Cindy-dot-Marilyn, 1996 (Laramie, Wyo.) -
VP candidate for Independent (1996)
Running mate with nominee: Zero (b. 1996)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
Zero, a cartoon character created by John A. Guthrie III, was announced as a Presidential candidate on April Fools Day, 1996. Guthrie and his Laser Radio Corp. of Wyoming, based in Laramie, was in the vanguard of using the World Wide Web as a medium and Zero was one of the first 100% cyber comic figures.
Billed as the "Hitch Hiker of the Information Highway," Zero's website was divided into sections for audiences of different age groups. Although delivered in a fun package, the philosophy behind Zero was actually quite complex:
The GOAL OF ZERO is to address this evolving technological capability in terms that are consistent with the historical, cultural and socio-political-economic realities of our REAL world!
PYRAMID plus TELESPHERE equals FIBERSPHERE
Historical Pyramid (read, "my view of the horizon is better than yours... you little zero!")
PLUS
Telesphere (read, "MY satellite, financed by MY nation and language/culture-base, captures more of the economic 'event horizon' ... than yours does... you little zero country/culture!")
EQUALS
Fibersphere (read "for every action there is a reaction... and the telesphere IMPLODES into the
Fibersphere's MARKETS OF ONE!")
What PRESIDENT ZERO (yes, Virginia, the cartoon character) proposes is this (among other things): Use Krylov CFD modeling codes to model the (fairly simple) "economic radiation flux" that blows off PRIMARY INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY... and which then enriches the "secondary" -elements in the "surrounding community" (as fusion fuel was "enriched" by the heat and pressure caused by radiation flowing off the primary of the thermonuclear) the billions of individuals who will live, "connected" in the future(connected, just as individual "light" elements were "connected" in thermonuclear fusion)!.
In short: American leadership must NOW address the potential for American science to LEAD THE WAY-- to a working, global economic modeling capability that addresses the needs of another 5 billion people! And, it seems to ZERO, that the easiest place to start this process is in the weapons labs: With their history of modeling flux-- from a crude primary (ie: an auto plant producing X-number of jobs for skilled and semi-skilled workers) and having that economic flow enrich a "secondary" (of individuals, connected to the overall activity by their data participation. The "output" of the data is INFORMATION: Accessed and used, beneficially by "users" and "investors" (all, active participants-- not mere "producers" and "consumers"-- in the ongoing, economic "fusion".
It's just a ZERO-sum idea! ;-)
I'm not sure what it means when a cartoon character was able to produce any kind of visionary sense of the innovative potential of the then-emerging technology of Internet more than most of the human candidates did at that time.
Zero's running-mate was Cindy-dot-Marilyn. This static character consisted of an edited photo of Marilyn Monroe during the iconic skirt blowing scene from The Seven Year Itch. She was pictured next to Guthries symbol of the Fibersphere. Nicknamed "Dotty," the caption below the image read in part--
The trashy internet "press" wants to know!!!
"Mister President... is she Bi? Will you issue a denial?"
Zero laughs (See... this is his FIRST smile!!!!!)
"No, Dotty is TOTALLY Analog! She's not at all Binary!
Zero also ran for President in 2004 but no running-mate was specified that I can find.
Election history: none
Other occupations: computer graphic
Notes:
Roy Craft, who was from my little town of McCleary, Wash., was one of Marilyn Monroe's publicity agents. He is the one responsible for the iconic publicity shots in downtown NYC that Joe DiMaggio blamed for wrecking his marriage to Marilyn. Craft's response was pure McCleary: "Marilyn Monroe had a flamboyant reputation when Joe DiMaggio married her. The point is, if you build a home behind a slaughterhouse, you don't complain when you hear the pigs squealing."
