Author: Wayne Slingluff

Scientist

Until recently, scientists were heroes of the age. Now they are often mocked or even reviled. Science, which used to be the jewel of our culture, is now disdainfully ignored by those who trust common sense and intuition. What happened ?

Many would say “hubris.” But that’s too simple. The definition of science enlarged to include – well – almost everything “good.” Products were “new and improved” by science. All of our problems would be solved by science. A true scientist, certified, by definition must always be right.

And, of course, that was all malarky. Science does depend on a lot of “real” things – observation, logic, experimentation, and – not least – sorting things into a useful and sensible pattern. As does – for example – common sense and personal experience. But nothing is infallible. And all human activities are complex probabilities in an unknowable future .

I accept the scientific structure of physical reality. Within reason, I try to behave as a scientist. I do not _ like many – reject this knowledge and the wonders it delivers. However, I also utilize common sense, personal observation, and probability calculation in navigating my enchanted conscious existence. The best of many worlds, mixed into grateful excitement .

Live Long or Live Well

In our competitive society, there once existed a group of people who firmly believed “he who dies with the most toys wins.” Now that everyone has too many toys, that has mutated into “he who lives longest wins.”

Even in the dim and ancient past, aristocrats and rulers frantically tried to live “forever”. They would eat gold, jade, mercury. Perform rigorous and/or disgusting rites. Indulge in the latest fad – oxygen, radioactivity, fasting, exercise. They wanted to extend their pleasant lives indefinitely, regardless of how that quest might degrade their immediate happiness .

As fairy tales frequently point out, the fly in the ointment was exactly what such an extension would involve. Does anyone really want an eternity as a typical 110-year-old crone, crippled in body, deprived of senses, in constant pain, or barely aware of being human ?

The whole point of having consciousness is to react well in the moment. Perhaps to simply enjoy, perhaps to try for a better future. To fully engage where you exist is itself a kind of eternity _ the only true “reality” we ever experience between memories of the past and visions of the future .

Reasonable attempts to extend living well are commendable.  Obsessive focus on distant future possible life extension probably destroys appreciation of actual existence and replaces it with the hollow vision of dreams.

Simple-Minded

In nostalgic eras past, unfortunate individuals with low mental capacity were known as “village idiots” or “simple-minded’” folks. Now we inhabit supposedly kinder times, but those “simple-minded” are still with us. However I refer tp people mentally constrained by their own choice. 

Some are intellectually lazy, and find it easier to accept or reject anything they hear without troubling to investigate further. Nevertheless, they hold their opinion – whatever it may be – arrogantly. Others reach the same condition simply because there is too much to know and life requires us to focus on what is relevant .

The harm in so many people willingly becoming simple-minded is that in the myth of our society, citizens are supposed to be well informed. About everything. Admitting that one is fully ignorant or confused or even unsure about anything is not rewarded. To admit ignorance (even to yourself) when you are ignorant is quite healthy. But many of the unthinking may label you as stupid .

We have a voting population certain of their shallow beliefs, too involved in other things to care much except when egged on by volatile wannabe leaders .

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is not king. In the land of the simple-minded the wise person remains as unobtrusive as possible .

Knee Jerk Regulations

If “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”, it is even more true that the road to lawyers’ paradise is paved with knee-jerk laws and regulations. These are well intentioned guidelines that become ever more encrusted with caution, which strangles actions, and which result in stupid wasted time and money _ except, of course, for the legal profession (who often make those rules.)

Playgrounds are a good example. Nobody wants children to be hurt and trying to keep equipment safe is a good idea. But in these times – well a scraped knee might become infected so the ground must be rubberized. Someone may fall so everything must be netted and roped. The kids end up having no fun at all, and the rare accident can cost a town or insurer millions .

The gripes of businesses are legendary. But the truth is that existing corporations and guilds will do everything in their power to build barriers to entry to stop competition. And the most effective barriers are esoteric legal requirements .

In the modern world, common sense regulations do make sense. Nobody wants to get poisoned by the water. But spare us all the do-gooders who fixate on bad “might happen” and try to eliminate all risk in life – which always has risk .

Magic

When I was a boy, “magic” had been confined to church. After world war II, everyone assumed “Yankee ingenuity” could fix anything, often with little more than “string and bailing wire”. Farm boys were all mechanical geniuses, City kids knew how to outfox anybody. All was – or would soon be – knowable and under control .

As examples, we fixed our own flat tires, changed oil. When a TV or radio didn’t function, I’d take vacuum tubes out to test and buy at Radio Shack. Even later, I knew how transistor “gates” worked and could program in binary (zeros and ones) or assembly. TV or newspaper news was limited, trustworthy, opinion confined to editorial pages .

Now? It’s all magic. Even mechanics can’t fix new cars, God himself couldn’t repair a broken circuit board. I have no idea how quantum computers work, nor how AI is programmed. And all sources of “news” are slanted and suspect .

In fact, once again, we inhabit a world of magic as profound and (possibly) as dark as anything in the Middle Ages. We know how to (mostly) talk and provide services for money, shop, consume, and be entertained. A few “experts” know a lot – or claim they know a lot – about increasingly tiny bits of esoterica .

That makes the residual child in me quite uneasy. Without understanding I still believe real control is impossible .

Face Blind

In an era of mass production and conformity, it may be easy to forget how different people actually are – both physically and mentally. And how that shapes their outlook on the world. Individuals are treated very much as if they are the proverbial “bricks in the wall,” identical in possibility and hope .

Of course when we think about it that is not true. Short people simply will not be basketball stars. And so on. Talents and handicaps vary. Much depends on the time and situation into which one is born. That is all common sense, easily agreed on. What it means and how much it is actually important is a whole other matter. 

As a trivial example I am face blind – I cannot recognize people from their visage. Not really much of a problem, but it tended to limit me to being comfortable only in small groups and otherwise treating everyone as anonymous strangers. Today, with virtual AI eyeglasses doing facial recognition, it would even be correctable, like lenses for 20/20 vision. But in my times, I realize it truly shaped my response to life .

I worry, then, that the iron homogenization of computerized capitalistic rule is ignoring such basic human facts. A society composed of people finds ways to deal with such diversity. Rigid “scientific” silicon-based laws may not .