Tuesday 16 July 2002

Pic of the day: Little Frederick realized that he had irritated his teacher one time too often ... (Screenshot from Morrowind.)

Idiots left and right

Well, it's one in the night again. I have been writing (or rather dictating) a lengthy entry. I can't be bothered to finish it now. Let me instead tell you what I saw this morning in the city on my way to work.

I came to the traffic lights, and three women stood waiting for green light to cross the street. The cars had red, which was about to change just as I arrived. But there had been no green man, for no one had pressed the key. So the automated traffic control system reasonably assumed that there were no pedestrians, and didn't include them (and worse, us) in the pattern.

I went over and pressed the key once, then waited. While I waited, more people came. Among them was a man who looked to be 20-30 years older than I, but in good shape and well dressed. He pressed the key too. And again. And again. Evey other second or so, regular as a pulse. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Until the lights finally changed. Wooh! Magic thumb!

"All technology, no matter how primitive, is magic to those who don't understand it."

***

So one group errs on one side, another on the other side. Some do too little, some do too much. It is kinda random when you don't understand what is going on.

I think the same applies to politics, economics and so on. Some people don't do enough, some meddle too much. And all of them think they do the right thing, and are just as smug as I am. After all, didn't they all get to cross the street at the same time as I did?

***

There are times, like now, when I despair to find intelligent life on Earth. There are times, like now, when I wonder why I bother. I dumb down out of lifelong habit, but I doubt I get dumb enough for normals to even remotely have any idea what I'm doing. Hopefully none of them have found their way here, since there are no blinking banner ads pointing people to the Chaos Node.

I'm sure I'm going to feel better if I take the time to sleep. I'll go consider it now.