Valuing information in the information age

Today I have been confounded by what I perceive to be the problem of our information age, that we have lost the structures with which to mediate information. This is both a fantastic sociological phenomenon, enabling me to publish this without authority from capital, church, or crown; and a dizzying roadblock to the progress of humanity. This sounds an alarmist claim, but I'll use the charge of alarmism to demonstrate this argument. Anthropogenic climate change is a phenomenon that has been repeatedly, and with increasing frequency and certainty, demonstrated broadly in the scientific community. Yet, over the same period that the science was becoming more certain, popular consensus was waning. How could this happen? That more and more data were being compiled, that more and more associations were being made, and that the picture was becoming more and more damning, yet the public weren’t buying it. Put simply, science lost its authority. In a sea of information of no discernible order, the cuckoos coexist with the commended, and the rabid reside ever so close to the regarded. The new Laws of the Sea, this information ocean of ours, are grotesquely populist. Whoever shouts the loudest sets the "trend." How do we, within this system, designate really important information? Or really truthful information for that matter? The answer is that as we haven’t yet developed these conventions. In a way it makes this a truly exciting era, an unregulated age, the wild wild web.

Apologies for the delay

Well it seems this may be my first blog post in nearly 2 years, and it seems as though I've missed a lot. The world is poorer, more affluent, fatter, and all the while malnourished. On a more personal note though, having read through my previous posts and some of my academic writing while shuffling things about my room, I fear I may be losing my youthful vigour. I always wondered about the process of becoming old and whether its a sudden snap one day and you just are old, or a drawn out series of defeats. I am glad to report that its most certainly the former. My snap; being in The Gaff on Oxford St at 3am in the company of a lovely young american exchange student. The thoughts running through my head should have been focused on developing a series of charming pick ups to take this girl home. What was I thinking about instead? How nice it would be to be asleep, how I was looking forward to monitoring the progress of my garden in the morning, how I might be able to finish my latest Michael Pollan book, if I set aside a couple of hours in the afternoon. I long to live with wanton disregard again! Until then, you'll find me bent over a stove baking anzac biscuits (mums recipe of course)

Jack

She was signed, sealed and lost in the post

So this week I'm putting together a music parcel for a mildly musically challenged, yet adventurous, and, might I mention gorgeous, friend. What to include, what to include? I'm considered making it up of mostly new britpop, some wombats and definitely the new kooks album, but what else ought to be there? She is living in Philly at the moment but is taking leave to go to Argentina next year so I will have to include some deep thinking soul searching music. I could send her some Modest Mouse, but what if she doesnt like it? That could be a little awkward. I will need to do some shopping on this and report back with the setlist :)

Intellectual Dichotomy in Australia

We've all heard it said that Australia is unique. In fact uniqueness is central to all discussions of what is Australiana. "Australian's aren't like other people because..." go the tales, and amongst the most common of the descriptions of the Australian is of a larrikin, a jester, a simple man. The larrikin speaks like a real Aussie, without pronouns and only in sentences of less than 10 syllables. This begs a question of all Australians seeking to find an identity that suits Australia in the 21st century: what of the Australian intellect? The question arose in my mind when Sam de Brito, who normally writes a pretty plain column for the Sydney Morning Herald, wrote his column based around the writings of a prominent Australian academic, Clive Hamilton. Hamilton is not just a prominent Australian academic hes a prominent academic period. His theories of 21st century reinvention of society are both revolutionary and creative. What surprised me was not Sam de Brito's treatment of Hamilton's theories on human sexuality, but the comments section that followed the blog. "What a wank" "Overthink much? Sex is just sex" yelled the voices from the peanut gallery. Could it be that we as Australians reject intellectual critique as a matter of national culture? We endlessly criticise Americans for their ignorance but we refuse to see merit in Australia's own brilliant minds. Are we the idiot population we see in others? So here's to doing something smart today!(or at least not wearing blue singlets anymore, its not the 90's)

Robo-democracy

This week John McCain turned a new page in his campaign. When it seemed as if he wouldn't be able to go any lower; he started the robocalls. What this consists of is a recording that is programmed into a callbank that dials numbers and plays this recording. McCain's recording is short and sweet, warning voters that Barack Obama is closely linked with domestic terrorists that have killed Americans. The ultimate irony in this hideous twist is that is the exact technique of voter manipulation that caused George Bush to pull ahead of John McCain in the South Carolina primary in 2000. What did bush's robots have to say? Just that McCain may have had an illegitimate child with a black women. At the time McCain called them "hate calls" and rightly so. Is this the future of democracy? Manipulating the easy prey amongst the electorate? This is the most dangerous form of campaigning because it demonstrates absolute disdain for the processes of democracy and for the electorate who participate in those processes. Today however is not a sad day for democracy because as successful as the campaign was in 2000 it will be a failure in 2008 because all but a very small minority know Barack Obama well enough to know that hes not as John McCain portrays him and this is reflected upon McCain. Thanks Internet for saving democracy!

My life thus far...

A very dear friend once told me, upon hearing my story, that I was of the Bedouin people, a man with no home; a danger both unto myself and others. Until that day I had never rationalized my position in such a way. I had never considered the idea that not being fixed to one city to one country gave me a power others don't have; a life with less to lose. This is how my life has been; I have no family home to reminisce, no high school sweetheart, no lifelong friends. This friend’s observation was an epiphany for me. suddenly I realised why peoples trials and tribulations seemed trivial, why I couldn’t understand how people felt trapped in their own lives and why I just don’t seem to worry as much as everyone around me. The reason I decided to start writing this blog is because today I realised that friend was both empowering me and warning me. The Bedouin life is a life lived alone, a life without the kinds of relationships that typify normalcy. Knowing this I wouldn't trade the Bedouin life for any other. Perhaps you too are a Bedouin.