Sadly, today, at your hypothetical cocktail party, most of your guests will be found, shortly after arrival, in some corner staring at their phone, thus limiting interactions with others. Some might argue that they are interacting on their phones, but I would respond that doom-scrolling is not interacting.
I've noticed the "palm vortex effect," too. A while back, at an airport bar, Dear Wife and I watched as two young, well-dressed, attractive professionals, male and female, sat five feet from each other and failed to make eye-contact for the entire duration of their stay. Both had their heads in their phones the whole time. Neither had wedding rings.
Of course, one or both of them might have been spoken for, in which case fair enough. But imagine such a scenario just one generation ago. Not even a friendly exchange? A harmless smile? Some basic, human interaction?
I imagined they were texting to their distant friends the whole time: "At the airport. Cute cute guy/gal at the bar. What to do?"
Thank you for validating my decision to be a hermit. My current physical exposure to the world is limited to the good folks at the local post office, the feed & farm store and the supermarket. That seems like enough. I might run into a neighbor once every couple of months, but I can handle it.
That part is. But it's more like I'm a well paid hermit who has to handle sales and marketing for my role as brand architect for a patio heating company. But I only have all of North America to look after. How hard could that be?
Were humans built for considering the amplitude of the numbers you quote? Are we jiggling the collective network like shaking a jar with two species of ants only to find chaos and destruction? Is it history that accelerates with all the interconnections or is it our demise? The current state is fun to consider and to debate, its possible ramifications not so. Yet, we forge on. Thank you.
One small quibble. If tea is the most popular drink in the world, after water, it is more probable that your readers are finishing their cup of tea rather than a coffee or glass of wine. That is, unless your readers are unusual in more ways than one.
Seriously, if each additional participant brings their own individual value, but they increase the potential value of every preceding person in the entire community, is it not possible that each individual with lower potential value decreases the potential of the entire community? If so, that would go a long way toward explaining the unearned wealth of a host of modern day internet influencers.
Asked another way, if that 1000th guest is a rino or libtard how does that influence the 999 possible new connections. I suppose we could hope that they are influenced positively rather than the other way around-- in spite of what our eyes and ears seem to be telling us.
...."the rise and fall of empires, the decay of their currencies......" "One would think that from such a small beginning we humans would have had a great start for learning how to appreciate our vast increases in quality of life. But nay, despite our technological growth, all we have proven are more sophisticated ways for empires to fall and currencies to decay! And no matter how smart and educated we common citizens become, we are still stupid and/or lazy enough to be overtaken and controlled by a smarter, more manipulative neighbor—our freely elected political representative.
Metcalf assumed that we'd ALL want to interact afresh each time a new node (nerd?) joins the circuit. Bad assumption based on real world experience. A significant number of "new" folk that I meet, especially at group gatherings, would not be worth reengaging just because some lady in Latvia gave birth this morning. Had Metcalf found a way to include dogs in his theory we might have something to talk about...
"Not one person in a hundred knows how to be silent and listen, no, nor even to conceive what such a thing means. Yet only then can you detect, beyond the fatuous clamour, the silence of which the universe is made."
Thank you for introducing me to Metcalf's scary law. Just this morning my wife and I were discussing why we found interacting with others less desirable than in the past. I attributed it to our ages; 71 and 78 years respectively.
You have thankfully given me another reason not to be part of the... "unfathomable waves of budding partnerships, lurking rivalries, nascent collaborations, and looming conflicts building on humanity’s horizon." and happy to be old.
The overall problem has been and continues to be regularly resolved by regular crust shifts. Read Earth's Shifting Crust by Charles Hapgood. Again, the crust shifts are caused by changes in above sea level ice levels, which in turn cause changes to the rotational dynamics of the planet; so we are not only proceeding towards a new crust shift, we are also soon to experience the collapse of the Greenland ice Cap, which will deliver ~6m sea level rise. That in turn will displace all the sea level city populations. The planet does a remarkably good job of reducing the population on a regular basis. Food for thought?
Joel the 'select tick boxes only offer "Like or Comments" sadly no negatives allowed .. but to "every season there is a reason as to all things under heaven" not sure what your reasoning was about today as its usually some rant about the impending damage of socialism or its ilk ..
But in a land of futbol fanatics the only thing of importance right now is not historical pudgy pudgy of govt. controls and mathematical options for calculating movement "Every minute... of every hour... of every day... unfathomable waves of budding partnerships, lurking rivalries, nascent collaborations, and looming conflicts are building on humanity’s horizon." This quote or idea sounds like it came right out of Engels/Marx humanity studies101 @ UCLA 1960's ? and sounds like a basis for why humans should pursue collective ideas about EVERYTHING including money and all things social or physical that human life is dependent on.. although you keep breathing the same air as the rest of us but just not as polluted 'yet' but give it lots of TIME and it'll find you or your descendants if you're lucky enough to have any .. as the examples and figures of world populations at different periods are like the ones being preached by the worlds financial wizards and designers who know less than you do .. so keep up with the examples of 'exponentials' as they continue to explode around you and discover the your favorite planet is LOSING population since just after millennial shift, which is gaining momentum rapidly as we have so many organisation now seeking to reduce our species invasive resistance to being herded into corrals of our own making .. yes the future for your dear ones looks great eh ? but yes no better than 15000k's to your west were our species stupidity is also trapped in these world wide exponential traps of counting & numbers .. do you actually trust the numbers these world wide liars spread to befuddle you? enjoy the winter there .. its a wet one on this side of the pacific pond and lets hope the plates we're all riding on don't suddenly decide to shift .. viva Venezuela ! which according to the earth scientist has moved several meters closer to Mexico & US .. so eventually they'll all get there but I wonder if trumpet man will be able to export them to somewhere?
Joel, You mentioned that you like old dusty books, and I just happened to stumble into this wonderful digital library of old dusty books that I want to share with you and your readers.
Con/nectivity, quantitative cheesing, to top the bread, neath the big top.
Go big, or go home, Dun/bar/rowed the big lie numbers by telling all & sundry the counterfeiting'd be made up on volume.
The stupidity is that too big, too many, is by definition disorganization & chaos ... & that certain classes of cyphers pull off the con, temporarily but continuously, that they have the abacus that organizes disorganization.
Terry Pratchett's version: “Chaos is found in greatest abundance wherever order is being sought. It always defeats order, because it is better organized.”
Sadly, today, at your hypothetical cocktail party, most of your guests will be found, shortly after arrival, in some corner staring at their phone, thus limiting interactions with others. Some might argue that they are interacting on their phones, but I would respond that doom-scrolling is not interacting.
I've noticed the "palm vortex effect," too. A while back, at an airport bar, Dear Wife and I watched as two young, well-dressed, attractive professionals, male and female, sat five feet from each other and failed to make eye-contact for the entire duration of their stay. Both had their heads in their phones the whole time. Neither had wedding rings.
Of course, one or both of them might have been spoken for, in which case fair enough. But imagine such a scenario just one generation ago. Not even a friendly exchange? A harmless smile? Some basic, human interaction?
I imagined they were texting to their distant friends the whole time: "At the airport. Cute cute guy/gal at the bar. What to do?"
They were texting each other!
Thank you for validating my decision to be a hermit. My current physical exposure to the world is limited to the good folks at the local post office, the feed & farm store and the supermarket. That seems like enough. I might run into a neighbor once every couple of months, but I can handle it.
Sounds peaceful!
That part is. But it's more like I'm a well paid hermit who has to handle sales and marketing for my role as brand architect for a patio heating company. But I only have all of North America to look after. How hard could that be?
Were humans built for considering the amplitude of the numbers you quote? Are we jiggling the collective network like shaking a jar with two species of ants only to find chaos and destruction? Is it history that accelerates with all the interconnections or is it our demise? The current state is fun to consider and to debate, its possible ramifications not so. Yet, we forge on. Thank you.
Time to dust off "Anything Goes" while contemplating permutations, combinations, and the quantum field. My infinity is bigger than yours...
One small quibble. If tea is the most popular drink in the world, after water, it is more probable that your readers are finishing their cup of tea rather than a coffee or glass of wine. That is, unless your readers are unusual in more ways than one.
Seriously, if each additional participant brings their own individual value, but they increase the potential value of every preceding person in the entire community, is it not possible that each individual with lower potential value decreases the potential of the entire community? If so, that would go a long way toward explaining the unearned wealth of a host of modern day internet influencers.
Asked another way, if that 1000th guest is a rino or libtard how does that influence the 999 possible new connections. I suppose we could hope that they are influenced positively rather than the other way around-- in spite of what our eyes and ears seem to be telling us.
...."the rise and fall of empires, the decay of their currencies......" "One would think that from such a small beginning we humans would have had a great start for learning how to appreciate our vast increases in quality of life. But nay, despite our technological growth, all we have proven are more sophisticated ways for empires to fall and currencies to decay! And no matter how smart and educated we common citizens become, we are still stupid and/or lazy enough to be overtaken and controlled by a smarter, more manipulative neighbor—our freely elected political representative.
Metcalf assumed that we'd ALL want to interact afresh each time a new node (nerd?) joins the circuit. Bad assumption based on real world experience. A significant number of "new" folk that I meet, especially at group gatherings, would not be worth reengaging just because some lady in Latvia gave birth this morning. Had Metcalf found a way to include dogs in his theory we might have something to talk about...
"Not one person in a hundred knows how to be silent and listen, no, nor even to conceive what such a thing means. Yet only then can you detect, beyond the fatuous clamour, the silence of which the universe is made."
- Samuel Beckett
I find myself retreating into an inner consciousness. What you describe as a giant cocktail party is a horror show to me.
Receding into inner consciousness might be expanding into the discriminating essence of the Universe, the place of eternal intelligence, truth.
Obviously, mass hysteria does not work.
Thank you for introducing me to Metcalf's scary law. Just this morning my wife and I were discussing why we found interacting with others less desirable than in the past. I attributed it to our ages; 71 and 78 years respectively.
You have thankfully given me another reason not to be part of the... "unfathomable waves of budding partnerships, lurking rivalries, nascent collaborations, and looming conflicts building on humanity’s horizon." and happy to be old.
The overall problem has been and continues to be regularly resolved by regular crust shifts. Read Earth's Shifting Crust by Charles Hapgood. Again, the crust shifts are caused by changes in above sea level ice levels, which in turn cause changes to the rotational dynamics of the planet; so we are not only proceeding towards a new crust shift, we are also soon to experience the collapse of the Greenland ice Cap, which will deliver ~6m sea level rise. That in turn will displace all the sea level city populations. The planet does a remarkably good job of reducing the population on a regular basis. Food for thought?
Joel the 'select tick boxes only offer "Like or Comments" sadly no negatives allowed .. but to "every season there is a reason as to all things under heaven" not sure what your reasoning was about today as its usually some rant about the impending damage of socialism or its ilk ..
But in a land of futbol fanatics the only thing of importance right now is not historical pudgy pudgy of govt. controls and mathematical options for calculating movement "Every minute... of every hour... of every day... unfathomable waves of budding partnerships, lurking rivalries, nascent collaborations, and looming conflicts are building on humanity’s horizon." This quote or idea sounds like it came right out of Engels/Marx humanity studies101 @ UCLA 1960's ? and sounds like a basis for why humans should pursue collective ideas about EVERYTHING including money and all things social or physical that human life is dependent on.. although you keep breathing the same air as the rest of us but just not as polluted 'yet' but give it lots of TIME and it'll find you or your descendants if you're lucky enough to have any .. as the examples and figures of world populations at different periods are like the ones being preached by the worlds financial wizards and designers who know less than you do .. so keep up with the examples of 'exponentials' as they continue to explode around you and discover the your favorite planet is LOSING population since just after millennial shift, which is gaining momentum rapidly as we have so many organisation now seeking to reduce our species invasive resistance to being herded into corrals of our own making .. yes the future for your dear ones looks great eh ? but yes no better than 15000k's to your west were our species stupidity is also trapped in these world wide exponential traps of counting & numbers .. do you actually trust the numbers these world wide liars spread to befuddle you? enjoy the winter there .. its a wet one on this side of the pacific pond and lets hope the plates we're all riding on don't suddenly decide to shift .. viva Venezuela ! which according to the earth scientist has moved several meters closer to Mexico & US .. so eventually they'll all get there but I wonder if trumpet man will be able to export them to somewhere?
Joel, You mentioned that you like old dusty books, and I just happened to stumble into this wonderful digital library of old dusty books that I want to share with you and your readers.
https://independent.academia.edu/DeepAncientThought
Thanks to Alexander T H E L I B R A R Y C A T O F : The New Alexandria Library of Texas
He sounds like a very cool cat.
I'm confident that you and other readers here will find this library as fascinating as I did.
There is more than enough old reading material there for more than 10 or 100 life times.
Regarding the population history of the Earth, you got me going down that road to dig this up.
https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-population-by-year/
https://www.prb.org/news/how-many-people-have-ever-lived-on-earth/
Here is where that 500 million population figure pops up again after the Georgia Guide Stones.
https://medium.com/@NoahFernandez/why-maintaining-a-global-population-under-500-million-is-key-to-a-sustainable-future-fdfb260f692d
Sounds like more Eugenics in disguise, or maybe there are on to something?
Notice that the world population was 500 million around the year 1600 right after the Black Plague killed 50% of the population off.
Also notice that the current world population and birth rate trend is dropping. Interesting eh?
It looks to me like 'over population' is no more of a problem than 'climate change'?
Con/nectivity, quantitative cheesing, to top the bread, neath the big top.
Go big, or go home, Dun/bar/rowed the big lie numbers by telling all & sundry the counterfeiting'd be made up on volume.
The stupidity is that too big, too many, is by definition disorganization & chaos ... & that certain classes of cyphers pull off the con, temporarily but continuously, that they have the abacus that organizes disorganization.
Terry Pratchett's version: “Chaos is found in greatest abundance wherever order is being sought. It always defeats order, because it is better organized.”