Social Experiments

Today felt very fecund.

I did a lot of reading, exploring, people-watching, brainstorming, and I saw a doctoral cognitive psychology thesis masquerading as an anime.

Fantastic stuff, all of that. The movie was particularly illuminating. I'll be babbling on about it at length later--but you already guessed that.

incidentally, if you want to conduct a cognitive psych experiment of your own, get a copy of Invitiation to a Beheading--or any book with a flashy cover and a title that smacks of Jihad--and find a large mass transit system on which to read it.

Gaze longingly out the window, read, furrow your brow, take furious and enthusiastic notes on loose-leaf paper, and watch your fellow commuters scatter.

I wasn't intentionally trying to raise the terror level, I just had some ideas for stories while reading this particular book. I wish I would have been paying more attention to the people, though, because when I looked up, there was a no-sit zone around me and lots of wary people skirting the edges of the subway car.

Ahhh freedom. I'm sure a rough sketch of my face is being faxed to various government agencies around the country. I'll probably show up on the no-fly list.

God bless you, Tom Ridge. Never before have people felt so secure in their homeland.

Why are humans so obsessed with replicating themselves?