- Share Appendix. That's what I say. Share. Share. Share.
- What Caecum? Herpes? Tuberculosis? Athlete's Foot? What are you talking about?
- Not diseases. Why does your mind always go to diseases?
- I guess it's something to do with being around people who remind me of diseases.
- I remind you of a disease?
- Several.
- Charming.
- So what are you talking about?
- Did you know that you can work colaboratively with other people on creating documents?
- Really? Wow! So, this is something new, is it? Finally, after thousands of years of using the written word, we've worked out how to write in a way that means someone else can contribute to the creation of a document? That's impressive. What next? The wheel?
- No stupid. I'm talking about using document writers in such a way as to enable several people to write, edit and make suggestions to the same document without having to mail it or email to each individual involved and wait for it to come back. You can simply change it, leave an annotation and documents can be colaboratively worked on over the internet no matter where in the world you are.
- Unless you're somewhere without internet access. Like the slums in South America, for example.
- Everyone eventually will have access.
- So this means we will all be able to write the same old shit humans have been writing to each other for thousands of years only now more efficiently?
- Yes. No wait. Anyway, we have to put a link here to a document we've created on Google Docs.
- Ooo. Let me create one.
- All right.
- Beauty. Time passes. A link appears: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddk4vpkn_0ftxbg7f9
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
-So, Caecum, you're interrupting me again.
-Stop carrying on Appendix. You're not doing anything.
-Well, nothing that's apparent to you. What is it? What do you want?
-We have to create a mashup and put it on our blog.
-Why?
-Just to show we can do it.
-So, follow instructions, click a few buttons, type a few letters and we've succeeded, is that it?
-Simple, hey?
-I believe even you could do it.
-Don't you want to know what a mashup is?
-Using my incredible powers of deduction, I'm going to say that whether or not I want to know, you're going to tell me. Am I right?
-Well, I won't tell you if you don't want to know.
-Really?
-Not really. No. A mashup is a combination of two different applications into one so that instead of carrying out two separate processes in two different places to achieve one outcome, you can just do the one process in the one place and have the same outcome.
-Sort of like reading a glossy magazine: you can kill trees while wasting your life?
-No. Not like that. Consider Mozilla's new Ubiquity mashup. Ubiquity allows you to, at least if you're in the US, to research and choose a restaurant, get the relevant map showing the location of the restaurant and send an email inviting a friend to dinner at the restaurant all by typing a simple list of commands in your browser. No clicking through lists and opening programmes. Ubiquity does it all for you.
-That's impressive.
-I knew you'd be impressed.
-What if I don't eat out?
-Or have any friends?
-Yes, or have any friends.
-Well, the restaurant, map and email story was just an example. Ubiquity has just been released. There's only a certain number applications that have been coded for its use at the moment. And it's probably still fairly buggy. But imagine where this might take us. Consider being able to simply get your computer to find a restaurant, grab the map and send the email just by asking it to verbally. That's where we're headed. Ubiquity truly represents the next step in computing.
-Actually, in all seriousness, this does seem like a good way to go.
-Yes it does. And this is only the beginning. The sky's the limit.
-Pretty soon we won't even have to talk to our computer. We'll be wandering around issuing commands to our omnipresent computers just by thinking our thoughts at them.
-Well, there's no need to get carried away.
-I'm not getting carried away. It's just a natural series of steps from where we are now to there.
-Maybe I'd better warn them.
-Who's them and why do you want to warn them?
-Well, the Ubiquity people. And I want to warn them because I don't want a computer knowing what I think.
-I wouldn't worry. I don't even think a computer, no matter how powerful, could work out what you're thinking.
-That's harsh.
-But true.
-Anyway, we still have to whack in this mashup, so here goes.
Places that are still talking about Appendix's 2001 visit.
http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/map.php
-Your trip was hardly ubiquitous.
-Well, those little places highlighted on the map that look small and blue are, in reality, you know, country sized. So, if you're actually travelling around the actual world, it's not really possible to have a ubiquitous trip. Actual travelling around the actual world involves more than turning countries blue on a mashup.
-Thank you Mr. Pedantic.
-I mean, you could do that with a blue crayon. No actual trip required.
-I get it.
-So I don't have to keep going on?
-No.
-Good.
-Stop carrying on Appendix. You're not doing anything.
-Well, nothing that's apparent to you. What is it? What do you want?
-We have to create a mashup and put it on our blog.
-Why?
-Just to show we can do it.
-So, follow instructions, click a few buttons, type a few letters and we've succeeded, is that it?
-Simple, hey?
-I believe even you could do it.
-Don't you want to know what a mashup is?
-Using my incredible powers of deduction, I'm going to say that whether or not I want to know, you're going to tell me. Am I right?
-Well, I won't tell you if you don't want to know.
-Really?
-Not really. No. A mashup is a combination of two different applications into one so that instead of carrying out two separate processes in two different places to achieve one outcome, you can just do the one process in the one place and have the same outcome.
-Sort of like reading a glossy magazine: you can kill trees while wasting your life?
-No. Not like that. Consider Mozilla's new Ubiquity mashup. Ubiquity allows you to, at least if you're in the US, to research and choose a restaurant, get the relevant map showing the location of the restaurant and send an email inviting a friend to dinner at the restaurant all by typing a simple list of commands in your browser. No clicking through lists and opening programmes. Ubiquity does it all for you.
-That's impressive.
-I knew you'd be impressed.
-What if I don't eat out?
-Or have any friends?
-Yes, or have any friends.
-Well, the restaurant, map and email story was just an example. Ubiquity has just been released. There's only a certain number applications that have been coded for its use at the moment. And it's probably still fairly buggy. But imagine where this might take us. Consider being able to simply get your computer to find a restaurant, grab the map and send the email just by asking it to verbally. That's where we're headed. Ubiquity truly represents the next step in computing.
-Actually, in all seriousness, this does seem like a good way to go.
-Yes it does. And this is only the beginning. The sky's the limit.
-Pretty soon we won't even have to talk to our computer. We'll be wandering around issuing commands to our omnipresent computers just by thinking our thoughts at them.
-Well, there's no need to get carried away.
-I'm not getting carried away. It's just a natural series of steps from where we are now to there.
-Maybe I'd better warn them.
-Who's them and why do you want to warn them?
-Well, the Ubiquity people. And I want to warn them because I don't want a computer knowing what I think.
-I wouldn't worry. I don't even think a computer, no matter how powerful, could work out what you're thinking.
-That's harsh.
-But true.
-Anyway, we still have to whack in this mashup, so here goes.
Places that are still talking about Appendix's 2001 visit.
http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/map.php
-Your trip was hardly ubiquitous.
-Well, those little places highlighted on the map that look small and blue are, in reality, you know, country sized. So, if you're actually travelling around the actual world, it's not really possible to have a ubiquitous trip. Actual travelling around the actual world involves more than turning countries blue on a mashup.
-Thank you Mr. Pedantic.
-I mean, you could do that with a blue crayon. No actual trip required.
-I get it.
-So I don't have to keep going on?
-No.
-Good.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Wikis
- Here we are Appendix at the wiki stage of 23 things, and wikis, I think, will be something even you'll appreciate. Imagine the world full of webpages on every topic with everyone who has expertise, or who even wants a say, being able to contribute to keeping those webpages as complete, as accurate and as up-to-date as possible! It's like having an entire library at your fingertips with the pressing of a few buttons. It's like having every expert opinion available to you whenever you want. And, and this is a big "and", it's the democratisation of knowledge. No longer do we have to wait for, depend upon, defer to so-called expert opinion. We all have the power now. We are the ones with the knowledge in our hands. Wikis are the future my friend, believe me.
- Yes Caecum, "the future". Just like tomorrow, diet pills and people thanking God for saving them from the natural disaster He just failed to save their neighbour from.
- Why are you always so negative?
- Why are you always so unquestioningly naive and stupid?
- I don't believe you answered my question.
- You genuinely think that letting everyone and their dog who happens to have an opinion about anything contribute to wikis will ensure that as much knowledge as possible becomes available to as many people as possible?
- Of course. Imagine the power of everyone in the world becoming involved in learning about and contributing to as many wikis as possible. Never before has so much information become available to so many people in such a democratic way as this.
- Let me get this straight. What you're saying is that, in the same way that, in a democracy, every member of society is involved in running their country through having a vote and through being able to make their views know to their local member and through even going to the extent of, if they're passionate enough, running for office, when we're talking about wikis, every member of the public can be involved in contributing to and running our knowledge base.
- Yes. A democracy is obviously the best way to run a government. We can apply the same principles to running our knowledge base.
- If we look at the different governments around the world, we'll be able to see the benefits of democracies, will we?
- Of course.
- So, the USA, for example? A country that invades other countries because they don't like their governments? A country that can find $700b to bale out their financial institutions but who can't give their poorest members health care? A country where there's a serious debate about whether or not to teach intelligent design as a viable competitor to evolution? Is this the paragon of democracy you're holding up for our consideration?
- But this is my point, isn't it? Doesn't the quality and success of a democracy depend upon the education, wisdom and participation of its constituents? Won't the democratisation of knowledge lead to the spread of such education, wisdom and participation? Isn't this where wikis will find their greatest hour in history?
- Let me ask you this question. Say there's ten wikis on the scientific evidence for evolution. And there's ten wikis opposing this scientific evidence while proposing intelligent design as a viable and alternative description of our natural history. Now read carefully, because here comes the question. How many religious people, who find succour and truth in the intelligent design wikis, will, first of all, read the scientific evidence available on the science wikis, and second of all, read it carefully and thoughtfully enough to find their views changed by such evidence?
- But that's the point isn't it? The web is for everyone. Not just special interest groups.
- You're calling scientists "special interest groups"?
- Look, there's a serious debate about whether or not the "scientific evidence" actually "proves" evolution.
- Not amongst sane people.
- Wikis are just another way in which these debates can be aired and given their proper and due attention.
- I think you're missing the point. Imagine, if you will, a neo-Nazi who denies the Holocaust. There are thousands and thousands of pages of evidence of the Holocaust. There are thousands of pages of testimonials, photos, reports, even Nazi records. All of which speak to the events of the Holocaust. Say, there are also hundreds of pages of neo-Nazi drivel about how the Holocaust is all a Jewish conspiracy. So, these neo-Naze pages are directly at odds with the pages of evidence. Which pages do you think the neo-Nazi will spend his or her time visiting and contributing to?
- Again, there'll always be special interest groups in our communities. A democracy caters to everyone. Wikis give these people a place to be themselves.
- I believe you were talking about knowledge. Are the pages of neo-Nazi propaganda to be considered knowledge in the same way that the pages of evidence that support the accounts of the Holocaust?
- But that's not the point.
- But you said earlier that it was the point. Wikis aren't the democratisation of anything. They will not ensure our future. They will not spread knowledge far and wide through making it available to anyone who has access to the internet. Wikis will just be one more place where we can hide ourselves away in our little niches of like-minded individuals. They'll be refuges from any uncomfortable or contradictory information. If we stumble across a wiki that offers us information that contradicts our own or makes us uncomfortable in any way, we'll just keep on stumbling until we find someone like us or, who at least is more like us than those other freaks, and we'll while away the hours of our lives in the company of similarly deluded fools and we'll have lived our lives and learned nothing. Very much how we go through our lives today. Yes, indeed. Long live the wiki.
-Is there anything you're actually in favour of?
-Yes. Not being naive and stupid.
- Yes Caecum, "the future". Just like tomorrow, diet pills and people thanking God for saving them from the natural disaster He just failed to save their neighbour from.
- Why are you always so negative?
- Why are you always so unquestioningly naive and stupid?
- I don't believe you answered my question.
- You genuinely think that letting everyone and their dog who happens to have an opinion about anything contribute to wikis will ensure that as much knowledge as possible becomes available to as many people as possible?
- Of course. Imagine the power of everyone in the world becoming involved in learning about and contributing to as many wikis as possible. Never before has so much information become available to so many people in such a democratic way as this.
- Let me get this straight. What you're saying is that, in the same way that, in a democracy, every member of society is involved in running their country through having a vote and through being able to make their views know to their local member and through even going to the extent of, if they're passionate enough, running for office, when we're talking about wikis, every member of the public can be involved in contributing to and running our knowledge base.
- Yes. A democracy is obviously the best way to run a government. We can apply the same principles to running our knowledge base.
- If we look at the different governments around the world, we'll be able to see the benefits of democracies, will we?
- Of course.
- So, the USA, for example? A country that invades other countries because they don't like their governments? A country that can find $700b to bale out their financial institutions but who can't give their poorest members health care? A country where there's a serious debate about whether or not to teach intelligent design as a viable competitor to evolution? Is this the paragon of democracy you're holding up for our consideration?
- But this is my point, isn't it? Doesn't the quality and success of a democracy depend upon the education, wisdom and participation of its constituents? Won't the democratisation of knowledge lead to the spread of such education, wisdom and participation? Isn't this where wikis will find their greatest hour in history?
- Let me ask you this question. Say there's ten wikis on the scientific evidence for evolution. And there's ten wikis opposing this scientific evidence while proposing intelligent design as a viable and alternative description of our natural history. Now read carefully, because here comes the question. How many religious people, who find succour and truth in the intelligent design wikis, will, first of all, read the scientific evidence available on the science wikis, and second of all, read it carefully and thoughtfully enough to find their views changed by such evidence?
- But that's the point isn't it? The web is for everyone. Not just special interest groups.
- You're calling scientists "special interest groups"?
- Look, there's a serious debate about whether or not the "scientific evidence" actually "proves" evolution.
- Not amongst sane people.
- Wikis are just another way in which these debates can be aired and given their proper and due attention.
- I think you're missing the point. Imagine, if you will, a neo-Nazi who denies the Holocaust. There are thousands and thousands of pages of evidence of the Holocaust. There are thousands of pages of testimonials, photos, reports, even Nazi records. All of which speak to the events of the Holocaust. Say, there are also hundreds of pages of neo-Nazi drivel about how the Holocaust is all a Jewish conspiracy. So, these neo-Naze pages are directly at odds with the pages of evidence. Which pages do you think the neo-Nazi will spend his or her time visiting and contributing to?
- Again, there'll always be special interest groups in our communities. A democracy caters to everyone. Wikis give these people a place to be themselves.
- I believe you were talking about knowledge. Are the pages of neo-Nazi propaganda to be considered knowledge in the same way that the pages of evidence that support the accounts of the Holocaust?
- But that's not the point.
- But you said earlier that it was the point. Wikis aren't the democratisation of anything. They will not ensure our future. They will not spread knowledge far and wide through making it available to anyone who has access to the internet. Wikis will just be one more place where we can hide ourselves away in our little niches of like-minded individuals. They'll be refuges from any uncomfortable or contradictory information. If we stumble across a wiki that offers us information that contradicts our own or makes us uncomfortable in any way, we'll just keep on stumbling until we find someone like us or, who at least is more like us than those other freaks, and we'll while away the hours of our lives in the company of similarly deluded fools and we'll have lived our lives and learned nothing. Very much how we go through our lives today. Yes, indeed. Long live the wiki.
-Is there anything you're actually in favour of?
-Yes. Not being naive and stupid.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Flickr Photo Links
-Well Appendix, I'm excited by your attitude to our new Web 2.0 world, by your willingness to engage.
-Perhaps Caecum you weren't paying attention to what I was actually saying.
-Actually, I was. You claim blogging to be largely a waste of time. You claim we'd be better off going out and learning something instead, doing something useful instead of filling our time with the muzak of personal opinion made public. And yet you gave us this message in a blog. I don't want to say it's ironic or hypocritical. But you could at least admit some small irony in saying that blogging can be useful only if you use it to say how useless blogging is.
-Yes, the paradox at the core of our being made large in a blog about the pointlessness of blogs.
-At least you're involved my friend. I'm proud of you.
-Thanks. I guess. Though I'm not sure your pride in me is something to celebrate. Anyway, enough of this idle getting us nowhere chat. What are we here for today?
-Flickr. We're here for Flickr.
-I'm already excited.
-I knew you would be. Flickr, as if you didn't already know, is a website where you can upload your photos and share them with members of your family, other groups or everyone anywhere in the world who has access to Flickr.
-So it's like a 24/7 slide night at your grandparents?
-Your grandparents, your parents, friends, other relatives, work colleagues, you name it. And seeing how a picture is worth a thousand words, that's a lot of communication shared around humanity as a whole. All you have to do is click on an image and it's almost like having the experience of being there yourself. Imagine how many more experiences, how much more information, how many different places and concepts you can be exposed to. Imagine how much you can grow as a person just through exposing yourself to these images. The great repository of human knowledge and experience has just augmented itself again. Congratulations to Flickr and to any site like it.
-As much as I'd like to share your enthusiasm, I wonder how much the world has changed due to the images on Flickr. I wonder just how much humanity has grown through the millions of human hours spent on Flickr posting images of pets, holidays, commercial products, snatches of architecture, sunsets, bridges, sci fi conventions and Aunt Gladys's skiing trip. I wonder how many human-caused problems have been exposed and resolved through the posting of images on Flickr.
-Well, it's not just Flickr we're talking about, is it? It's the power of the captured image itself. Flickr is just one example of one type of image-sharing medium. It's not all just a self-indulgent waste of time. Throughout the history of humanity, the image has been a powerful tool in the fight to right wrongs, to expose shady dealings, to embarrass people into doing the right thing.
-Has it? Name one.
-What about the famous images of the burning girl in the Vietnam war or the image of the Vietcong being executed in the street? Didn't these images invoke outrage? Didn't they galvanise opposition to the war, encourage help to those who needed it?
-Did they? Did they stop the Reagan administration's killing of the Sandinistas? Did they stop the fighting in the Balkans? Did they stop Saddam's gassing of the Kurds? Did they stop those planes flying into those buildings? Did they stop the Iraq war? How much power did those images actually have?
-What about the images of the dead Jews in the mass graves? Or the images of the starving skeletal bodies of the near dead Jews in the concentration camps? Were they not powerful? Did they not result in an undertaking for that sort of thing never to happen again?
-Did they? Did they managed to the violence in the Middle East? Did they stop the Australian Government from putting refuges into concentration camps?
-What about the images of polar bears on shrinking ice flows? Or the images of the melting glaciers in the Arctic and Antarctic? Are they not galvanising world action against climate change?
-You're kidding right? Tell me what one image has done to help us understand the nature of human existence or the nature of any other existence for that matter. Tell me what one image has done to expose the delusion that is our belief in the veracity of our beliefs. Tell me what one image has done to help us understand that though we might not share beliefs, we all share the same underlying belief gathering processes. Tell me what one image has done to help us understand that, through sharing these underlying processes, we share so much of each other that we are all closer to each other than any two siblings can be. Tell me what one image has done to help us understand that through an understanding of these underlying processes we can come to feel love and compassion for all things. Tell me what one image has done to help us place the teaching of philosophy and science to children on the same level of importance as we currently place the teaching of literacy and numeracy. Can you give me one image?
-Now that you put it like that, no.
-So tell me the point in all this pointing to images on Flickr.
-Hey, not everything can be about saving the whales or the planet or encouraging peace and love to all mankind, man! All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Remember that! There's plenty of entertainment value on the old Flickr site.
-Yes there is. More mindless crap to fill in the time between now and death. Eyeball muzak to keep at bay those quiet times where we might have to think about the nature of our existence, about who, what, how and why we are, about the nature of the thought that thinks that not thinking about the nature of thought is an all right way to spend our lives. Heaven forbid we'd have to do any heavy thinking.
-Yes. Yes. Thank you very much. Blah. Blah. Blah. You still have to provide your links to images on Flickr. That's what we're here for. That's what this is all about. There's no way round that. What are you going to link to to prove that you can link to stuff?
-Ah, yes.
Well I've found someone's sheep: http://www.flickr.com/photos/glennkarlsen/2094470968/
Not to mention an ostrich: http://www.flickr.com/photos/panorama_paul/2679200448/
And to round matters off, here's a little imbedded link to a beautiful expose on political expediency and hypocrisy. It is of course Jon Stewart from The Daily Show:
Happy entertainment!
-I despair.
-Perhaps Caecum you weren't paying attention to what I was actually saying.
-Actually, I was. You claim blogging to be largely a waste of time. You claim we'd be better off going out and learning something instead, doing something useful instead of filling our time with the muzak of personal opinion made public. And yet you gave us this message in a blog. I don't want to say it's ironic or hypocritical. But you could at least admit some small irony in saying that blogging can be useful only if you use it to say how useless blogging is.
-Yes, the paradox at the core of our being made large in a blog about the pointlessness of blogs.
-At least you're involved my friend. I'm proud of you.
-Thanks. I guess. Though I'm not sure your pride in me is something to celebrate. Anyway, enough of this idle getting us nowhere chat. What are we here for today?
-Flickr. We're here for Flickr.
-I'm already excited.
-I knew you would be. Flickr, as if you didn't already know, is a website where you can upload your photos and share them with members of your family, other groups or everyone anywhere in the world who has access to Flickr.
-So it's like a 24/7 slide night at your grandparents?
-Your grandparents, your parents, friends, other relatives, work colleagues, you name it. And seeing how a picture is worth a thousand words, that's a lot of communication shared around humanity as a whole. All you have to do is click on an image and it's almost like having the experience of being there yourself. Imagine how many more experiences, how much more information, how many different places and concepts you can be exposed to. Imagine how much you can grow as a person just through exposing yourself to these images. The great repository of human knowledge and experience has just augmented itself again. Congratulations to Flickr and to any site like it.
-As much as I'd like to share your enthusiasm, I wonder how much the world has changed due to the images on Flickr. I wonder just how much humanity has grown through the millions of human hours spent on Flickr posting images of pets, holidays, commercial products, snatches of architecture, sunsets, bridges, sci fi conventions and Aunt Gladys's skiing trip. I wonder how many human-caused problems have been exposed and resolved through the posting of images on Flickr.
-Well, it's not just Flickr we're talking about, is it? It's the power of the captured image itself. Flickr is just one example of one type of image-sharing medium. It's not all just a self-indulgent waste of time. Throughout the history of humanity, the image has been a powerful tool in the fight to right wrongs, to expose shady dealings, to embarrass people into doing the right thing.
-Has it? Name one.
-What about the famous images of the burning girl in the Vietnam war or the image of the Vietcong being executed in the street? Didn't these images invoke outrage? Didn't they galvanise opposition to the war, encourage help to those who needed it?
-Did they? Did they stop the Reagan administration's killing of the Sandinistas? Did they stop the fighting in the Balkans? Did they stop Saddam's gassing of the Kurds? Did they stop those planes flying into those buildings? Did they stop the Iraq war? How much power did those images actually have?
-What about the images of the dead Jews in the mass graves? Or the images of the starving skeletal bodies of the near dead Jews in the concentration camps? Were they not powerful? Did they not result in an undertaking for that sort of thing never to happen again?
-Did they? Did they managed to the violence in the Middle East? Did they stop the Australian Government from putting refuges into concentration camps?
-What about the images of polar bears on shrinking ice flows? Or the images of the melting glaciers in the Arctic and Antarctic? Are they not galvanising world action against climate change?
-You're kidding right? Tell me what one image has done to help us understand the nature of human existence or the nature of any other existence for that matter. Tell me what one image has done to expose the delusion that is our belief in the veracity of our beliefs. Tell me what one image has done to help us understand that though we might not share beliefs, we all share the same underlying belief gathering processes. Tell me what one image has done to help us understand that, through sharing these underlying processes, we share so much of each other that we are all closer to each other than any two siblings can be. Tell me what one image has done to help us understand that through an understanding of these underlying processes we can come to feel love and compassion for all things. Tell me what one image has done to help us place the teaching of philosophy and science to children on the same level of importance as we currently place the teaching of literacy and numeracy. Can you give me one image?
-Now that you put it like that, no.
-So tell me the point in all this pointing to images on Flickr.
-Hey, not everything can be about saving the whales or the planet or encouraging peace and love to all mankind, man! All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Remember that! There's plenty of entertainment value on the old Flickr site.
-Yes there is. More mindless crap to fill in the time between now and death. Eyeball muzak to keep at bay those quiet times where we might have to think about the nature of our existence, about who, what, how and why we are, about the nature of the thought that thinks that not thinking about the nature of thought is an all right way to spend our lives. Heaven forbid we'd have to do any heavy thinking.
-Yes. Yes. Thank you very much. Blah. Blah. Blah. You still have to provide your links to images on Flickr. That's what we're here for. That's what this is all about. There's no way round that. What are you going to link to to prove that you can link to stuff?
-Ah, yes.
Well I've found someone's sheep: http://www.flickr.com/photos/glennkarlsen/2094470968/
Not to mention an ostrich: http://www.flickr.com/photos/panorama_paul/2679200448/
And to round matters off, here's a little imbedded link to a beautiful expose on political expediency and hypocrisy. It is of course Jon Stewart from The Daily Show:
Happy entertainment!
-I despair.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
The virtues of blogging?
- Well, here we are Caecum at our new exciting blog where we're expected to blog about the virtues of blogging. A little self-referential self-referencing. A bit like advertising the positive and educational virtues of advertising, aducation, if you like. Think of how much we'll be advancing the philosophical and scientific evolution of humankind through this endeavour.
- Now, don't be like that Appendix. It's not all fun and games and disappearing up your own rectum in the search for coliform bacteria. We have things to share you and I, other than bacteria. And we're surrounded by people who want to know what we have to share.
-There are people in the world who want to read blogs about blogging?
-Yes. Think of all the interesting stuff about blogging that we'll be able to blog about. People will be tripping over themselves to read that stuff.
-What stuff?
-Our stuff!
-You mean this stuff?
-Yes. This stuff.
-Name one.
-Well, there are all the people involved in this little educational endeavour, all the 23 things people.
-They'll want to read this stuff?
-Yes.
-So, given a choice between, say, going to the movies, or maybe, going to the pub on a Sunday afternoon and listening to jazz, or maybe, spending the afternoon on their patio reading a book by their favourite author, or even doing some physical activity, and READING THIS BLOG, these people would choose to stay home, or even go to work, and read this blog?
-Well, I'm not saying that exactly. I mean, not even I'd do that.
-I rest my case.
-So, there are more attractive things than reading this blog. I accept that.
-And more important things.
-And possibly more important things.
-Like almost anything.
-Listen Appendix, we're knowledgeable people. We know stuff. Worthwhile stuff that needs sharing.
-You mean like how to cure every disease that there's ever been in the history of humanity, how to live together as one and love everyone else as though they were part of our own family, how to be smart and think in ways that would make Einstein jealous, how to cure global warming? You mean things like that?
-Not exactly. No, we don't know how to do that. Neither of us do.
-And yet people will still want to read what we have to say? Even though we have nothing to say that will advance humankind in any way? And even though people would be far better off actually going out and learning some actual stuff or actually going out and actually doing some actual stuff? Is that what you're saying?
-Well, I guess I am. It's not all about advancing humankind, is it? You can't go about advancing humanity all the time. Sometimes you have to eat, sleep, commute, go to the toilet, things like that. Hopefully not all at the same time but there are things to do other than advancing the human species. We all have our own lives to lead. Things to do. People to see. Movies to watch. Books to read. Blogs to write. There's other stuff, you know?
-You mean those things we do to fill in all that time we have to fill in, all that time that's leaking away and leading us to our own deaths as inevitably as our own deaths are bearing down upon us?
-That's exactly what I mean. We have time to fill. Plenty of time. You can go off and do your scientific research or think deeply about the nature of being if you want, but you can't do it all the time. Can you? We have to do these other things. Write blogs about blogging and so forth.
-So, blogs are a bit like muzak, are they? They fill in the gaps between things. Those gaps and their accompanying silence that would otherwise insist that we think about the nature of standing around thinking about the nature of gaps?
-That's it! Now you're getting it! Blog away, my friend! Welcome to the new 2.0 world!
- Now, don't be like that Appendix. It's not all fun and games and disappearing up your own rectum in the search for coliform bacteria. We have things to share you and I, other than bacteria. And we're surrounded by people who want to know what we have to share.
-There are people in the world who want to read blogs about blogging?
-Yes. Think of all the interesting stuff about blogging that we'll be able to blog about. People will be tripping over themselves to read that stuff.
-What stuff?
-Our stuff!
-You mean this stuff?
-Yes. This stuff.
-Name one.
-Well, there are all the people involved in this little educational endeavour, all the 23 things people.
-They'll want to read this stuff?
-Yes.
-So, given a choice between, say, going to the movies, or maybe, going to the pub on a Sunday afternoon and listening to jazz, or maybe, spending the afternoon on their patio reading a book by their favourite author, or even doing some physical activity, and READING THIS BLOG, these people would choose to stay home, or even go to work, and read this blog?
-Well, I'm not saying that exactly. I mean, not even I'd do that.
-I rest my case.
-So, there are more attractive things than reading this blog. I accept that.
-And more important things.
-And possibly more important things.
-Like almost anything.
-Listen Appendix, we're knowledgeable people. We know stuff. Worthwhile stuff that needs sharing.
-You mean like how to cure every disease that there's ever been in the history of humanity, how to live together as one and love everyone else as though they were part of our own family, how to be smart and think in ways that would make Einstein jealous, how to cure global warming? You mean things like that?
-Not exactly. No, we don't know how to do that. Neither of us do.
-And yet people will still want to read what we have to say? Even though we have nothing to say that will advance humankind in any way? And even though people would be far better off actually going out and learning some actual stuff or actually going out and actually doing some actual stuff? Is that what you're saying?
-Well, I guess I am. It's not all about advancing humankind, is it? You can't go about advancing humanity all the time. Sometimes you have to eat, sleep, commute, go to the toilet, things like that. Hopefully not all at the same time but there are things to do other than advancing the human species. We all have our own lives to lead. Things to do. People to see. Movies to watch. Books to read. Blogs to write. There's other stuff, you know?
-You mean those things we do to fill in all that time we have to fill in, all that time that's leaking away and leading us to our own deaths as inevitably as our own deaths are bearing down upon us?
-That's exactly what I mean. We have time to fill. Plenty of time. You can go off and do your scientific research or think deeply about the nature of being if you want, but you can't do it all the time. Can you? We have to do these other things. Write blogs about blogging and so forth.
-So, blogs are a bit like muzak, are they? They fill in the gaps between things. Those gaps and their accompanying silence that would otherwise insist that we think about the nature of standing around thinking about the nature of gaps?
-That's it! Now you're getting it! Blog away, my friend! Welcome to the new 2.0 world!
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