Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!minsky
From: minsky@media.mit.edu (Marvin Minsky)
Subject: Re: Is there a spiritual force which also effects the future?
Message-ID: <1994Sep14.025849.20921@news.media.mit.edu>
Sender: news@news.media.mit.edu (USENET News System)
Cc: minsky
Organization: MIT Media Laboratory
References: <SOSUSER.2.2E731869@sos.net> <1994Sep11.164225.6753@news.media.mit.edu> <Cw3927.FDF@spss.com>
Date: Wed, 14 Sep 1994 02:58:49 GMT
Lines: 53

In article <Cw3927.FDF@spss.com> markrose@spss.com (Mark Rosenfelder) writes:
>In article <1994Sep11.164225.6753@news.media.mit.edu>,
>Marvin Minsky <minsky@media.mit.edu> wrote:

>>Thousands of years ago, many clever people discovered that it was easy
>>to implant this belief into innocent minds, and that these victims
>>would then pay handsome fees to those who claimed to be able to
>>manipulate these effects. This activity soon became so profitable that
>>it is now the third largest industry in the world, surpassed only by
>>entertainment and government. [etc.]

[some of Mark's reasonable objections deleted here]

>As for the claim that religion is the third largest industry in the world,
>this is almost as remarkable as the claim that government and entertainment
>are numbers one and two.  The fact that the US GNP is around $5.7 trillion,
>the federal budget about $1.3 trillion, and broadcasting, publishing,
>movies, and recreation GDP around $100 billion (all 1991 figures) casts
>just a wee bit of doubt on this notion.

Interesting difference in interpreting the word "largest".  I meant
"amount of time that people spend". But that reminds me.  I was in
fact writing an essay about how people spend their time, but I got
stuck because of myself not being quite typical enough.  For instance,
I sleep a lot.  I've decided to stop listening to music, on Plato's
suggestion;-) Anyway, does anyone know of an attempt to estimate this?
You know, gossiping, eating, watching other people kick balls from one
end of a filed to another, "working", etc. The best discussion I've
seen, from a literary point of view, is the section toward the end of
Nicholson Baker's "The Mezzanine" about how often he finds himself
thinking about various subjects: (quoted without permission)

 Subject of Thought     Number of Times Thought occurred
                        per Year (in descending order)
       
 L.                                       580.0
 Family                                   400.0
 Brushing tongue                          150.0
 Earplugs                                 100.0
 Bill-paying                               52.0
 Panasonic vacuum cleaner, greatness of    45.0
 Sunlight makes you cheerful               40.0
 Traffic frustration                       38.0
 Penguin books, all                        35.0
 Job, should I quit?                       34.0
 Friends, don't have any                   33.0
 Marriage, a possibility?                  32.0
 Vending machines                          31.0
 Straws don't unsheath well                28.0
 Shine on moving objects                   25.0
 McCartney more talented than Lennon?      23.0
 etc.

