Had some interesting discussions at work today with an avid technology user. The voluntary self-surveillance of Facebook, the phones listening
Watching a PBS documentary on uranium, and what strikes me is the both the pace of discovery in the early 20th century and the apparent obviousness of the discoveries. From Marie Curie to Einstein to Szilard, the discoveries really seemed not the work of geniuses, rather the work of slightly more intelligent people who happened to have time to think.
Perhaps that's why the pace of discoveries seems to be dwindling, except in those areas that serve commercial interest. Nobody has time to sit and think anymore. Email has resulted in a vast increase in the speed of communication, but how much of that communication is really necessary. How much of your time at work is spent actually thinking about your work, and not reacting to some farcical drama cooked up by management?
Add to that all the electronic distractions we have in our off time. Facebook. Netflix. Hulu. News. "Reality" TV. Which one is which, I forget. All these things available in a little package that travels with you all day, ever listening to your conversations for a chance to sell you something the next time you look at it. 1984 was such a quaint novel.
There's a great scene in Repo Man where they are burning trash from recently repossessed cars, and the trash man says he doesn't want to learn to drive because "the more you drive, the less intelligent you are." While this is still true, it needs updating to "the more you use a smartphone, the less intelligent you are."
Look at all the digital trash out there. Statisticians love to say that a million monkeys typing randomly on keyboards will eventually recreate Shakespeare. Look at the ever expanding pile of garbage we produce and celebrate today and you know that's not going to happen.
Progress trap. Perpetual pile of shit machine. Bravo, humanity.
Even academics are caught up in the never ending publish or perish cycle, and by the time they are tenured, their best years (making a grand assumption that they had best years to give) are behind them and they are nothing but dried up husks riding their way to retirement. Not that academia attracts real talent. Universities are just corporations at this point. after all. By and large, professors are just frauds that are there to tow the line.
An ancillary effect of our wonderful world is that we get stuck doing things we'd really rather not. I started out as an engineer, which was okay for a while. Then on to the wonderful world of bureaucracy. Then back to a polish that turd job back at the Rock (and polish them I did), then back to an engineering position, which I left to go back into turd polishing for a promotion. Finally, back to a technical position for which I have absolutely no qualifications. And here I am. After 13 years of working, I can't even explain what exactly it is that I do. Insanity must be setting in, or I'm numb to it, because I really don't mind it at this point. Just counting down the days to voluntary early retirement eligibility in 11.82 years. That's all at this point. A waiting game. No wonder no one seems to be doing a good job. Everyone's just biding their time.
And then what? I had an eye appointment for the first time in 20 years yesterday. Next to me in the waiting room was a lady that had to be in her late 70s. She was playing candy crush or some other nonsense on here phone, hunched over the screen like a troll. Is that where we are all supposed to be headed? Consuming digital ad trash while waiting to fork over money to doctors in the last years of our life?
Is this really the best we can do? Wow, we suck. Let's just admit that we all suck. You, me, everybody. We have failed ourselves and each other extensively.
I know you're reading this on your phone or tablet, fucker. If you know what's good for you, find the nearest blunt instrument and put it through the screen. Merry fucking Christmas.
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