The Primal Forces Of Nature

I was reminded today of one of the most famous scenes from the movie Network, released in 1976. Which, according to TVTropes, is:

Network is a 1976 American film, written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet, that might just scare the living daylights out of you and make you stare at a wall for ten minutes. Network is a harsh, satirical critique of (among other things) television and the short-attention-span culture over which it presides, the media in general for rushing to serve the Lowest Common Denominator, the conglomerates who've homogenized American entertainment, and the executives who treat the nightly news as a profit center instead of a public service. It won four Academy Awards*, was added to the Library of Congress in 2000, and in 2007 was chosen by the American Film Institute as the 64th greatest American film ever made.

This is the scene.

While I disagree with the Chairman's overall worldview, being that the corporatization of the world is right, just, and inevitable, he is correct in one major item.

There are no Nations, there are no Peoples . . . there is only one holisitic system of systems.

The world is increasingly complex. Inconsequential decisions made at small levels can have large, unforseen or unpredictable consequences at higher levels - or in parallel structures. We occupy small local systems, which interact in a system-of-systems way with those around it, which interact with the systems around them, which interact - you get the idea. As the systems become ever-more connected, it is harder and harder to predict follow-on effects.

I think that the manifestation of conspiracy theories is an outgrowth of this. People attempt to fit the events in the world into an orderly, narrative framework - to make things predictable, to make things make sense. Unfortunately, the world may be beyond making sense of, and it is best just to ride the wave.

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The Beginning

What Is Synthetic Outlook?

I thought I needed a place to set down my thoughts and ideas, to provide room for new ones, and to expose them to comment in order to refine them.

What Does The Name Mean?
"Synthetic" could refer to any human-created thing, composed of materials not found in nature. Or it could refer to the process of reconciling two competing ideas (thesis/anti-thesis) to create a new unified whole. "Outlook" could be a place from which to view the upcoming future. Or it could be a predictive process, attempting to account for various competing ideas to create a coherent picture.

So "Synthetic Outlook" could be an analysis of the human-created future. Or many other things...

What Do You Believe?
I believe that the world is comprised of systems, and that these systems sometimes interact in strange and unpredictable ways. I believe that humans can design or harness these systems to our benefit. I believe that with the right information, or enough information, we can make good decisions about the future course of the world.

I believe that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

What Are You Interested In?
I'm interested in how humans interact with our constructed environment. I'm interested in how humans inflict their decisions on each other. I'm interested in human expression, and how we relate to each other, and how we interact with those who have come before, and those who will come after. I'm interested in the stories we tell about ourselves, and how those stories reflect who we think we are.

Who Are You?
I'm a graduate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. I'm an officer and  civil engineer in the Civil Engineer Corps of the United States Navy. I'm a world traveler. I'm a voracious reader. I'm a contributor to the group-blog/shared space of MetaFilter.

I am someone who is interested in where we are going, and how we are going to get there.

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0