Data Everywhere, Information Please

[phantasm]

Numbers, numbers everywhere, data and statistics, actuarial tables.

I get you. Quantification is a powerful thing.

Quantify everything quantifiable-- absolutely. I have no problem with that.

You want data. But do you really want to know anything? On a deep level? No? That's whacked.

Minds of metal occupying lumps of flesh, that's what you are.

There is knowledge and there is understanding. Those are the deep things of existence.

Delve deep into a book and take a chance.

We collect reams and reams of data. But do we know what the data is pointing at?

What does it all mean?

Numbers right before our eyes, but I long for the unseen.

[phantasm]

What is wisdom?

How do you know if you have it, or it you're just fooling yourself?

I question this so often, especially at the age I'm at.

Although, I guess I've been asking myself the question, it seems, most of my life.

Everybody thinks they're so smart. We valorize intelligence.

We think we have it because we get perfect scores on the SAT.

(Are we even still administering the SAT anymore?)

What is intelligence?

What does it really mean to be intelligent?

Does anybody know anymore?

[artolmaeus]

did anyone ever know, but maybe all are tired of fronting the old masks....I think on these things, sometimes, too much, and then, I am lucky, I walk away from it sometimes, and then, other people seem to like me more, has happened a great deal of times and I get to this point that there may be no reason for shuffle dancing at work, as usually most people never do it, then, when I do, what I get in return are smiles from people, days later, no matter how uncomfortable it may have been at the moment, because, well, I perhaps broke rank in the social order, just enough, to poke the point home that maybe it is not intelligence that we really need, but joy....as our joy has often been taken from us, because we let it, because everyone is shoving the significance of intelligence and papers and metrics hard and fast up our already tired asses. Thank you for writing this, it has an importance.