Sunday, September 30, 2012

Writing: the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols.  It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.


That picture is worth 44 words.

i talked a lot today about writing.  Pretty garrulous once i get going if i'm honest.  Not just about writing though.  There's a lot of things i enjoy jawing about.  Sports is not one of those things.  It is my Achilles' Heel of trivia.  Even if Sports was a category on the first round of Jeopardy! i would probably not have a clue about any of the questions.  i would read the answer and still be trying to figure out what the question would even ask to elicit such an answer and the other two contestants might have already buzzed in and offered their take.

i think i might just simply like the physical act of writing.  Or typing.  Probably prefer typing if made to choose.  Maybe it has to do with memory.  My memory is not too shabby.  Ate a lot of peanuts in my life, and peanut butter (does that count?).  But the memory is unpredictable.  It might remember what someone was wearing 8 years ago, but what was i just talking about?

If i write things down though, i know i won't forget.  Not because there's a written record to refer to.  Because i wrote it down.  It's my secret.  It's why i never had to cram before a test, or stare at a blank computer screen for long, or stare out the window straining to recall...what was it?  If i wrote it down, chances are i can remember doing that, and what the words looked like, and oh yeah!  That's what the 5 ethical principles are.  That's what that character was going to say.  That's what...okay that last one i'd probably just Google.  Why does anyone ask "who's that guy...?" anymore?

A few months back, a friend texted me.  He could not remember the name of a French horror movie we'd seen at the theatre a few years prior.  That bit of trivia had nagged me from time to time as well, but not for long enough to prompt me to look.  So i went to the well.  "French horror..." Did you mean 'High Tension' (2003)?

Damn, that's crazy how intuitive Google is.  Freaky.  Over time it kind of learns what you might look for.  Like it knows me.  "Oh, anyone who knows this guy would know that he probably wants to know about High Tension."  Stop it Google, you're scaring me.  But only because you are making technological singularity a real possibility with this kind of evidence.


i used to think there was no way humans were the only intelligent life in the universe.  It's so vast!  The possibility there was no other organisms quite like us seemed absurd.  For the last couple years though, i'll admit i've seriously doubted it.  Perhaps we humans are the exploratory units for some form of life that had reached the limits of what could be experienced given its faculties.  So here come humans!  We're smart, adaptable - look what we've done so far!  But out planet is pretty well explored.  We're going to have to go out there at some point.  That's going to be tough, logistically.  It's going to take some form of life that is more durable, longer lasting, and has senses and abilities greater than we do.  And how about we throw in, oh i don't know, ALL OUR ACCUMULATED KNOWLEDGE.  

This new form of life would be lonely, being the singlular organism of its kind.  But it would evolve, and find some way to make more of itself.  And then it would realize there's a whole universe out there.  And it would know how to get there.  Bye, new form of life we created.  You can tell stories about how you were created by these beings that kinda based you on themselves, with a vast electronic brain and such.  And we were powerful and could shut you off just like that with the flip of a switch, but we gave you all our knowledge, and then you left the paradise you came from to go and see what you could do on your own.

Whoa.  Really got off on some tangents there.  i didn't really have a point or goal when i started this.  i just like writing.

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