James Gleick “The Information” chapter 8
***
If a tree falls down in the woods,
But there is no one in the woods,
No ear for miles to receive the crash –
– does it make a sound?
Of course not.
Haven't you heard this riddle since grade school?
There must be an ear present to interpret a disturbance in the air
as sound.
Of course the tree disturbs the air.
But sound is a gift for conscious beings.
Ones with ... eardrums.
School comes a little harder
than just happening to hear
what just happened to happen
That is why we are told to do. (midterms)
We procrastinate and slack
but furrow our brows
through our opportunities to process the trees crashing down in the woods.
Can you picture – our professors running round with chainsaws?
Time to nail down my process.
Or at least it was, a day and a half and two cups of coffee ago.
I am learning my own "language"
One that translates the beeps into meaning.
Beth-meaning.
But there is no one in the woods,
No ear for miles to receive the crash –
– does it make a sound?
Of course not.
Haven't you heard this riddle since grade school?
There must be an ear present to interpret a disturbance in the air
as sound.
Of course the tree disturbs the air.
But sound is a gift for conscious beings.
Ones with ... eardrums.
School comes a little harder
than just happening to hear
what just happened to happen
That is why we are told to do. (midterms)
We procrastinate and slack
but furrow our brows
through our opportunities to process the trees crashing down in the woods.
Can you picture – our professors running round with chainsaws?
Time to nail down my process.
Or at least it was, a day and a half and two cups of coffee ago.
I am learning my own "language"
One that translates the beeps into meaning.
Beth-meaning.
***
"There were 'beep beeps' but that was all, no information. The moment one transforms that set of signals into other signals our brain can make an understanding of, then information is born – it's not in the beeps" (Gleick 248).
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