Age of Transition: Meat

This morning I was trimming the fat off some pork chops to get them ready for cooking in a crock pot.  It occurred to me that this activity would be considered madness at any time more than 50 years ago, and also more than 50 years in the future.

Our ancestors would not chop off the fat.  They wanted as much fat as possible.  More fat mean more calories, which meant less chance of going hungry.  They also thought it tasted better.  Old cookbooks would tell you to rub lard on your meat before cooking if it was 'not sufficiently marbled'.  They would be amazed by any society where people would exert effort to make meat leaner.

Future generations will be appalled by the thought of handling and cooking raw meat.  Given the prevailing moral trends, they will probably be vegetarians.  Even if they are not, they will probably think about chopping up raw pork the same way I think about taking a live hog out behind the barn, slitting its throat, and butchering it.

We live in a strange time, one that has never existed in the past and will probably never exist in the future.  It is a transition between states of human existence.  Enjoy it while you can.

Television

This is a good, easy-to-read article about different effects of television.

In a study published last year in Child Development, a team led by Marie Evans Schmidt found that background TV has significant effects on toddlers' play.

Fifty children, aged one through three, played by themselves in a room while a parent sat nearby reading magazines. Half the time (either at the beginning or end of the session), an episode of the game show Jeopardy! was playing in the background. The researchers videotaped the kids' playing behavior and found that play episodes and focused attention were shorter while the TV show was on, even though no one was actively watching the show. Over a lifetime, this might mean that these kids are less able to focus on tasks...

Interesting Fact: Advertising

A (nonscientific) survey found that people who work in the advertising industry are least likely to have unhealthy habits (smoking and eating junk food).  This might be because those who are familiar with advertising are less likely to fall prey to its effects.

Orthodox Jews and Identity

If you want to live and operate in a modern Western society, you must accept the fundamental principles of our civilization.  And one of the most basic truths we hold about humanity is that one's identity is a matter of personal choice.  The individual determines who and what he or she is.  This decision is definitely not made by self-proclaimed authority figures who were not chosen by a democratic process.

The 12-year-old boy was refused a place at the JFS (formerly known as the Jews' Free School) in Brent, in north London.

The boy has a father who is Jewish by birth and a mother who is Jewish by conversion.

But the conversion ceremony was conducted by a Progressive ... synagogue which is not recognised by the Office of the Chief Rabbi.

The children of atheists, and practising Christians, were allowed to attend as long as their mothers were considered Jewish.

Although Liberal Jews say faith is about belief rather than ethnic origin, Orthodox Jewish supporters of the school said the Supreme Court's ruling risked infringing their human rights by interfering with the way they have always been defined.

from this BBC story

The British Supreme court ruled that the school's policy was illegal.  I agree with them.  There is clearly something wrong with a religious school that cheerfully admits atheists while refusing a spot to a child of someone who freely chose the Jewish faith.  These Orthodox Jews are, by the standards of our civilization, racist.  It is clear that their definition of 'Jew' is based mainly on genetics and not personal choices.  They were trying to use our society's religious freedom as a cover for ethnic discrimination.

This attitude is certainly not limited to Orthodox Jews.  There are far too many people in this world that simply do not value personal choice and individual liberty, people who think that they have the right to rule the lives of other people in the name of 'community' or 'society' or 'religion'.

Japan...

Anti-groping cameras set for Tokyo train line  from the BBC

This is not a problem that will be solved with technology from the government.  This is a problem that can only be solved by giving women the right to carry concealed weapons.

Product Placement

Last night I saw an episode of 'Bones' that was an excellent look at the future of advertising.  Half of the plot of the episode was based around the successful attempt of three of the characters to hold their place in line for the 'Avatar' movie while still doing their day's work.  This worked fairly well, and it was a scenario that made sense, given the characters.

The episode generated some complaints online (what doesn't?), but in my opinion it is the least intrusive type of advertising imaginable.  I am guessing that the reason people complain about these types of product placement is because they are in the habit of using technology to completely skip the standard advertising.*  However, it is completely impossible to skip product placement.  If you wanted to skip this ad, you would miss about a third of the show.

We will see more and more of this in the future.  It is inevitable.  The old way of doing commercials is dying.  It is just too easy to separate them from the show.  People will skip them on DVR's, or they will upload them to the Internet with the commercials cut out.  Product placements deeply embedded into the content of the show are the only way for the sponsor-driven business model of entertainment creation to survive.

In the future, the entire show will end up being a commercial.  People will accept it as they get used to it, and the show makers will get more and more subtle and creative.  For example, the types of gun used in action movies are currently determined by script writers and props people.  Soon, this will be put up for auction among various gun makers.  Whoever bids the highest will get to showcase their gun.  The show creators will not make a ton of money this way, but they will end up doing it for every single prop, like cars and computers and clothing.  Hopefully, that will add up to enough to cover the cost of the show without altering the plot too much.  But we will continue to see them making extra money by working all kinds of things into the plot.  The script manager and the advertising manager will end up being the same person.

Hopefully this will all mean the end of traditional commercials.  But not necessarily.  There will still be old people who are in the habit of sitting down in front of the TV and staring at whatever comes up.  So, given that the only people watching traditional commercials will be the old and non-tech-savvy, expect all of these commercials to be selling things to old people.  If you want to reach the youth audience, you will have to do product placements.

* These people need to realize that DVR ad-skipping violates the Categorical Imperative.  If everybody did it, then nobody would be able to get any money selling ads and it would be impossible to create new episodes of the show they like.

Civilization and Rights

'Civilization' and 'civilized' are two words that I often use, without defining exactly what they mean.  This is because the two concepts are very broad; there are a lot of things that go into making, defining, and characterizing a civilization.

For example, one of the best indicators of civilization, both in history and among current countries, is indoor plumbing.  Any group of people that does not or cannot maintain a plumbing system for most of its populace does not deserve to call itself a civilization.

But this does not mean that we can improve our civilization by training more plumbers or building more plumbing.  Plumbing is a symptom, not a cause, of civilization.  One of the biggest and most important questions for humanity is what causes a good civilization.

I have often connected science, rational thinking, and the scientific method with civilization.  That was somewhat sloppy.  Science is kind of like plumbing in that it is a symptom of civilization.  While science and engineering make civilizations stronger and more powerful, and dramatically improve everyone's quality of life, they are not what most people intuitively connect with the word 'civilized'.  As Hitler and Stalin showed us, it is possible to combine science and technology with barbarity and savagery.  And it is possible to imagine an enlightened and civilized group of people who do not possess much technology.

Some people connect manners and politeness with civilization.  I believe that this is folly.  An extremely complicated system of etiquette and protocol is usually a sign that something has gone horribly wrong with a group of people.  It signifies that they are afraid to speak honestly and that they have nothing better to do with their time than to invent and follow pointless rules.

I believe that the core definition of 'civilized' is 'having respect for the rights of other people' and that the core definition of 'civilization' is 'a society where everyone's rights are respected'.  Civilized people respect the rights of life and liberty above all else, and they design their social rules and institutions so that these rights are sacred above anything else.  Civilized people respect property rights, and this generates conditions that foster economic activity that makes the society richer.  Civilized people respect the rights of honest debate and intellectual inquiry, and this generates conditions that allow science and technology to thrive. 

Scientific freedom in combination with economic freedom is what created all the marvels of civilization that we enjoy today.  If you lose either, your civilization cannot advance.  But if your society fails to respect and guarantee the fundamental rights of human beings, it will either fall to pieces or become a plague upon humanity.