In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman discusses the consequences of a culture transitioning from orality to literacy to visual media.

The number of hours the average American watches TV has remained steady, at about four and a half hours a day, every day (by age sixty-five, a person will have spent twelve uninterrupted years in front of the TV).

The Internet and smart phones have shifted the focus from TV to the Internet, but not the total amount of time spent on these media.

Postman looks at the great literary dystopians Orwell and Huxley, who must have foreseen such developments and the dangers they bring along.

Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.
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What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.
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Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.”

A blob has no sense of self. All it knows is that it must become bigger. Our world is full of self-centered blobs.

The blob is in pain. The movie Spirited Away features a character similar to a blob: No-Face. No-Face wants attention, so he swallows the bathhouse employees. In the process, he adopts all the negative traits of those he consumes. No-Face becomes an arrogant, disgruntled, and selfish monster.

The amorphous blobs of this world — large organizations and individuals — want our attention. And there is never enough of it. Driven by attention mania and the temporary satisfaction that these blob gets from power and prestige, the blob keeps eating. It clings to everything around it in a meaningless and frenetic way.

The blob doesn’t like being told not to eat just anything. This gets the blob angry and mean because the blob needs to grow. Then, the blob deploys his soldiers. An army of dependents, frightened to the bone followers, is deployed to ensure that the blob can continue to grow. All work for the benefit of the blob.

In Spirited Away, No-Face offers gold to make the creatures around him like him. The creatures accept the gold and obey the blob. But when Chihiro refuses the gold yet is kind to him anyway, No-Face becomes so upset and confused, and sick of himself, that he vomits up everything he has swallowed. Only then does he find a balance in his existence—an existence in which he does not always want to devour others. No-Face turns into a humble being.

Let’s feel sorry for the No-Faces of this world. The pitiable CEOs are morbidly seeking attention. These No-Faces use their money, business, wives, and children—everything to get attention.

But no one likes them. No-Face is a nasty, selfish creature that lives a terrible life of eternal dissatisfaction. They can’t be helped. They can only help themselves and puke out everything they have swallowed.

Een paar dagen geleden sprak ik hier mijn onbegrip uit over NSC-leden die een kabinet blijven steunen dat racisme tolereert. Ik noemde specifiek Rosanne Hertzberger, iemand die ik hoog had zitten en waarvan ik niet begreep hoe zij de gang van zaken konden tolereren zonder met zichzelf in conflict te komen.
Vandaag hebben Femke Zeedijk en Rosanne Hertzberger hun kamerlidmaatschap voor NSC opgezegd omdat ze niet langer hun steun aan deze regering kunnen geven. Respect.

Van Vroonhoven zegt: “We zitten in een moeilijke samenwerking”, erkende ze, “maar er is een goede mood” (nos.nl).

Op 23 november is het ledencongres van deze partij. Ik verwacht dat de leden minder in een goede mood zullen zijn en de overgebleven kamerleden zullen aansporen ook hun medewerking aan een racistisch kabinet op te zeggen. Zelfs als dat betekent dat er verkiezingen kunnen komen waarbij de partij een groot deel van haar zetels zal verliezen. Want belangrijker dan de omvang van een zichzelf respecterende partij is haar integriteit.

I am currently reading Uncommon Knowledge, a publication from The Economist. Apparently, I have a weakness for unusual facts. Time for a brief egocentric list of my nerdy interests.

In my browser, I have a bookmark with a link to a random Wikipedia article (or I use Wikiroulette). I regularly read Cory Doctorow’s This Day In History posts on his Pluralistic blog.

I also enjoy podcasts that share unexpected knowledge. Examples include No Such Thing As A Fish, Today in History, Tell Me Something I Don’t Know, and Oh What A Time. This American Life and Revisionist History also fit well in this category.

I love books that pull me down the rabbit hole. Some favorites include At Home and A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. I also enjoy the books of Dutch writer Boudewijn Büch, which are full of facts about all kinds of things, such as small islands, The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green and the non-fiction works of Cees Nooteboom. A starter kit for enthusiasts.

Redoing boring notebook covers with photographic snips.

With a high five to acrylic medium.

Another note from reading this article “Hey, Computer Scientists! Stop Hating on the Humanities” in Wired on ethics in tech and science.

The fact that so many computer scientists are ignorant or disdainful of non-technical approaches…

Really? Fact?

The author fails in her arguments, not only in this paragraph. She goes off the rails in more places.

A more socially focused curriculum would not only make coders less likely to cause harm; it might also make them more likely to do good.

Computer scientists are bad people that hate humanities, but can be converted into good people if they are exposed to the humanies.

That me a bit too much of the religious othodoxy I was exposed to in my childhood.

The topic of ethics in technology is too important to be discussed in platitudes.

I make the loose notes in my iPhone Notes app. Digging through old notes, I found this one. No clue why I saved this. Must have been in some weird or vicious mood.

moron  stupid, cool 

8    dummy stupid, fool 

8    lowbrow  stupid, fool 

8    philistine  person, fool 

7    dunce , stupid, cool 

7    fathead n.stupid, person, fool 

7    nitwit  stupid, fool 

7    slacker  stupid, fool 

6    dolt n.stupid, person, fool 

6    goldbrick n.stupid, person, fool 

6    half-wit  stupid, fool 

6    pinhead n.stupid, person, fool 

6    simpleton n.stupid, person, fool 

5    dumbbell  stupid, fool 

5    anti-intellectual  person, fool 

5    blockhead  stupid, fool 

5    dope n.stupid, person, fool 

4    goof-off n.stupid, person, fool 

4    underachiever n.stupid, person, fool 

4    extravert  active 

4    extrovert  active 

4    gregarious adj.talking, feature, which 

3    imbecile n.stupid, person, fool 

3    klutz  active 

2    hunk n.fool, stupid, person 

2    friendly adj.talking, feature, which 

2    outgoing adj.talking, feature, which 

2    sociable adj.talking, feature, which 

2    energize v.action, active, doing 

2    pretty boy  fool, charismatic 

1    anti-nerd n.charismatic, cool, person 

1    au courant adj.cool, person, fashionable 

1    ball player n.charismatic, cool, person 

1    beefcake n.fool, stupid, person 

1    benighted adj.fool, idiot, stupid 

1    bonehead  cool, charismatic 

1    cannon folder n.charismatic, cool, person 

1    charisma n.charismatic, cool, person 

1    cheerleader n.charismatic, cool, person 

1    chowderhead  cool, charismatic 

1    cool adj.person, fashionable 

1    def adj.person, fashionable, cool 

1    downtown adj.person, fashionable, cool 

1    drop-out n.charismatic, cool, person 

1    dumb adj.fool, idiot, stupid 

1    dumb jock n.charismatic, cool, person 

1    fashion plate n.charismatic, cool, person 

1    foolish adj.fool, idiot, stupid 

1    geek n.charismatic, cool, person 

1    groovy adj.person, fashionable, cool 

1    idiotic adj.fool, idiot, stupid 

1    ignorant adj.fool, idiot, stupid 

1    illiterate adj.fool, idiot, stupid 

1    jock n.charismatic, cool, person 

1    mod adj.person, fashionable, cool 

1    moronic adj.fool, idiot, stupid 

1    mundane n.charismatic, cool, person 

1    nonintellectual adj.fool, idiot, stupid 

1    now adj.person, fashionable, cool 

1    pimp n.charismatic, cool, person 

1    player n.charismatic, cool, person 

1    retard  cool, charismatic 

1    slick n.charismatic, cool, person 

1    slow adj.fool, idiot, stupid 

1    socialite n.charismatic, cool, person 

1    stud n.fool, stupid, person 

1    stupid adj.fool, idiot, person 

1    superstud n.fool, stupid, person 

1    trendy adj.person, fashionable, cool 

1    turned on adj.cool, person, fashionable 

1    uncultivated adj.fool, idiot, stupid 

1    uncultured adj.fool, idiot, stupid 

1    uneducated adj.fool, idiot, stupid 

1    unenlightened adj.fool, idiot, stupid 

1    unintelligent adj.fool, idiot, stupid 

1    unlettered adj.fool, idiot, stupid 

1    unread adj.fool, idiot, stupid 

1    with-it adj.person, fashionable, cool