Which Doctor?

After my last post, I began to wonder which incarnation of The Doctor would Dr. Thompson be? Well, I took the test as best as I could figure the Good Doctor would, based on all of his books and magazine articles I have read, and here's what I come up with:

Jehosophat! You're not the Doctor at all... you're
the Master, an evil renegade Time Lord who has
set himself up as the Doctor's arch-nemesis!
Suave, intelligent, and domineering, you are
often undone by your love of overly-convoluted
schemes and your incessant greed. Nonetheless,
you have an inhuman degree of determination...
if you can't rule the cosmos, then by Rassilon,
no one else shall!

Which Incarnation of the Doctor Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Any fans of Hunter Thompson out there? Let me know what you come up with.

File under Stuff That Don't Fit Anywhere Else.

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Soured On The Sweet Science

The Good Doctor sounds off on boxing, pro football, the Yankees and the present situation in Iraq. A tidbit:

Our dangerously goofy child President from Texas is a squalid example of trouble coming home to roost. He is like a half-bright football coach who goes into a big game without a Game Plan. BOOM! Shame and failure will follow you for all the days of your life. . .

Disagreeing with Donald Rumsfeld about bombing anybody who gets in our way is not a crime in this country. It is a wise and honorable idea that George Washington and Benjamin Franklin risked their lives for. These thieves in the White House are so crazy with greed and power, and they are causing so much drastic damage to the world we live in, that they are the ones who should be put on trial for treason.

File under Current Events.

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Technology's Harmful Effects

Here's an interesting interview from the Chronicle of Higher Education courtesy of Jim Austin of the Post-Careerist newsgroup:

Scholar Bemoans Technology's Harmful Effects on Culture
By SCOTT CARLSON

Alan Lightman, who holds joint professorships in physics and the humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is both a scientist and a renowned novelist. His latest project has been editing Living With the Genie (Island Press), a book of essays by various authors on how technology affects people, society, and culture. In his essay for the book, "The World Is Too Much With Me," Mr. Lightman complains that technology has helped to erode our private space, promote ravenous materialism, accelerate our lives,
poison our environment, and interfere with our silent moments. Using a cellphone at his low-tech summer home on a Maine island, Mr. Lightman talked with The Chronicle about the uncertain technological future.

Q. Scientists are generally optimists about technology. Do you think you're unusual for your field?

A. Technology is neither good nor bad. It is merely a tool that human beings have created to live their lives. And so the important question is, How do humans use technology? We can either use it for good or ill. I argue that, more or less since the Industrial Revolution, we have assumed that more technology is better. We have assumed that we are advancing on a road of progress, and that technology contributes to that progress. I suggest that we should be questioning how we use technology. We should think about our value system and what is really important, and only after doing that can we decide which technologies achieve our values and which do not.

Q. You remark early in the essay that technology is making life faster and pushing out opportunities for quiet contemplation. What's the effect of this on our culture?

A. We have our spiritual lives compromised. We have become a nation without values and without a centeredness, without a belief system. If we have a belief system, it's money and power. I think the lack of that centeredness is one of the consequences. It is part of our poor relationship with other nations in the world. Other countries sense our lack of values. Before you can understand other countries, you need to understand yourself. We don't have such a foundation. We just have a blind pursuit of money.

Q. And technology pushes that?

A. The blame is on human beings, but technology has pushed that.

Q. Some of the things you talk about in this essay have been felt in the arts for some time -- everything from Brave New World to The Matrix. Do you think that your involvement with literature has given you a sensitivity to these things?

A. Yes. It's good that you mention those other media, because certainly there are other people who are saying the same thing. The more of us who say this, the better chance we have of being heard.

I think a lot of these ideas are old. In my essay, I refer to Henry David Thoreau's comments in Walden. In those days, the high technology was the railroad, and that was changing American thinking. Thoreau made this witty comment: "We don't ride on the railroad; the railroad rides upon us." Of course, I like that, but I would amend that by saying that technology is just a tool, and we created the railroad, after all.

These ideas have been around for a while, but the pace of the world has accelerated. All of the problems that Thoreau saw 150 years ago are much more acute and have much more devastating consequences.

Q. In the essay, you liken throwing off the yoke of technology to an abolitionist movement. How do you think people may actually start to rethink technology?

A. I don't know how it will resolve itself. The reason that I made an analogy to the abolitionist movement is because that was not a top-down action of government. It was a much slower, more difficult, more gradual change in consciousness and change in values. I hope that the same thing is going to happen here, that more people will become aware of the bankrupt way that we are living. Of course, it will start with intellectuals who make films like The Matrix.

Just something to think about. Happy Hump-Day.

File under Geek Talk.

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