop believing in communities, then they will stop existing, at least in their current form.
1
Replying to
Reality is what doesn't go away when _you_ stop believing in it. No codicil for whether others stop. This is extra true when there's no strong dominant culture to enforce subcultural conformance. God might not exist, but the godly and their obeisance to His rules certainly do.
1
1