To not listen to say John Legend is merely a matter of taste/cultural choice To not listen to Kanye is to forgo an entire timeline, a way of being in time To the extent you think music is a necessary strand of history, it is sitting out *the* timeline. Consensus reality trunk.
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One key idea behind my multitemporality thesis is that it is possible to not read must-reads, not listen to must-listens, etc and still stay not alive, but in time. Ie experience a coherent temporality and be in history. Ie there is no privileged necessary trunk temporality
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I’ve never knowingly listened to Kanye (though I take my musical friends at their word that I’m missing something historic), but unlike the law of gravity, or hard edged laws of justice system, the consequences of not obeying the must-listen law are not as clear. But they exist.
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Kanye is just an example. The general principle is that consensus reality is actually dissensus garden of forking paths, but unlike bitcoin, there is no longest-chain-wins rule. There is no protocol force ensuring universal consensus. So you get divergence. Multitemporality.
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It is tempting to think of there being a ground truth cultural reality with different must-inhabit temporalities being co-extensive and nonrivalrous imperative coverings of it. Many maps for different journeys, one territory. Any journey that is not prohibited is mandatory.
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But I think this flawed. I think in some sense there is no territory. Only maps.
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Venkatesh Rao Retweeted Venkatesh Rao
Must-consumes are like public keys for accessing temporalities. You can’t get out though unless you know the private key. Trapdoor realities. Hotel California temporalities. Self-securing cults that reprogram your log level life semantics.https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1128713731096043521?s=21 …
Venkatesh Rao added,
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Venkatesh Rao Retweeted Venkatesh Rao
Connecting this bunnywarren to the meme du jourhttps://twitter.com/vgr/status/1187795298225016832?s=21 …
Venkatesh Rao added,
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Replying to @vgr
hehe you're going through the early stages of becoming a threadmaster the next stage is to realize that it's more fun to skip "just connecting this bit to that bit", and instead use that space to say something interesting – like hyperlinks; 'rhetoric of the quote tweet'
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Replying to @visakanv
It’s a note to self since this is feeding into my book rather than trying to enlighten others
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I don’t think I can do what you do, except by accident. I’m too old for it. This has to feed into my old-fogey longform work.
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