sleep deprived airport rant....

Chicago, Ohare.....

As I sit patiently awaiting my flight, a cascade of ignorance pollutes my thoughts... Wave after wave of meaningless drivel bleats down upon me from the overhead monitors, the caricatured faces feigning emotion in the teleprompted ritual that is morning television. I feel as if my eyes are going to bleed. Issues of grave importance are  homogenized with the trivial in a soothing rhythm of hypnotic oration, a translucent veneer of humanity bluntly imparted by the flesh puppets speaking through curiously adhesive cakes of cosmetic filler and paint. The paint, I am reminded, is to simulate a sexual flush, in an attempt to capture my attention, while the filler hides imperfections in texture or shade that might be construed as disease or a less than ideal genetic compliment.... but this morning, the monkey within is unusually numb to this type of subtle manipulation.

Today I am pondering the difference between understanding and information. In artificial intelligence, this critical divide forms the focal point of study....but in organic intelligence the distinction is too often ignored, at our collective peril.

Watching television, for example, informs me. Because I am aware that I am being informed by a source that is projecting a manifestation of its financial agenda, I understand what i am being told within a context of bias, and consider the information accordingly.

Similarly, In the context of my role in security theater, I also am informed that ionizing radiation  damages cellular structures, including the critical code for cellular replication. This information is backed up by repeatable observation and theoretical analysis. I consider it to be reliable.

I am informed that backscatter x-ray technology uses 'soft' x-rays that  reliably impact organic structures  instead of x-rays that pass through soft tissue, mainly revealing bony structures and dense masses. I know this because I understand the theory of operation of backscatter x-ray imaging. I consider this information to be credible by virtue of demonstration of a functioning apparatus based on the theory.

Because I understand these things, I can calculate that the entire dose of radiation received by a person from this machine would be concentrated within about 1kg of dermal tissue....making the common dose / body mass calculation that is given to support the safety of the devices off by two orders of magnitude....so, I choose not to voluntarily receive a radiation dose of 100 airline flights into my dermis over a 1 second period. (if the quip about being equal to the in-flight dose is to be believed)

Knowing this, I wonder how many people around me have anything more that an opinion about this, given to them by someone that they accept, having failed to consider, as a reliable source.

I fear for humanity, lest we be overcome by the stupid, wafting forth from every imaginable media orifice, engineered to sooth us from away from the impulse to think, to examine, to carefully consider.

For many, who do not make a habit of forming their own opinions, this is a succulent nectar of security, of effortless knowing, of wonderful clarity and simplicity. A sickly sweet mixture, like aspartame,   1000 times as sweet as any naturally occurring sugar, but decomposing into toxic byproducts -- the soothing cadence of teleprompted bobbleheads is insidiously hypnotic.

This is not some giant media conspiracy. This is merely the natural product of commercial entities, furthering their commercial agenda through the production and distribution of their product. This is not evil...this is what we want .... or at least what we are choosing with our dollars.

In the shadow of this false ambrosia of half-truth, the uncomfortable uncertainty of examination, the struggle of  analysis, of careful and critical consideration, these bittersweet products of knowledge -- simply cannot compare. Like processed food, preprocessed information, pre-opinionated and reconstituted in commercial form, is, for some, simply more compelling.

It bears remembering that, by definition, about half of the population is in the possession of cerebral equipment of sub average performance. It truly falls to those of that are able, to think with efficiency, accuracy, and clarity, not only on our own behalf, but for the entirety of humanity. We ignore this burden at our peril.

Our task is not simple, nor easy. It is a fundamental flaw of democracy that one only needs to convince the simplest 40 percent of your audience, as the middle ground will be divided, so that even if all of the brightest see with clarity, idiocracy will prevail.

There is no danger greater than laziness of mind.....those who do not exercise their right to think,  understand, analyze and choose risk loosing the right of voluntary action, not only for themselves, but for all of us.

Something to consider.