How Real Is Real? Confusion, Disinformation, Communication

283 Pages·1977·5.435 MB·English

by  Paul Watzlawick

394-72256-6 V-256!$4!.95
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PAUL WMZLAWICK
Confusion, Disinfonnation,
- -Cotnmunication - -
AN ANECDOTAL INTRODUCTION TO
COMMUNICATIONS THEORY
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Vintage Books Edition, February 1977
Copyright @ 1976 by Paul Watzlawick
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American
Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States
by Random House, Inc., New York, and
simultaneously in Canada by Random House of
Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published by
Random House, Inc., in 1976.
l?assages from Faithful Echo, by Robert B. Ekvall,
Copyright @ 196o by Twayne Publishers, Inc.,
reprinted with the permission of Twayne Publishers
Division of G. K. Hall & Co.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Watzlawick, Paul.
How real is real?
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Communication. ~.Reality. I. Title.
[Pg1.W3 1977] 301.14 76-40476
ISBN o-394-7~~56-6
Manufactured in the United States of America
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Grateful acknowledgments are made to the following authors:
Professor John C. Wright, University of Kansas, Lawrence, for his
additional information on noncontingent reward experiments;
Dr. RogerS. Fouts, University of Oklahoma, Norman, for his permis
sion to refer to a forthcoming publication;
the Honorable Ewen E. S. Montagu, CBE, QC, DL, London, for his
kind help in checking on my presentation of Operation Mincemeat;
Dr. Bernard M. Oliver, Vice President, Research and Development,
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, for his extensive advice on
problems of extraterrestrial communication and his permission to repro
duce the coding and decoding of a sample message.
The illustrations are by courtesy of Ann A. Wood.

Foreword xi
PABT I-Confusion
1. The Trials of Translation 3
z. Paradoxes 15
3· The Benefits of Confusion 27
The case of Clever Ham 30
The Clever Ham trauma 33
Subtle power :j6
"Extrasensory perception.. 40
PABT U-Disinfonnation
4· Noncontingency,
or the Emergence of World Views 45
The neurotic horse 47
t
Viii CONTENTS
The superstitious rat 47
The more camplicated, the better 48
The multi-anned bandit 51
5· Randomness and Rules 55
"Psychic·· powers s8
6. Punctuation 61
1· Semantic Punctuation 65
Where everything is true, and so is its contrary 87
8. The "Divine Experimenter" 74
The windshield mystery 75
The Orleans rumor 77
g. Experimental Disinformation 84
Herr Slossenn Boschen's song 89
Candid Camera 91
10. The Emergence of Rules 93
11. Interdependence 97
The Prisoner's Dilemma fiJ
What I think that he thinks that I think . . . 103
12. Threats 1o6
How to make a threat stick, and how to unstick it 1o8
The threat that cannot reach its target 110
The threat that cannot be obeyed 114
13. Deception in Intelligence Work 118
Operation Mincemeat 127
Operation Neptune l:J{J
14. The Two Realities 140
PART III-Communication
15. The Chimpanzee 147
Sign language ISO
Project Sarah 155
16. The Dolphin Isfj
ix § CONTENTS
17. Extraterrestrial Communication 173
Anticryptography 179
Profect Ozma 184
Suggestions for a cosmic code 185
Radioglyphs and Lincos 193
A message from the year 11,000 B.c.? 195
The Pioneer 10 plaque 199
Unimaginable realities 203
18. Imaginary Communication 207
Newcomb ·s Paradox 2o8
Flatland 217
19. Time Travel 223
20. The Perennial Now 240
Bibliographical Notes 245
Index 257