i've recently just finished reading The Lathe of Heaven (Ursula K Leguin) which was a nice reality bending bit of sci-fi, have not seen either movie version yet but plan on it soon. currently i'm working my way through The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco). The movie is like an abridged version of the book. the director obviously took some liberties in getting the ideas across to a mass audience. still a good movie. also, currently am in the midst of Killing Time (Caleb Carr). i really liked The Alienist and enjoyed The Angel of Darkness. however, i think maybe he should stick to period mystery novels and leave the sci-fi to those better suited for it like William Gibson or Phillip K Dick. i do profess an nodding interest in his book Lessons in Terror. apparently written prior to the war in Iraq (ie. "war on terror". i'll come back to this.....maybe). have just started with The Andromeda Strain (Michael Crichton) and am looking forward to getting into Blue Beard (Kurt Vonnegut) and a book called The World's Religions (Huston Smith). also on the docket is 2001: A Space Odyssey (Arthur Clarke), although watching the movie aged me. there you go, 16 links in one paragraph. here's a funny gravestone. sucka! 17!
which brings us here, while so far it has been pretty mediocre sci-fi, Killing Time does bring up a topic that has been carousing through the creases of grey. with information so readily available and the ease with which to inform, how much is credible? the book goes on to explain that information does not equate knowledge. and though this idea is a played out confucion philosophy, it merits consideration by pointing out that having this information does not make you wise.
you govern your lives by what you know, through experience. for example, i know by putting on a pair of pants, there is the likely possibility they may explode. or if i own a car, assuredly it will be hit by a tree, totalled in a hit and run accident while i'm making spaghetti, cease to go in reverse, have the axle drop out, get rear-ended and ruin everyone's christmas, get rear-ended through a median into oncoming traffic by a woman from PA and her toothless teenage son or simply have a deer run out and steal my side mirror. these are things i know, because of first-hand experience. and experiences help us shape our lives. this is a basic skill that all life has. without it, existence is based upon a whim. as humans though, and i'm fairly certain we are not the only species that has this additional talent, we can experience through others. we can learn from someone else's mistakes and revelations. ie. if my friend can kick himself in the head, but in the process knocks his ass out, i know not to try kicking myself in the head. the flaw is that we then rely on this experience through others and adjust our lives accordingly. so by denying myself of kicking myself in the head i might be missing out. maybe there's someone kicking gold bricks out of their head. (really, you should give it a shot and let me know how it goes.)
time changes, times change, where once we learned from elders skills and trades, history and tradition, we now gather from institutions. and here we learn social interactions, authority and here we absorb the information, fed to us in bookfuls. so now we learn en masse the histories based on the information of some guy we don't know. what if his information is wrong? when i was a kid, in my history book it told me that the pilgrims came and gladhanded the native americans into peaceful harmony and so they gave us manhattan for a happy ending. it didn't say nothing about infected sheets, or swindling, or any other atrocities. not much about slavery in there either.
and can anyone tell me what's up with this? coolio? william hung? and what is up with that god awful tagline. sheesh.
now with the internet there is a vast expanse of information puked out into the ether. a good example of this is 'wikipedia'. it's an open source encyclopedia where anyone can input their own information. i'm sure they try to abide by accuracy and such but can they keep up on that? i've already heard of politicians going and adjusting some of the 'facts' on their opponents for some cheap smear campaigns. and while we're on the topic of politicians, another good example of snafu's caused by actions based on faulty information, "weapons of mass destruction".
so now we have access to this information highway, are we really better off? i mean, how do i know that the scallion pancakes i'm going to make are going to be as tasty as they should be? i don't know this guy who's recipes i'm lifting.
so....that about sums it up. i had a lot more to say, reams and reams of thoughts and ideas and brilliance of such magnitude that you would all end up bowing before my deity like abilities. but uh....i took so long to finish this post that i um....abridged myself. intentionally of course.....yeah. i gotta go make some scallion pancakes.
which brings us here, while so far it has been pretty mediocre sci-fi, Killing Time does bring up a topic that has been carousing through the creases of grey. with information so readily available and the ease with which to inform, how much is credible? the book goes on to explain that information does not equate knowledge. and though this idea is a played out confucion philosophy, it merits consideration by pointing out that having this information does not make you wise.
you govern your lives by what you know, through experience. for example, i know by putting on a pair of pants, there is the likely possibility they may explode. or if i own a car, assuredly it will be hit by a tree, totalled in a hit and run accident while i'm making spaghetti, cease to go in reverse, have the axle drop out, get rear-ended and ruin everyone's christmas, get rear-ended through a median into oncoming traffic by a woman from PA and her toothless teenage son or simply have a deer run out and steal my side mirror. these are things i know, because of first-hand experience. and experiences help us shape our lives. this is a basic skill that all life has. without it, existence is based upon a whim. as humans though, and i'm fairly certain we are not the only species that has this additional talent, we can experience through others. we can learn from someone else's mistakes and revelations. ie. if my friend can kick himself in the head, but in the process knocks his ass out, i know not to try kicking myself in the head. the flaw is that we then rely on this experience through others and adjust our lives accordingly. so by denying myself of kicking myself in the head i might be missing out. maybe there's someone kicking gold bricks out of their head. (really, you should give it a shot and let me know how it goes.)
time changes, times change, where once we learned from elders skills and trades, history and tradition, we now gather from institutions. and here we learn social interactions, authority and here we absorb the information, fed to us in bookfuls. so now we learn en masse the histories based on the information of some guy we don't know. what if his information is wrong? when i was a kid, in my history book it told me that the pilgrims came and gladhanded the native americans into peaceful harmony and so they gave us manhattan for a happy ending. it didn't say nothing about infected sheets, or swindling, or any other atrocities. not much about slavery in there either.
and can anyone tell me what's up with this? coolio? william hung? and what is up with that god awful tagline. sheesh.
now with the internet there is a vast expanse of information puked out into the ether. a good example of this is 'wikipedia'. it's an open source encyclopedia where anyone can input their own information. i'm sure they try to abide by accuracy and such but can they keep up on that? i've already heard of politicians going and adjusting some of the 'facts' on their opponents for some cheap smear campaigns. and while we're on the topic of politicians, another good example of snafu's caused by actions based on faulty information, "weapons of mass destruction".
so now we have access to this information highway, are we really better off? i mean, how do i know that the scallion pancakes i'm going to make are going to be as tasty as they should be? i don't know this guy who's recipes i'm lifting.
so....that about sums it up. i had a lot more to say, reams and reams of thoughts and ideas and brilliance of such magnitude that you would all end up bowing before my deity like abilities. but uh....i took so long to finish this post that i um....abridged myself. intentionally of course.....yeah. i gotta go make some scallion pancakes.
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This Windows 98 is much slower than I remember.