value of excitement
another disconnected post, and some lightning pipes.
as the web is evolving towards a more audiovisual kind of content, versus text, i think we are beginning to witness our biases online too and the consequent popularity of topics. some examples:
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Jason Clay: How big brands can help save biodiversity, one of the most interesting talks i’ve heard in a long time. unfortunately, he is old, fat, and not particularly attractive or good looking. he is, however, demonstrating a viable, practical way of fixing today’s society and demonstrating results. no ovations, he is a boring speaker;
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Sebastian Seung: I am my connectome despite the interesting ideas, i couldn’t get past the fact that he is incredibly annoying. this made me reject his ideas, even though a wonderful metaphor is presented: the brain as the mountain, the mind as the river, and how they shape each other in different conditions;
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Slavoj Zizek – Examined Life, slavoj zizek has quickly become an internet favorite, mostly because of the showmanship involved. his ideas, many times, are empty and vague, but most of the time, very strong critiques of modern society. i think that part of the enchantment is his lisp, his exotic waving of hands and accent, which adds authenticity to it.
books have a very strong advantage versus multimedia. they don’t test any of our biological biases towards attractiveness, intonation, etc. they don’t allow us to be affected by physical biases. in fact, you can write signing as your opposite gender. it won’t make much of a difference if you’re talented enough.
the internet used to be a bit like this. it was text, a lot of it, that you had to parse through to get meaning. nowadays, we’re slowly moving towards a more audiovisual knowledge transmission system. but this is the very system being exploited by marketing, and a very sub-optimal way of transmitting information.
but this means that in order to be properly listened to online, we are increasingly demanded of more showmanship. it is no longer sufficient to have a good idea. you also have to be a good seller of that idea. many other industries went through this process, it was just a matter of time until it caught up with the internet. now, why should we be listened to anyway? that’s for a later post. i don’t really think we should at all, we should be heard.