11/22/99 - 11:30am Berkeley campus
I just finished my 11 days of wearing the hundred and one sensors glued to my scalp. Now it's time for the final test. We'll see how I do. This wasn't exactly as fun as I thought it would be but oh well-
Alex's birthday is tonight- it will be at Club Deluxe. I guess she's going out with that guy - I guess I'm ok with going - I mean it's been at least 9 months since we stopped "hanging out". But I guess I need to be a good sport about it and just go to the party tonight. Who knows.
On a side note, I was just walking by my old Berkeley Professor's psychology class after leaving Edson Cross's lab. This girl Isabelle was just finishing her presentation on advertising and then Nesser cut in with some interesting remarks. I recorded a little bit on my minidisk:
Dr. Nesser: "We are what we have been told we are. This is precisely why advertising works so well. People are simply too busy these days to deal with their identity crisis. It’s much easier and less time consuming when someone simply tells them who they are and what they want. Now you might think this is a bad thing but that doesn’t mean it will go away. These are unseen forces at work ladies and gentlemen. At this very moment there’s a battle being waged for your mind. Don’t get too distracted. "
"Napoleon once said, “give the masses a toy! They will play with it and allow themselves to be led - provided of course that the leader is clever enough to hide his true intentions.” Interesting... What an oddly ironic age we’ve all come to live in. We’ve learned to expect our leaders to be hiding the truth from us. So we’ve retreated from their lies only to surrender to the TV news anchor for guidance. But this will all change too as we step into the next age. Soon, the consumer will become the maker of the majority of content on the airwaves. With over 6 billion people wanting stardom, we’ll all have to be clever, and more than willing to hang out our dirty laundry for all to see. We’ll learn to color the facts a little, of course, adapting our lives for the prospect of making good TV. And since the President’s the real liar, he can now say exactly his true intentions - no one will ever believe him...or her - if they’re even paying attention. This is when the truth becomes transparent, as people would rather hunt for secrets and legends...and themselves, then accept any notion of “truth”. The door is opening wide to this! Welcome to the Post Ironic Age. No one has to hide anymore."
Well, I thought it was interesting anyway. Off to lunch, pass out some fliers for my show next friday and then on to Edson's lab for stage two of psychophysical headshrinkage.
-DM
