I can empathize.

Dear Blog Readers

I hope that this finds you doing well. I am fine. Vacation is over. I have spent the week being reintegrated back into society and life. It was a great week of vacation. While great, it was not easy. I don’t do nothing well. Hence, you were treated to 5 blogs in a week; places to go and ideas to exploit. There are a couple of lingering ideas to look at, turn over and explore.

First off Amy Baker, agent provocateur extraordinary, gave the following suggestion for a blog topic in response to my request for suggestions. I like to get these suggestions from time to time to see if I can write something on the spur of the moment. Usually I ruminate on two or three topics at a time and write bits and pieces in my mind for a week before the process of “writing the blog” commences. When it comes time to write, I sit down and start stitching the pieces together. Amy’s suggestion? “If Google Glass really does build empathy, who would you give the glass to and why?”

Let’s set that aside for a second because there are things to discuss about a vacation in the Adirondacks. As we were leaving, our Subaru Forrester was spied upon by no fewer than 5 Assassin deer lurking at the edge of the woods during the twilight of the day. We found out that they were obviously reporting our course to a couple of suicide sprinters in Western New York. Armed with our position and our travel plans, the two bambi jihadists sprinted out in front of us while traveling at speeds in excess of 75 mph in moderate interstate traffic. After a serious brake press, serious cursing, and bracing for airbag deployment, they were unsuccessful. The one suicide runner passed 10 ft in front of us and his cohort passed immediately behind us. We were very fortunate.

Any blog about the Adirondacks during the summer time has to include a shout out to the black fly. This scourge of the northern tier of states has to be commented on. I had never had the pleasure. 6 hours after our first outdoor encounter, I realized that had nearly 20 bites on my arms and legs. I noticed that I had these hard bumps every where. I had not even realized that there was a problem. Fearing that these bumps were filled with parasitic offspring like the chiggers that inhabit our Hoosier environs, I went to the web to find our more. I found that there are 1800 species of which 20 have become extinct. To which, I suggest that scientists work harder.

These are a very nasty pest. When they start to bite you they inject you with a “powerful anticoagulant” that doubles as a numbing agent. So you don’t feel like you are getting bitten. You are completely passive as they drain your blood. The problem is so bad that in Canada, where infestations are especially high, cattle have been killed by black flies. No, they don’t coordinate their activities and all bite the cow at the same time and with the coordinated effort of millions of tiny pairs of wings lift the cow up to a staggering height and then terminate said cow by dropping them into a pond. No it is literally death by a thousand cuts. These tiny insects take so much blood that in extreme cases the cows are weakened to the point that they succumbed to their wounds.

The Adirondack people; the locals, not the tourists are a stout people. They fight the black flies in the summer and the winters are from another planet. Last winter, remember those winter vortices in central Indiana, in the Adirondacks they sent the frost level down 58 inches. I don’t know who dug down that deep to figure it out the correct depth.

That is cold. The entire landscape is built on old granite and yet trees are growing everywhere. This means that nature grabbed hold of those rocks with lichen griping deep in the cracks killing those rocks with a thousand cuts. Through the millennia, the lichen were followed by weeds, then trees; each leaving its residue building upon those who came before until today there are probably 2 feet of top soil leaving a blanket of forest. Each tree further blocking out views of the weather that Hoosiers can see from 10 miles away. One gets a sense that Adirondackers are a people on the edge. They can fight the flies, the forest, and the weather. However, the power that overwhelms them is located 160 miles away in Albany. Over the years, representatives of the masses, living in sterile concrete and asphalt jungles, have gained control of the property rights of much of the Adirondack Park and now all of those trees that could support the livelihood of the residents in the area are off limits. A good comparison would be keeping politicians from using donor money during elections and telling them that it is for the good of the world that the politicians suffer a little.

All of this brings me back to Amy’s question. “If Google Glass really does build empathy, who would you give the glass to and why? After all, one should have empathy for the Adirondackians. The question was inspired by a TED talk by Chris Kluwe. The title is How Augmented Reality Will Change Sports . . . Build Empathy. http://www.ted.com/.../chris_kluwe_how_augmented_reality... I must admit that it is the first TED talk that I have listened to. I am skeptical. I like my intellectual stimulation to come in bigger than 15 minute chunks by ex-NFL punters. What credentials does an ex-NFL punter have speak about Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality; other than having an in with Google so that he can wear Google Glass for his presentation?

Mr. Kluwe’s premise is that augmented reality will allow stupid players with tons of physical abilities will be able to play as well as smart players with less physical ability. In other words with augmented reality, Brett Farve would have thrown fewer interceptions. By using cameras, huge computer arrays, and heads up displays in player’s helmets, the geeks will be able to analyze the field and flash the open area where the quarterback should throw the ball and simultaneously direct the wide receiver to run to the same spot for the catch.

Then Mr. Kluwe segues to the idea that Google Glass will allow the hordes of people (black flies) to see what others are seeing without leaving their dimly lit computer room. For proof, he shows some kid’s physical reactions to wearing a virtual reality headset watching a roller coaster. From there, he claims that we will have empathy for the bullied because they will be able to show the world what a bullying confrontation looks like or what it feels like to be persecuted as a gay in Ghana or Nigeria. Google Glass will save humanity.

Why will Google Glass connect us more deeply when all previous technology advancement has only connected us shallowly to more people? How can we gain more empathy when we limit the dimensions of human interaction to sight and maybe sound? I thought that video games were desensitizing the youth of America to violence. I bet that if the kid wearing the virtual reality headset were to watch the rollercoaster experience over and over, he would be able to stand up straight with no bobbing and weaving within a week. Sooner or later his other senses would realize that they were being tricked by the eyes and compensate.

Sure with heavy editing and the proper soundtrack, the masses will be moved temporarily with empathy for the victim making society more susceptible to the manipulations of forces outside our communities.  However, that is no substitute to walking a mile in their shoes; to feel, to touch, to live within community takes all of our senses. It takes those other senses to make the lessons stick. One has to sit there with the aftermath of the experience to develop empathy; changing the channel or pulling up the next Youtube video inoculates the watcher against the inner changes that promotes empathy. This mass bombardment and inoculation leaves the watcher believing that a hashtag will actually save 300 young women in Nigeria from a horrible fate.

But I digress, as Amy probably knew that I would. The question before the masses today is “If Google Glass really does build empathy, who would you give the glass to and why?”

I would give it to myself because that would be so cool, and everyone knows that in order to love the world you first have to love yourself.

Take care,

Roger