SNR - Simply not right. What you ask? A bunch of things about our way of life. The time we spend chasing the next promotion so we can get to our next purchase. The time we spend obsessing over our child's grades. The time we lose squabbling over ideology and criticism (like the one here).
It is also called Signal-to-Noise Ratio. A fancy term to define true worth or value of all the data compared to the actual amount of data available. Also signal-to-noise ratio is sometimes used informally to refer to the ratio of useful information to false or irrelevant data in a conversation or exchange.
All this to highlight that we as a species have not really obtained more intellect over time since that is a function of the capacity of humankind to develop a part of its anatomy but rather have seen more irrelevant data being generated by a lot of sources that previously did not exist.
For starters there are more of us now and by the simple bell curve theory we generate more useless information from these individuals (like how I took a bath in my toilet to cooking with goat testicles to the latest Kardashian happenings) than what may be ultimately beneficial for mankind. Or to the unkind woman as well.
There are more devices and channels through which to get this nonsense out into the atmosphere and that has contributed vastly, even faster than global warming by farting cows and errant automobiles. The idea of global warming itself may be baloney, another new study suggests.
So while we spend our time to discover what is really true we are faced with more questions that were posed by more preachers and teachers and not enough to simply be..to reflect to laze or to slumber in that warm duvet.
A recent reading of a few tomes by one Mr. Hodgkinson and erstwhile author Jerome Klapka Jerome as well as some old insights from Pelham G. Wodehouse have also helped bring sanity back in my life..
Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...
The insane still outnumber you by a few billions, but what the heck...
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