The New York Times Magazine: The Year in Ideas: The Open-Source Celebrity:
Whoah. I think there could be some serious forking problems with that project—for example, when people have Michael at their parties in different parts of the world on the same night.
Celebrities, as we know them, are fictional characters. Sure, yes, there’s a real person named Michael Stipe, who says actual things and goes to real restaurants and eats food and does other actual stuff. But there’s also a character named ‘‘Michael Stipe’’ who exists as a kind of collectively agreed-upon fictive construct. Of course, this character is loosely based on the real-life Michael Stipe. For example, they look quite similar. But according to the Junod Doctrine, ‘‘Michael Stipe’’ – the character – is more real than Michael Stipe the person. Further, he exists in the public domain, like the Linux operating system. Everyone is free to tinker at will; we can ascribe actions, ambitions, desires and quotes to him as we see fit.
Whoah. I think there could be some serious forking problems with that project—for example, when people have Michael at their parties in different parts of the world on the same night.