On Asymmetry and Morality

Having been brought up in a conservative society,I have never suffered from a dearth of restrictions. I resisted many of them as usual-swore that I would never abide by them - and now having reached man's estate so to speak, I eke out my livelihood exacting vengeance by imposing the very same restrictions on the younger generation!

What I am trying to say is that we all recognize the value of various injunctions that our parents have imposed on us as we grow up. Most of them have to do with the upholding of morality. Stealing is bad so "thou shalt not steal". Taking a step back, we recognize that this morality is needed for preserving order in society. Without morality, the society would deteriorate to some version of chaos da da da bla bla bla.. So morality tells me what is good and what is bad. But who gets to decide on what is right and wrong? It is a good coincidence that for the most part, the world seems to be in concurrence with their views about what constitutes morality - notwithstanding the fact that morality is still geographical and governed by various demographic factors which accounts for most of the conflicts in the world.

But the interesting thing for me here is to observe the polarizing effect morality has on the world. It divides the whole world into the protagonists and the dissidents. Into the right and the wrong. Into good and bad people. Hence morality seems to become the bedrock on which all our notion of asymmetry of human beings rests. And if we go back to the fact that morality is very much based on perception, it is a relief that we all think alike for the most part! So agreement about what constitutes morality seems to be one place where commonality is good and uniqueness bad. Interesting huh?

Knowledge Explosion & Internet fatigue

It is nice that the internet and the search technology is bringing us access to a fantastic amount of information. I was just pondering over the effects this seeming explosion of knowledge had - on me and a few people around me. Here are a few random observations in no specific order:

The internet puts us in touch with the cognoscenti in extremely narrow fields of specialization. As Anderson argues in his book "The Long Tail", there is tons of stuff in the fringes of knowledge and human understanding, that has suddenly become part of mainstream culture. We are no longer pursuing popular fads but are instead trying to identify the specific categories/sub-categories that align with our personality.

Our tastes and inclinations seem to have become very specific. At one time for instance, I just wanted a bike. Now I know that I need an all terrain bike which has full suspension, bike shoe friendly pedals and shimono speed shifters. This ability to sift through information and identify what exactly we need, gives us an amazing amount of empowerment. It also helps us identify what we want with increased precision. My son would (and should) no longer be content being a "run of the mill" engineer or a doctor. He should identify the exact thing that is interesting him. I see this happening increasingly around me when i talk to the kids around me.

People suddenly find themselves increasingly in touch with the rich and the famous. After all, anyone must be "google"able to even be reckoned as important. No more celebrities in their ivory towers now! Be it Obama, Osama or the Big B - they all beckon to us from across the wires using their blogs, forums, facebook, twitter and the like.

People seem to consider their ability to google (or bing) for information to be directly proportional to their mental faculties. There is no need anymore to analyze the information obtained and dissect the knowledge. Instead, the need of the hour seems to be to just quote it. In fact, if you want to say anything important at all you better put it down on the internet or else you run the risk of being out-googled and out-quoted. In short people have become search engines :P

This is all truly democratic. But sometimes I get tired of all this stuff. I don't want to know anything more. I just want to chill and relax! Maybe fix myself a drink or read a PG Wodehouse. I get tired of being constantly challenged by some pseudo novice who has the insouciance to suppose that he can sabotage my bright idea by being the mouth piece of someone else who might have at some time in the past, refuted, a possibly similar idea somewhere in the dark recesses of the internet! Is this a sign of internet fatigue? Speaking of which let me just try googling for internet fatigue and see what I can come up with.. sigh!