Why is Dangerous Intersection such a slow-loading website? [UPDATE: If you can see this update, you are now on DI's new faster server, and the rest of this post is moot.] I'm painfully aware of the problem, which is being caused by problems with our current hosting, an upgrade to a new design and growing traffic, which now brings us about 6,000 visitors every day.
Jon Stewart and Samantha Bee explore Twitter:
Important Technical Advisory for All Computer Users
Periodically run this program to clean dust and contamination from the inside of your computer monitor. The IT guy at my office highly recommended this technology. I didn't know that there was such a program, but here it is . . .This video was created many years ago--based on Moyers' description of the American space program, it was probably made in the early to mid 1960's. I had never before seen any video of Asimov (though I have read some of his writings), and I found this video (part of an episode from "Bill Moyers World") to be engaging. The topics: science and education. I also found what appears to be a full transcript of the interview at Harpers Magazine, which contains some additional information, including this exchange on the power and limits of science:
MOYERS: What's the real knowledge?
ASIMOV: We can't be absolutely certain. Science doesn't purvey absolute truth. Science is a mechanism, a way of trying to improve your knowledge of nature. It's a system for testing your thoughts against the universe and seeing whether they match. This works not just for the ordinary aspects of science, but for all of life. I should think people would want to know that what they know is truly what the universe is like, or at least as close as they can get to it. We don't pretend that we know everything. In fact, it would be terrible to know everything because there'd be nothing left to learn. But you don't want to be up a blind alley somewhere.
As you might assume, Wikipedia has an informative biography on Asimov. After viewing this video, I looked it up. I especially enjoyed his comment on religion:In his last volume of autobiography, Asimov wrote, "If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul." The same memoir states his belief that Hell is "the drooling dream of a sadist" crudely affixed to an all-merciful God; if even human governments were willing to curtail cruel and unusual punishments, wondered Asimov, why would punishment in the afterlife not be restricted to a limited term? Asimov rejected the idea that a human belief or action could merit infinite punishment. If an afterlife of just deserts existed, he claimed, the longest and most severe punishment would be reserved for those who "slandered God by inventing Hell."
Twitter, undeniably addictive to at least some of its advocates, has only been around since early 2006. The co-founder of Twitter, Evan Williams, talked for eight minutes at TED about his product. Twitter was originally invented as a means for sending "simple status updates to friends." It allows you to say what you're doing in 140 characters or less, with those people interested in you able to get those updates. According to Williams, Twitter "makes people feel more connected and in touch, sharing moments as things happen." It allows your friends "to know what it's like to be there." Twitter use is exploding. It's now ten times bigger than it was at the beginning of 2008. According to this entry at Wikipedia, Twitter has 55 million monthly visitors. Williams concludes his talk by noting that some Twitter users have used Twitter to enable real-time mass-action by armies of fellow Twitter users. I''ll confess that I'm not a Twitter user (though I did set up an account due to the constant urging of a real-life friend, but I haven't actually used it). I don't think I'll ever be a Twitter addict based on what I know about Twitter. I prefer writing in paragraphs rather than writing chopped up sentences. I don't want real time commentary,even from my closest of friends--I'd rather you save it up a bit and then we spend quality time together exchanging our stories with more context and color. Also, I like to get away from my computer and phone for long stretches--I recharge by getting totally away from people. I'm also suspicious that many people are deluding themselves that their on-line contacts are true "friends," in that we don't have the that kind of cognitive capacity. None of this is to deny that Twitter might sometimes be useful, even possibly life-saving in times of national crisis. I suspect, though, that Twitter is mostly word fidgeting--an addiction seemingly important due to the powerful illusion that motion--doing anything--constitutes progress. I'll admit that many important inventions were derided in the early-going (e.g., the telephone). I might be wrong when I demean Twitter as a serious mode of communication. Writing about Twitter reminds me of a recent book in which each author attempts to capture his or her entire life in six words or less. Without further ado, here's that eight-minute speech by Evan Williams, the co-founder of Twitter.