Joe Rogan and Debra Soh were recently engaged in a lengthy discussion (about several topics, but also in particular) about differences between mainstream media and non-mainstream media — it was a recurring topic throughout the episode, and I recommend to consume the full podcast before reading my own take on it (see also “Are People… Continue reading What’s the Difference (Between Mainstream Media and Echo Chambers)?
Tag: information
Everything is Special, Nothing is General (Knowledge)
I’m guessing that sounds sort of extreme … yet I am repeatedly led to this belief. I don’t believe in such a crass statement as “everything is special, nothing is general“, but I do notice something about the way other people believe to know something about which they obviously have little or no knowledge whatsoever.… Continue reading Everything is Special, Nothing is General (Knowledge)
Knowing Ignorance
Knowledge and ignorance are closely related concepts. One thing I’ve found puzzling for many years already is to what degree awareness is also involved. In my opinion, it seems unfathomable how anyone could know something and at the same time pretend to not know it. Yet followers of Freud apparently consider this to be so… Continue reading Knowing Ignorance
About: Technological Limitations of the Publishing Model as an Information and Communications Technology
I am currently on what has gradually become an annual retreat with a now nearly life-long debating friend in which we spar over various topics for small bouts that last ranging amounts of time, from two minutes to two hours to two years and sometimes even beyond that. Yesterday we engaged in such a bout… Continue reading About: Technological Limitations of the Publishing Model as an Information and Communications Technology
Mainstream and / or Main Stream?
Modern English and Modern German are closely related languages. Generally, when linguists say something like this, it mainly means something like “there once existed another language which was neither Modern English nor Modern German, yet which is common ancestor of both languages”. Of course something as complex as a language can hardly be described in… Continue reading Mainstream and / or Main Stream?
Please Don’t Make Me Think
Thinking is hard. It’s much easier to just let someone tell you a story and when you hear the same old story over and over again, then it will probably begin to ring true. This is neither a new insight nor is it rocket science — it’s something a scientist from a long time ago… Continue reading Please Don’t Make Me Think
Consumer Culture Technology, Cancel Culture Technology & Other Cultural Technologies (?)
It is now approaching two decades since the company now known as Alphabet started its attack against rational media [1], and at the same time started promoting its own brand names (such as Google). Other companies in the irrational media space have likewise fed mainstream consumers with similar myths regarding their own algorithms. All of… Continue reading Consumer Culture Technology, Cancel Culture Technology & Other Cultural Technologies (?)
The further on I go, the less I know
Wittgenstein had a saying about “die Grenzen meiner Sprache”, namely that these correspond to “die Grenzen meiner Welt”. [1] In my not-so humble opinion, this quote misses something very fundamental about language: that it does not exist in any “particular individual” (see also the previous post, “Self Mythology“). Language is a technology that exists between… Continue reading The further on I go, the less I know
Manufacturing Consent
Today I talked a friend of mine into watching one of Noam Chomsky’s documentary films (in this case “Requiem for an American Dream”). I have to say that Chomsky’s ideas have influenced my thinking far more than anything I ever thought would influence my thinking … and I also feel there is something unsettling about… Continue reading Manufacturing Consent
Literacy Study: The smug smile
I have been puzzling about this topic quite a bit — while the idea first came to me gradually, then in spurts, in the end what puzzled me most was how to frame it. There are probably innumerable approaches I could take — for example, how people sometimes talk about “reading a room”, “reading a… Continue reading Literacy Study: The smug smile
