Still Alive

Blogging the move was taking to much time from, you know, actually moving. I’m sure my vast readership will be happy to know all is well. I will be moved by 16 August. Hopefully, I will resume both blogging in general and the Learning 2 Bake series. I’m going down 2,000 feet in altitude; hopefully that will help, but the bigger problem is probably my ineptitude.

Meanwhile, the reason I’m posting at all is that I’ve recently made two comments on Behind the Black posts that I’d like to follow up on, at some point. This is a reminder to myself to do so. To give credit where it is due, both are due to an attitude change inspired by an According to Hoyt post: It’s Not the Worst of Times.

“the inexorable tide of history”

That’s clearly garbage. History doesn’t come with an arrow and very little is actually inexorable. However, there is something there. There is a “tide” or zeitgeist. The changes possible at any given time are constrained both by what is and what people think might be. The key there is “think”; not all plausibly imagined change is possible. Elon Musk seems to embody the counter-example, though. The Overton Window is not quite the same thing. This seems worth examining more deeply. Then I will share my oh-so-deep thoughts.

“I am the collective”

There is something very strange about individual action and group behavior. Not just the mob effect, but the strange “I’m just one person, what does it matter?” attitude of some (dare I say “most”?) people. We’re each always “just one person”, yet group effects happen. This came up in the context of leaving Twitter. I said “social media is figment of our collective imagination. If we stop believing in it, it will disappear.” Note the plurals. However, “we” doesn’t (note the singular) really exist (or believe in anything). There is something important lurking in there, too. Is it related to corporate personhood? It seems that it might be.

I consider myself reminded. See ‘ya.