Category Archives: Society

August 23, 2016

BB #51: Web Bubbles

It has become self-evident that the interweb is a game-changer in human society. It is generally welcomed — rightfully so — as a big step forward in terms of access to information. More crucially, it’s a giant step forward in sharing information, which is what Tim Berners-Lee originally intended.

But, as with any powerful tool, there’s a Yang to the Yin, and something as extraordinarily powerful as the web is bound to have a strong Yang balancing that Yin.

If we consider the web as we know it as beginning in 2001, we’ve had 15 years to study the effects.

16 Comments | tags: internet, internet communication, internet of shit, internet of things, internet tubes, interweb, messaging, mobile devices, notifications, sharing, smartphones, social media, Tim Berners-Lee, toast | posted in Brain Bubble, Society, The Interweb

August 22, 2016

BB #50: Blog Bubbles

By Wyrd Smythe

There is no question ‘the urge to write is strong in this one’ but these days I’m weary (on many levels) of writing structured blog posts. At the same time, after so many years of writing for presentation, it’s hard to relax one’s own rules enough for a major style change. But it’s what I keep reaching for.

Seeking that, as well as catharsis from a world that has either gone mad, or — at the very least — is driving me mad, I realized, a-ha: Brain Bubbles! While intended for off-the-cuff passing thought posts, many turned out as collections of related (or unrelated!) thought bubbles.

So pop the cork and let the bubbly flow…

Leave a comment | tags: Anyone But Trump, comment section, democracy, democratic society, Donald Trump, election 2016, GOP, NPR, politicians, Republican Party, social change, social issues, social media, Trump is a loser, Trump is a monster | posted in Brain Bubble, Politics, Society

August 19, 2016

The Week of Aug 14

By Wyrd Smythe

With modern live moving at such a fast pace, the span of a week often moves things along rapidly (even when one has deliberately taken the rat race off-ramp). My personal life doesn’t change much (because of that whole off-ramp thing), but the world at large careens along in its usual Zippy way.

But as I continue the summer project of converting my long-time storage room into an office-library (as intended when I moved in back in 2003), I do unearth long-lost personal archeology finds that take me back. A few bits go back to high school, but a lot of it is from college.

One significant find is from a few years after…

4 Comments | tags: Anyone But Trump, democracy, Democratic Party, democratic society, dialectic, Donald Trump, election 2016, GOP, Hillary Clinton, HRC, Khizr Khan, Olympics, politicians, Republican Party, social issues, social media, Trump is a loser, Trump is a monster, tyranny of the majority, US Constitution | posted in Life, Politics, Society

August 11, 2016

Stupidity Is Winning

By Wyrd Smythe

And whiplash from SMH!

I’m having a tough year; damn near everything pisses me off these days. I’ve never been angrier at the human race than I am lately. My disdain for people is at an all-time high, and that’s a sick way to be. It’s not at all natural for me.

In fact, retirement brought me a long-time-coming epiphany of sorts. I’ve long been known as one of those angry, critical types. A high school friend once named me “the angry young man” (so this has been going on a while). I’ve always accepted it as true. What I finally realized is that it isn’t me…

It’s you.

11 Comments | tags: Anyone But Trump, democracy, democratic society, Dunning-Kruger effect, face palm, John Cleese, lemon juice, modern life, Operation Breakthrough, shaking my head, social change, social issues, social media, social mores, stupid, stupid people, stupid stupid stupid, stupid TV, stupidity, Trump is a loser, Trump is a monster, whales | posted in Politics, Rant, Society

July 27, 2016

Over and Over

By Wyrd Smythe

Come over here. Go over there. Let’s go over the bridge, over the wall, and over the plan (while we still have a roof over our heads). But let’s not get over-confident and allow our enthusiasm to spill over. (For that might over-turn the apple cart and we won’t get a do-over!)

Something can be over — that is to say finished, done. And one can be over something (finished with it, done with it). I’ve been struck, lately, by a number of things that are over as well as by the realization that I’m over some things.

The former make me a little bit sad, and a couple of the latter, especially one, took me a bit by surprise!

15 Comments | tags: Anthony DiNozzo, Bernie Sanders, cable news, Castle (TV series), Michael Weatherly, NCIS, Person of Interest, Rizzoli & Isles, Star Trek, Supergirl, The Good Wife, Ziva David | posted in Politics, Society, TV

October 23, 2013

Deflection and Projection

By Wyrd Smythe

In his 1982 book, Megatrends, John Naisbitt famously wrote, “We are drowning in information, but we are starved for knowledge.” What was true 30 years ago is true today at a level that is both jaw-dropping and mind-numbing. The interweb highway speeds past at a breath-taking pace; yesterday vanishes rapidly behind while tomorrow constantly barrels down on us. The sheer volume of traffic (meaning both ‘lots of’ and ‘very loud’) can be overwhelming.

I’d like to take the topics from last Thursday and Friday to a new level and talk about how we find knowledge and truth amid all that information. In a world filled with opinion and conflicting assertions, how do we tell fair from foul? When facts and expertise compete with ideology and status quo, how do we pick among them?

This is about ways to separate the wheat from the chaff.

21 Comments | tags: argument, debate, deflection, discussion, emotional mind, John Naisbitt, Megatrends, projection, psychology, rational mind, social issues, worldview | posted in Basics, Quotes, Society

June 16, 2012

BB #3: Class Warfare

By Wyrd Smythe

Today a second Brain Bubble; a pair of related BBs fired into the interweb. The first one concerned the “mainstream liberal media” meme. This one concerns another meme we seem to accept as given, but which I think deserves deeper thought. (Of course, I’m prone to thinking most things deserve deeper thought than they get, but that’s another BB… or SB… or full-blown article!)

In any event, this BB concerns the idea of “Class warfare.” It’s a phrase often used by the upper class to describe any sort of perceived “attack” against them. It implies “dirty fighting” and seeks to turn any complaint — no matter how valid — into an ad hominem attack.

Which, of course, would be unfair, right?

2 Comments | tags: class warfare, conservative, liberal, occupy-wall-street | posted in Brain Bubble, Politics, Society

July 4, 2011

Hello world!

By Wyrd Smythe

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was…”

Many of you will recognize that as the first words of John 1:1 in the Christian New Testament Bible. There’s also a cross-reference to the very first words of that Bible (Old Testament in this case), “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

This is about words and about beginnings.

Others might recognize it as a conflation of the lead-in to a Moody Blues tune, OM, from In Search of the Lost Chord, and the title of a song from another album, In the Beginning, from On the Threshold of a Dream.

(Yes “album.” I’m old!)

23 Comments | tags: brain, brain mind problem, computationalism, computer guy, human brain, human mind, logos, Marriage, Moody Blues, rational mind, René Descartes, Theory of Consciousness, theory of mind | posted in Baseball, Basics, Books, Computers, Life, Movies, Opinion, Philosophy, Politics, Rant, Science, Society, The Interweb, TV