Monday, May 31, 2010

More Sense Making

So Titus asks

"Why, scientific oracle, can I remember everything of little or no consequence, and yet nothing that I actually need to?"

The reason for this is actually very simple, and is twofold - the first fold refers to the "invisibility of importance rule" which states that the more important the thing is, the more likely it is to be invisible.

If you think about it, and you don't have to - because I have done so for you, this rule is completely self evident. What is the single most important thing to you? What is the one thing that if it was taken away from you could cause your death within minutes? Not food, nor family, friends, water, or sleep - but AIR - and air is completely invisible - as a natural consequence of its importance. Architects have long known about the structural importance of glass, (also tending towards invisible) in the building of buildings... this too is why you will find lots of glass houses, but very rarely will you find glass-less houses, at least not in buildings designated for human inhabitation, because without the glass, the floppy brick and cement surroundings of the walls would come crumbling down. (A thin kind of glass/ sometimes called plastic (which is also kind of invisible) holds the internet inside your computer, keeping you safe from computer viruses and all manner of unpleasantness but that's besides the point). This too answers why the most important people need airbrushing in photographs, they are so important they go almost translucent in keeping with the invisibility of importance rule.

Now for the second fold for Titus' Important things blindness. Less important facts take up less space in your head, the closest comparison I can make is to say that unimportant facts are like little grains of sand that stick around in your head and are hard to brush away from the sides of the sponge (which is where the noticing takes place, since it's the closest bit to the outside), the important things are much bigger - like rocks - thus giving us the phrase - "she has rocks in her head", and they wedge deep down in the cranium sitting behind your nose just above the back of your tongue. Thus it is very hard to bring them back up to the noticing part of your brain. For this purpose I can only advise Mentos and Diet Cola.

Watercats asked about the mystery of Crystal Swing.

I will reveal it to you now. They are from the same part of the world as moi.

The girl in the group goes to the same school as I used to go to, and legend has it that she sits in the same place for double French of a Wednesday evening. The language lab in St Marys is a magical room, each desk has little walls on either side, and a tape recorder with headset actually as part of the table, and when you sat in the precise position of that seat, the teacher in could never figure out what you were doing. I used the time to read mini life histories of the Saints (Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix) and to sew up my pencil case, and this has sewn the seeds for my rise and rise to super-mediocrity. It seems that anyone who has had that seat has become something fantastic, there's been Lily Allen, Dusty Springfield, and the fabulous Nina Simone - all of whom have traced the development of their genius back to that double French class.

I'll wager the same thing has happened with the Crystal swinger, except maybe she ate mentos and Diet coke while sitting brooding, and thus managed to mastermind the genius that is her brother's Huckle Buck bringing joy and salvation to the world....

Anyone else burning with curiosity on ANY topic out there? or have some valuable new science updates to share?

Do let us know...

4 comments:

Batteson.Ind said...

I feel so much more clarity in my life now I know these things... deep, deep thanks of gratitude :-D

@ctors Business said...

Titus what an explination and such perfect glass clear clarity!They say you learn something new everyday. I think you have helped fill my quota for the week :)

Titus said...

I am awed. And in the presence of a Master.
Of what, I am not quite sure, but I'm bowing anyway. As Gwei says, clarity. Clarity is now penetrating the swirling mud of my mind.

Niamh B said...

You're welcome Watercats, glad I could be of service.
Gwei Mui, I really hope that doesn't mean you can't learn something useful today as well... my blog is full of those grains of sand mentioned earlier...
Titus, happy to awe, awelways, I like that clarity swirling through mud image!
Any other deep and unfathomable mysteries out there? Keep em comin - plenty more wishdom where that came from.