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

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

Conversational account. For work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian. IKEA builder.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    Two-way (sending and receiving) short codes:

    Country Code For customers of
    United States 40404 (any)
    Canada 21212 (any)
    United Kingdom 86444 Vodafone, Orange, 3, O2
    Brazil 40404 Nextel, TIM
    Haiti 40404 Digicel, Voila
    Ireland 51210 Vodafone, O2
    India 53000 Bharti Airtel, Videocon, Reliance
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    1. 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 5 likes
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    2. 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 3 likes
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    3. 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.

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    4. 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 11 likes
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    5. 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.

      2 replies 0 retweets 8 likes
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    6. 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 14 likes
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    7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Mar 1
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      Oh shit, I know exactly where to map this. Won’t say it out aloud to avoid beef provocation.

      4 replies 1 retweet 13 likes
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    8. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Mar 1
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      Gonna skip over Scientology bit in my live-tweeting.

      3 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
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    9. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Mar 1
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      Okay maybe a snippet or two. This bit made me actually lolpic.twitter.com/aM9w0jLW3r

      2 replies 0 retweets 6 likes
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    10. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Mar 1
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      The book’s understanding of Wiener and cybernetics is weak. Planting a Gell-Mann amnesia flag for this bit. Like most outsiders he credits Wiener with way too much. He was at best a sort of P. T. Barnum of control theory with a few contributions.

      1 reply 0 retweets 11 likes
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      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Mar 1
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      Venkatesh Rao Retweeted Venkatesh Rao

      Fixing break in threading https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1234303017299542023?s=21 …https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1234303017299542023 …

      Venkatesh Rao added,

      Venkatesh Rao @vgr
      Oh shit Shannon got roped into it too? pic.twitter.com/mwJMwf0rX2
      Show this thread
      10:26 PM - 1 Mar 2020
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