Quote of The Week, Maeda - 12/28/08

Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.

-John Maeda, President, RISD

One of the ironic things to me about technology is that it's supposed to make our lives easier, simpler, better. And yet with all the computers and the software and the internet, with all the cell phones and the PDA's and the iPods-- among dozens of other technological breakthroughs of the past 2 decades-- our lives are made more congested, confusing, complicated.

Because each day is dominated by these things.

Because we are constantly connected, allowed access to a larger plethora of information than any human being can process in one lifetime, we feel like we constantly must be connected.

I think John Maeda is one of the good guys, doing everything in his power to cut away all the excess, but even when all the crap is cut away, the information will still be there. It's up to us to be the ones to say, 'enough.'

dubs. out.

A Beautiful Moment Ruined

Tonight marked the last game in Yankee Stadium’s storied 85-year history. After a full Sunday of meetings, my roommates and I were able to get back to the house in time to catch the last 2 ½ innings and the postgame hooplah.

I was never a crazed baseball fan like many of my friends, but as a lifelong New Yorker I always enjoyed seeing the Yankees win, I always admired their history and tradition, and I always loved being in their house.

It was an emotional half hour. The kind you watch live and know that you’re one of millions out there seeing and thinking the same things. You know you’re seeing something special that will be viewed again and again and talked about for years to come.


You know it’s something special when Mariano Rivera enters the field for the last time silhouetted amidst several thousand flashing bulbs. You know it's something special when the announcers don’t speak for two straight minutes, giving viewers those rare, unblemished moments in sports where you can hear what what an excited crowd sounds like when two men aren’t trying to talk over it.


At one point after the game, as the team made their final lap around the perimeter of the outfield, the shots being beamed into our house were of cameras catching crying and clapping fans around the stadium. My favorite: A boy who couldn't have been more than 8-years old who looked like he was on that verge between tears and of being completely fine. Someone who was not alive in the 20th Century looked to me like he was about a fleeting glance of Derek Jeter away from breaking down and weeping.

One of the other images the cameras picked up was a young couple silently embraced in one of the upper decks. She had her head cocked, sobbing as she looked out onto the field. He had one arm draped over her, expressionless, looking down at his cellphone, furiously punching in something with his thumbs. It could have been one of those stunning, truthful moments that etch itself into your mind-- like the picture of that sailor who came back from World War II and kissed that woman in Times Square (my friend's grandmother as it turns out).

But instead, a cellphone ruined it. Technology ruined it. This future we’re all living in ruined it.

There was no one texting or calling with their cellphones 53 years ago. Even 20 years ago, would we have seen this same moment ruined by someone checking their beeper?

For one of our classes, we’re required to write something about culture each week. It could be anything. This week, I've decided to document the death of pure, untarnished emotion, by stating the following truth we just witnessed:

A beautiful moment in history was marred tonight by the spoils of the future.

dubs. out.

Bang.

Was perusing CNN.com this morning, and stumbled on the following lead story: Big Bang Experiment Creates Excitement, Fear. Even if understanding most of science is beyond your comprehension (as it is mine) you can't be a citizen of this world and not be intrigued by a headline like that.

The story is about the team of scientists, working underground, 300 feet beneath Geneva Switzerland, that has created the first Large Hadron Collider. Aside from being one of the most expensive ($10 B) and ambitious scientific experiments ever, the Colider is being dubbed "the most advanced and complex machine ever built in the history of mankind."

They plan to turn it on 2 days from now, on September 10th.

During one of the videos the team made, the voiceover says the following: "Please don't turn off your television. Because if you do that, it's... like turning off your television when man landed on the moon. Really."

Okay, guys. You've got my attention.

Since the science is way over my head, this video can explain it better than I ever could.



They even made a rap about it.



"I think we are on the verge of a revolution in our understanding of the universe," says one of the scientists. "The LHC is by far the biggest jump into the unknown."

When I was little, I thought that adults knew everything about everything. Having grown up since then, it's been times like these along the way that have suited to keep me constantly reminded that no one knows anything about anything.

It's times like these that make life exciting, to know that you're living while there's this momentous occasion in history unfolding as you breathe. But some aren't so excited. They think the LHC might tear the fabric of space time and thus destroy the universe in a flash, or create a black hole that eats the whole world:



The truth remains to be seen this Wednesday. If we're all still here, I'll post again.

dubs. out.