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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

This is my conversational account. For my work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Mar 1
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      Magazines also ran reader polls like we do Twitter polls. The community dynamics, rivalries among different kinds of fan clubs etc all sound very, very familiar. We just do it all online now. It truly is astounding (heh!) all this rhymes with blogosphere of last decade.

      1 reply 0 retweets 7 likes
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    2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Mar 1
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      To us all this sounds very heavyweight. But back then this *was* the lightest-weight, cheapest way to get anything done. Fans coordinated regional meetups and stuff through *postcards* not even phone! Stamp = 3c, postcard = SMS, letter = email Local phone call = 5c

      1 reply 0 retweets 5 likes
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    3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Mar 1
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      Imagine how you’d form a group then 1. Postcards to letter writers you “follow” 2. Exchange of letters 3. Bunch of postcards to invite people to regional meetup 4. Asimov might show up 5. Escalate to phone for locals you meet more often on short notice/impromptu

      1 reply 0 retweets 6 likes
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    4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Mar 1
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      Phone was also limited because a) landlines b) answering machines weren’t yet big (first commercial failure = 1949, first successful ones ~1960) Local postcards would have been easier, and as quick if high chance phone wouldn’t be answered it you had to leave a message anyway

      1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
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    5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Mar 1
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      This all feels alien to me though I did grow up in landline/postcard/letter era. We did pen-pal crap in the 80s (my sister had one, I never bothered). Long-distance was letter-writing. “Trunk” calls were too expensive except for emergencies. Local phone was also sparingly used.

      1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
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    6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Mar 1
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      In general I did very little non-locally except join a kids club sponsored by our regional newspaper which sent me a dumbass badge, membership card, and some stickers. I had one letter published in a comic book I subscribed to (more stickers as reward). Circa 1982-86 I think.

      1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
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    7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Mar 1
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      Okay now we’re at dawn of Scientology, 1950 or so. Hubbard has convinced Campbell his stuff is real. They’re experimenting with hypnosis, regression to past lives, scopolamine, barbiturates. Terminology like engrams, clear, preclear, auditing is coming together. Dianetics time!

      1 reply 0 retweets 8 likes
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    8. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Mar 1
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      Hubbard picked up his shtick via disciple of Alesteir Crowley, english occultist. This is outside scope of the book, but clearly occult and SoCal new age religion scene was the other parent of Scientology if sci-fi was the first parent.

      3 replies 0 retweets 6 likes
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    9. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Mar 1
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      Heh, early Scientology is reminding me of current blogosphere interest in trauma. Question is who’s the Hubbard of this crowd? A charismatic older blogger with vaguely occult leanings and a line in technobabble-infused talk therapy and a self-improvement/perfection protocol? 🤔

      5 replies 0 retweets 11 likes
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    10. Petulant Fig Nemesis (Mark 11:12-14)‏ @mwotton Mar 1
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      Replying to @vgr

      Tiago? He does like his ayahuasca. (All love, @fortelabs , I'm a subscriber and all.)

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Mar 1
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      Replying to @mwotton @fortelabs

      Nope

      5:32 PM - 1 Mar 2020
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      • Petulant Fig Nemesis (Mark 11:12-14)
      0 replies 0 retweets 1 like

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