Reality Time

I've had a thought which has been running circles around my mind for some time now. Everybody knows that electrical impulses are sent through the nervous system of the body. Things such as taste, touch, smell, and sight are all merely interactions between neurons which are then interpreted by the brain. Since electricity does have a top speed, there is a certain amount of time it takes for a person to say, actually smell a flower, and for the smell of the flower to register in our minds. This got me into thinking about the concept of reality itself. Now, I don't want to go too philosophical or metaphysical here. I just want to address the issue of how we interpret reality on a small scale. Think of it this way. A sloth moves so slowly because it does not have a myelin coating around its neurons that speed up electrical impulses. It is therefore slower than us. However, from the sloth's perspective, this slow moving lifestyle is natural, and everything around it just moves faster. There is a very different way on how the world is experienced between sloths and humans. However we humans are also at a slight disadvantage. While we do have myelin coating our nerves, there is still a delay between the act of touching something and when our brain interprets the touch itself. And here is where reality comes in. We experience the entire world in a delayed frame. Sure, it may not be that noticeable to us, but who's to say that? A sloth surely thinks that there is nothing wrong with the way it interprets the world. It still gets by just fine without the myelin and with the long delay. However with this sloth there is no real delay. Same goes for humans. We don't think about the delay it takes for us to actually interact with the world. There are those who would say "Well, it's only a few nanoseconds of delay. It's hardly worth noticing at all." Well how exactly can we be so sure that it is that much of a delay? Any type of thing that we try measuring will be subject to the same delay. Think of it as a person with a stopwatch (a very accurate stopwatch). If the person started the stopwatch then stopped it, much more time would have actually passed in the real physical universe than what the person experienced and timed. There is the time it took for him to actually make the decision to press down the button, the time for the impulse to be sent down the arm to press the button, another impulse to remove the finger from the button, then a time for the man to repeat the process and stop the timer. All of that adds up, and for an observer unaffected by this delay, there might actually be a noticeable difference. Who are we to say? For all we know reality could be more different then any of us can imagine. But that's another topic for another day: The Perspective.

A Quick Look at the American Situation

Has America always been this split down the middle? Democrats versus Republicans? Has this country always been in the middle of a political tug-of-war? Or is just the rise in awareness that radio, television, and the internet has brought has now opened our eyes? I really do not believe that the political system was every more cutthroat then it is today. Sure, a person can say that the election will be decided by who has the most money to run commercials. Or that the person who can run the best smear campaign will win. Then there are of course those few that believe that there is nothing wrong with the democratic system (notice the small D people) we have today. Even if this is all just a matter of being more aware to a problem that has always existed, the fact of the matter is that there is something terribly wrong with the way politics are played in America today. There is a president with a 35% approval rating. There is Vietnam-esque war occurring. People are looking forward more to the future election than fixing the problems that we have today. And that goes for citizens and politicians alike. In this I do not want to play the blame game. That is for a different discussion altogether. But what doesn't change is the fact that there really is something bad going on right now. Sure, all the media will hype it up, it's their job. Going on about Orwellian society, dictatorship government, end of the world scenarios. What the media is telling us is an overworked, overplayed, and overemphasized version of what really is happening. America won't breed the next Hitler, that's for sure. But what we can be sure of is that what is happening to America right now will affect it for the years to come. And I can't see it being a very good future in its present state. I understand that I may have deviated a bit between numerous various topics. Hence the title. Look for (possible?) elaborations on any one of these topics in the (far?) distant future.

The Evolution of Television: A Hesitation

It has been proposed that television is a strictly one-way form of entertainment and media. Concepts, ideas, and beliefs are portrayed to us in an endless stream of images and sound. The audience can do nothing but be recipients of this media. With no way to respond to television, some people say that our society is being destroyed. They say that we are being told what to think and what to believe on some subtle level. This can only be combated by making television a better, more advanced reflection of the beliefs and general attitudes of the society. A proposed idea is making television a more interactive form of entertainment. The basic idea is giving the audience more control over what they see on television through the use of internet and so forth. The ultimate goal being the transformation of television into essentially a giant real life computer game. All you have to do is press buttons to stimulate content on the television. Am I taking this concept in too absurd a direction? Well it can't hurt to consider absurdity. The big question is whether or not a more interactive, two way link between television media and the audience will solve this rising "brainwashing" problem. I, however, do not believe that will work. Television is a phenomenon that both changed the world for the better and the worst at the same time. It is a medium that links the entire world together. But, for most of us, it is also the only window we have to the rest of the world. The furthest that television can conceivably go in relation to audience interaction is American Idol. The only thing the audience can do is influence such mundane content as the simple act of voting yes or no. To go any further would be to culture a society enslaved to the television more than it already is. The television would become the sole source of any and all information. The advanced human population would in essence become completely reliant on the television. If the television becomes some all-important device, and the audience believes that what they see is controlled by them, then it is that much easier to gain control over it. Perhaps a organization, company, or government would gain sole control over this media and only pretend to let the public control it. Then we are back where we started. Only this time the public will believe they have total control when they are instead being misled. So what reality do you want? The one where you know that you don't control the airwaves, or the one where you think you do but still don't? You don't have a lot of time to make a decision.

Ritualistic Establishment

As I sit here typing this, I can only think of the common phrase "Nuke the Blogosphere". As long as I've lived (not long) I never thought I would enter into this awkward community. But here I am anyways, abandoning my feeble Zanga in exchange for this exciting piece of internet. How long will this last? What profound and insightful commentary will I put forth on this? All questions that will be answered in a manner as timely as the storyline for "Lost". As for now, I'll let you ponder the meaning of this blogosphere.