Ether

The ether was a theoretical medium, whose existence was long assumed to explain various physical phenomena, including transmission of light waves. I like to believe it is there, somehow allowing us to communicate whatever it is we wish to communicate: I am crawling toward answering the question “in what ways”.

The net miracle

In what ways depends of course on the audience. Then the ether takes over, that is in modern language, the Internet does the rest, our so it seems. For, if we no longer believe in the ether, now we are constantly relying on the existence of the “net”.

Through the net, or whatever instance of it I have access to, I normally manage to communicate, although it must be said, that I have no way of knowing if my message is received, unless the audience bothers about responding, or at least acknowledging. For on the net, or whatever, there is no automatic ping back; we send and pray (there is indeed no way to know if these “packets” of truncated messages have arrived at their intended destination!).

Followers

I make little use of social media, usually to share something that interests me and wish to make known to others (proselyting may be). Otherwise my main mean of communication is through my blog, aiming at my followers, and whoever happens to hit on a post. Given the blog content, or rather the blogs’, since I am writing in three places, this is aimed at readers who are both curious and independently minded.

The main blog is aimed principally at writers, as writing, and reading, are central to my daily life. Do I communicate effectively? I really don’t know. A few followers of my original blog, started some fifteen years ago, are still with me, so I suspect they are not completely bored by now. I do get comments, fewer I guess than on some blogs I follow. 

Searching

Then there is the question of how effective the blog is in reaching new users, the whole question of searches and optimisation. The subject interests me from a technical viewpoint, if for no other reason than the colossal resources that are needed to make the engines run. In these days of pricey energy (for some of us of scarcity), the big boys build their own nuclear power stations within their data centres, to accommodate the massive computing resources needed by search engines and searchable social networks.

A myriad of questions arises from this observation, such as the sustainability of it all, the real value of “AI”, that is of collections of algorithms, capable of self-modifications (to some extent) and acquiring data from the Net, and of course the costs of not doing other things, perhaps more crucial to our survival as a species. The increasing use of these techniques yet require more computing power, a logical extension of automating searches (programs doing their own) in an endless loop.

Lost intention

A subsidiary question I will leave with my readers, is whether we are communicated to, in particular from various “bots”, more than we communicate, and how is this influenced (determined?) by how we communicate ourselves.

Going back to the prompt question, am I happy that my communication is as intended? Since I am not sure of its effectiveness, I reflect on this without conclusion: I hope not to over communicate, I try to make these posts worth reading, and perhaps commenting on, but in the last iteration, I may not be that worried if the intention is lost.

I also miss much material, even from blogs I follow regularly, for there is a human limit to how much one can absorb. I am tempted to contrast human selective and concentrated reading, and the enormous power of the data centres. Someone has coined the word “satanocracy” to describe certain politics, how about “satano-technocracy” to describe the disappearance of the ether and its replacement by nuclear-powered AI?

Picture: Auguste Rodin, The Gates of Hell, 1880–c. 1890, Musée Rodin, Paris, France. Obelisk Art History.