--Pre Labor Day passing thoughts. Unless you are Iggy Pop, its very difficult to have the mojo to tour as a punk rocker over the age of 55. Case in point, the seminal Los Angeles hybrid punk band "X" making their first St. Louis appearance of this millenia. They lacked "Zoom" both literally and figuratively. (Billy Zoom has bladder cancer:-(). The pre-party, which consisted of brief stops at the Earthbound and Perennial Artisan breweries (and sweet potato waffles) likely had more punch than X's post-party. But I digress.
--Post Labor Day convergences: Planet Money, Hegel, St. Anselm, and The Unwritten. First, Planet Money re-examined the 1907 study by the British Polymath Francis Galton describing the wisdom of the masses in the specific context guessing the weight of an ox. In short, if you take the average of a large enough sample size of ordinary people guessing the weight of a cow at a fair, you will find the masses can come within a one percent deviation from the actual weight of the beast. Galton's actual study, called "The Wisdom of Crowds," can be found here. The staff of Planet Money recreated the study, with similar surprising results here. In the non-scientific poll conducted by the Planet Money team, the average of the guesses of the weight of the cow from the internet sample of non-experts was actually more accurate than the average weight of the guesses from the sample which identified themselves as "experts."
The reason for the wisdom of the masses in this setting may be that every person's guess is contributing some new little piece of information. Everybody is different and brings a somewhat unique perspective to the cows weight. Some people, for example, will guess low based upon their own experiences. Some will guess high. But the average or summation of all the guesses results in a surprisingly accurate version of reality. The same concept applies to the stock market, crowd sourcing, and in the world of the internet, probably just about everything. The new wisdom of the human crowd, writ large into the world wide network could be the new meta-reality.
St. Anselm spoke of "a consciousness behind the world and the word, greater than both."
Hegel thought of "the mind so vast it has no boundary, and therefore bleeds perforce into our own."
Its coming. The god network. I'm not sure I can articulate it yet. I'm not sure anyone can. The latter half of this century will belong to China. Are they ready for it? Is humanity? No more American rugged idealism of the individual. No more Henry David Thoreau alone in his cabin in the woods. Its a new century of interconnections. More than the sum of individuals. The vast anthill of a new powerful terrifying and infinite god.
More Post Labor Day Convergences: Birdman, at least for the day, is my new favorite movie of all time, clearly surpassing Wings of Desire. Yes, I know, must have a thing for wings in my movies. Wow is all I can say to Birdman. I'll leave you with my favorite quote from the movie:
Sam: I want to ask another question.
Mike Shiner: You already did.
Sam: One more.
Mike Shiner: Go ahead.
Sam: If you weren't afraid, what would you want to do to me?
Mike Shiner: I'd pull your eyes out of your head...
Sam: That's sweet.
Mike Shiner: ...and put them in my own skull, and look around, so I could see the street the way I used to when I was your age.
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