/lit/ - Literature

idk if this is more of a /lit/ or /his/ question, but can anyone recommend some good books on sumeria/the akkadian empire?

>In doing justice to the immense power and scope of Divine Kingship both as myth and active institution I have so far left one important aspect for closer examination, its greatest and most durable contribution- the invention of the archetypal machine. This extraordinary invention proved in fact to be the earliest working model for all later complex machines, though the emphasis slowly shifted from the human operatives to the more reliable mechanical parts. The unique act of kingship was to assemble the man power and to discipline the organization that made possible the performance of work on a scale never attempted before.

>Because the components of the machine, even when it functioned as a completely integrated whole, were necessarily separate in space, I shall for certain purposes call it the 'invisible machine': when utilized to perform work on highly organized collective enterprises, I shall call it the 'labor machine': when applied to acts of collective coercion and destruction, it deserves the title, used even today, the 'military machine.' But when all the components, political and economic, military, bureaucratic and royal, must be included, I shall usually refer to the 'megamachine': in plain words, the Big Machine. And the technical equipment derived from such a megamachine thence becomes 'megatechnics' as distinguished from the more modest and diversified modes of technology, which until our own century continued to perform the larger part of the daily work in the workshop and on the farm, sometimes with the help of power machinery.

>At its inception no inferior chief could organize the megamachine and set it in motion. And though the absolute assertion of royal power rested on supernatural sanction, kingship itself would not have prevailed so widely had these claims not in tum been ratified by the colossal achievements of the megamachine. That invention was the supreme feat of early civilization: a technological exploit which served as a model for all later forms of mechanical organization. This model was transmitted, sometimes with all its parts in good working condition, sometimes in a makeshift form, through purely human agents, for some five thousand years, before it was done over in a material structure that corresponded more closely to its own specifications, and was embodied in a comprehensive institutional pattern that covered every aspect of life.

>To understand the point of the machine's origin and its line of descent is to have a fresh insight into both the origins of our present over mechanized culture and the fate and destiny of modern man. We shall find that the original myth of the machine projected the extravagant hopes and wishes that have come to abundant fulfillment in our own age.

this is, in other words, kind of a thing.

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This is why Jeremy England's theory is so important: redefining what is alive, and recognizing that energy moves through matter and animates it with increasing complexity.
We now know not simply that complexity/novelty is increasing but HOW it's doing that.

Similarly we know that the mind is electrochemical. We are moving energy through our matter, which is part of energy beating on everything and moving through it, creating stable and emergent systems of dissipation.
Look up Bohm's work with Plasma, where the plasmas acted intelligently, and in meteorology, the upper atmosphere electrical activity that acts as though it's intelligent.

From there we know computers, which are completely electronic, can act intelligently.

The idea of Attention Schema Theory that applies is that consciousness is not some unexplainable magic. We have a great model for what's happening and it can be applied even to machine learning.

Because the thing is "if you think you love someone, you do. That's what love is: thoughts" really applies.
If it quacks like a duck.

I've seen men argue that Ant Agriculture doesn't count as intelligent because ants are acting from instinct.
How bullshit is that? They achieved farming 60million years ago and you're too much of a petty anthropophile you have to handwave it away!

Okay. TANGENT TWO:
Biome intelligence:
We know the old story of how toxoplasmosis gondii makes you take risks and love cats.
But what deep research into biology teaches us is how trees can smell enemy parasites and use biochemical signals to summon predatory insects to kill the parasites.
We know that Ants use chemical communications to do TCP/IP internet-style networking.
We know that plants and fungi have chemicals that create standard hallucinations.
That's a millions of year old lifeform communicating with it's descendants, us.

NOW TANGENT THREE: biota and viruses and fungi make up a large part of not just the soil (a full third of healthy soil is Fungal) but Human Body as well. Viruses are stashed in your DNA right now, and serve vital functions.
Take into consideration as well the action of cordyceps fungi on insects: the fungi infect the ant and hijack the nervous system to force the ant to climb as high as it can before it dies so the spores can reach the farthest when it explodes.

Now, take into consideration that the habits we have and the chemicals we use create biomes.
Consider regional molds, allergens and bacteria. Ever look at a map of problem allergens? Kinda weird how they fit against a map of regional culture.

Are you speaking how you speak and thinking how you think because of Tradition, or because the mold in your walls is fucking with you?

Finally consider carbon: why is it that some of the oldest creatures on earth benefit so much from high atmospheric carbon levels? Why is it that the Carboniferous Period is returning? And why are we powering our thinking machines with petroleum?

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http://www.avesta.org/gathas.htm