NOISE-SIGNAL We have had a tradeoff in filtering (noise) based on costs production-transmission: letters are semi-filtered but slow; telegrams are v. filtered and fast (v. high-signal); phone calls less filtered and fast;email is unfiltered & fast (consider emails/day saying NOTHING). 1) The combination letter + telegraph +phone seems vastly superior to email. 2) The telegraph might be the most significant invention.
Just as travel time in London is worse than it was 150 years ago, I believe that the internet, because of the extremely high noise to signal ratio, makes communication slower and more difficult than it was in the days of letters, telegrams, & faxes. So, pace the technoidiots, it is very likely that twitter (the noisiest media) slowed down the riots in Egypt.
An author friend (who reads this) was complaining about being trashed by reviewers. My suggestions is to do what the French do -no nation has attracted more jeers and barbs (recall the reviling during the Bush days). Interrupt your sorrow with: foie gras with Sauternes, one of 500 cheeses, terrine from Perigord, red H-Medoc, soufflé au chocolat noir…
Paris, 2011
EGYPT, fitting back explanations. – 1) The fools “explain” it by hunger/commodity prices… but the problem was there before without riots (in 2008) & demonstrators are middle class. 2) Obama blaming failure of intelligence… not fragility & fragility he caused himself. Systems with artificially constrained volatility from above tend to explode (TBS on Arab regimes v/s Italy)…
