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The Sheeple Meme

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The Sheeple Meme
by Marc Friedlander

There is a "meme" or a "trope" (or whatever the hell it's called), of mindless sheeple with their eyes glued to their devices while ignoring their spouses and children, and blindly walking off cliffs or into fountains at malls.

It is not the truth.

Actually, I hate the term "sheeple". I'll stop using it once I finish this ramble but I need it temporarily.

So, let's examine this meme and decide if it's real.
Certainly, if you go into public places today, or walk into any room of people, many or most will be engaged with their phones.

What they are doing - and I know you know this but it needs to be said - is staying connected with their entire system of friends and relationships. They are finding out what has happened in the world in the last few hours and seconds. They are writing what is in their minds at the time (like I am doing now). They are looking at funny jokes that make them laugh, and are discovering amazing facts about our world and our universe. They are doing things that were unimaginable, very recently.

I don't say it's okay to ignore the world in front of you. Talk to the people who are with you. And listen to them too. Put the phone down. It's a serious matter. I cannot and will not say anything of consequence to a person if they are engaged with their phone.

And let's be cautious about it. Don't post while driving or even walking (and I'm not, at the moment). You may have urgent business to attend to. Put the phone down NOW.

There is certainly inappropriate phone fixation, but I resent the ubiquitous characterization of smart phone users as zombies, stupidly walking into a chasm, thumbs tapping away.

You can easily get the impression that opera is a bunch of fat people screaming, or that The Last Supper is a hunk of colored plaster. It's easy to get those impressions, if you have no idea what you are looking at.

But we DO know. We're NOT mindlessly tapping our thumbs. We are participating in a huge - make that GLOBAL - community that didn't exist for us before. Why pretend otherwise?

A much smaller community DID exist. These were our immediate relationships and then our outer circles. People move away. Those who were once dear to us became remote. Perhaps, after far too long, we'd finally bother to call and maybe have a great heart-to-heart but just as likely, a short, superficial, and awkward conversation.

We always knew they were there all along, but we couldn't easily converse with them - and their own circles of friends, any time of the day or night, whenever the thought would strike us. We might say, oh yeah, I got to give David Russ a call. Haven't talked with him for a long time. Then the thought would pass. So many things to keep track of. Another long time would elapse.

Now I hear from and about David Russ on a daily basis.

Unoccupied moments, long queues, waits for tables - they are all excellent opportunities. Did you do anything more productive at such times before?

It's all different now. Everything is different now.



**************************************************************


The meme I resent and want to overthrow, is the one that suggests people engaged with their phones are stupid. Just show them a cat video and they'll be occupied for hours. (I admit I do like them).

The fact of the matter is, people (all people) are amazingly intelligent and brilliant creatures. Some more than others to be sure. Some individuals have specific difficulties, and some are endowed with genius. But every last person on this world with a functioning brain is a genius, compared with any other species.



We have super powers - although we don't think of them that way.

Are you aware that we all have amazing super powers?

What do you think it takes, to have language?

I can have a complex, absurd, abstract thought and I can instantly communicate that thought to you. And right through the air. And then you can do the same back at me. Practically every single thing you say in your life is an unique sequence of phonemes issuing from your mouth, never in history uttered before, never in the future to be uttered again, representing an idea that just formed in your mind this instant.

You effortlessly spoke it to me. And I effortlessly (or maybe with some effort) understood it.

It's a form of telepathy. Well, we do have to move our mouths. Other than that there is zero difference.



**************************************************************



Let's talk about supercomputers. You know what they are next to a human brain? Complete and utter morons. You know this when you call for customer service, and you can only choose options 1, 2, 3, or 4. That's because the computer's programming will only allow it to respond to 1, 2, 3, or 4. Hopefully, 4 will be TALK TO AN AGENT. The LEAST intelligent agent you can get is a million times smarter than the SMARTEST computer. The agent will understand your issue whatever it is (might take some persistence) or get you to somebody that does. A computer is a machine invented and programmed by, humans. If it can do a billion calculations per second, then it can do just fine with calculations. But give it a calculation outside its domain, or a word problem, or give it a question about history, art, or general knowledge. You will get zilcho out of your so called supercomputer.

Sure, these things can also be programmed. But then see if it can learn to play the piano, make up a joke, or understand the difference between: "I'm not tired" and "I'm not that tired".

Humans are genetically empowered to learn to do anything.

Anything.

We admire the comic super beings, yet we know they can't and don't exist. At the same time, we ourselves are super beings and we characterize ourselves as "sheeple".

Once, our super brains had too few external connections to keep us operating at our genetically endowed bandwidth. Not enough stimulation. We gotta keep our brains engaged. Once, a 10 minute wait in line or at a table in a restaurant was an endlessly boring enterprise. Now it's a welcome opportunity to learn, to connect, to express, to create.

You could also choose to talk to somebody, or tap your foot if you want to. That hasn't changed.


Put down your phone while driving or walking around. Other than that, there's no going back to what we were: underutilized superbeings with too few external connections, operating at a far too low a bandwidth to keep our super brains functioning at optimal levels.

If you think that what I've written is all wrong, you may develop an urge to contradict me. Feel free. I want to hear from you. Think up a response and post it right here. You will only prove my point.

For Sheeple (and mere computers), such a thing would be impossible.
 
The Sheeple Meme
by Marc Friedlander

. . . You will only prove my point.

.

That's presumptuous of you.

But I will agree with you: things are different now. Much better, and much worse.
Unless, of course, one defines all change as better. In which case . . .
 
That's presumptuous of you.

But I will agree with you: things are different now. Much better, and much worse.
Unless, of course, one defines all change as better. In which case . . .
Hey Peder - thank you for reading and for your comment.
I remember a few exchanges we had a long time ago.
You had an avatar of kind of a space helmet or test pilot? That's what it looked like to me.

So, the line you quoted, is it really presumptuous - or more like a logical tautology?
It certainly is presumptuous, out of context. Coupled with the following (and final) line,

"For Sheeple (and mere computers), such a thing would be impossible."

I think the intent becomes clearer. Maybe not. Again, thanks for the comment.
 
Hey Peder - thank you for reading and for your comment.
I remember a few exchanges we had a long time ago.
You had an avatar of kind of a space helmet or test pilot? That's what it looked like to me.

So, the line you quoted, is it really presumptuous - or more like a logical tautology?
It certainly is presumptuous, out of context. Coupled with the following (and final) line,

"For Sheeple (and mere computers), such a thing would be impossible."

I think the intent becomes clearer. Maybe not. Again, thanks for the comment.

That picture of me was confusing and raised questions at the time. Actually I was just wearing an ordinary fedora pushed back on my head.
I'm a retired computer engineer by trade, so comments about supercomputers perk me up.
I'm still not quite sure which point of yours I'm proving by responding to you: 1) that I am a sheeple, by being fixated on my computer and responding, or 2) that I am not a sheeple because sheeple don't respond.
Cheers
One sheep to another:confused:
 
That picture of me was confusing and raised questions at the time. Actually I was just wearing an ordinary fedora pushed back on my head.
I'm a retired computer engineer by trade, so comments about supercomputers perk me up.
I'm still not quite sure which point of yours I'm proving by responding to you: 1) that I am a sheeple, by being fixated on my computer and responding, or 2) that I am not a sheeple because sheeple don't respond.
Cheers
One sheep to another:confused:

You're proving #2 for the reason you said.
I guess it could have been clearer and for that reason, it was presumptuous of me.

Mainly I think the term sheeple implies a mindlessness in the, well, sheeple,
that isn't there.
They only look mindless but they're not.

I am/was a database programmer among other things and supercomputers perk me up as well.
AI really perks me up.
 
You're proving #2 for the reason you said.
Eeks! Just squeezed by. :)
Have fun writing. I've been doing poetry since retiring, and making sporadic progress on a memoir. Keeps the grey cells active.
 
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