Thursday, May 11, 2006
The Welcome Delusion
Listening to a series of podcasts of a university physics course it struck me how different the “real world” is from our daily experience of it — from our comfy concept of “reality”. The truth of physics is a universe of waves and indeterminacy — far from the solid-seeming, enduring reality of our day to day.
This reminded me of Glenn Reynolds' comment years ago after he had heard Terry Gross give a talk. He said, “She didn't even sound like Terry Gross.” Her voice and presence were so different from Glenn's mind-picture; it surprised him. And this yielded yet another radio memory, when Jackie the Jokeman was in a mock argument with Howard Stern and Jackie said something about the way Stern manipulated the control panel to “enhance” his voice — to make it deeper, more resonant, more powerful. Like a revelation from A Face In The Crowd, it turns out Howard wasn't Howard, even in his most basic connection to his large audience, his voice.
And then on John Nack's weblog, there was a recent mention of the reality-mod of those emblems of beauty in our popular culture — the photographic manipulation of beauty, and the disturbing truth. Look here.