“What is happening?” is always a funny question to ask.

Whatever the situation, there will be layers to it, and nothing exposes those layers quicker than asking this simple question and giving it a little thought.

Giving things a little thought is not quite how things are working these days though. And considering that things aren’t working well these days, in actuality, we as a species need to acknowledge how slow we are being in fully processing that information, because it only further delays our cogent response.

But maybe together we can crack into this idea a little further, looking at an area where humanity might be undermining itself the most presently.

In thinking about what is happening in any given “right now”, consider the following one-player scenario…

All day we receive signals from our environment.

In the real world, you receive signals and can trace their origin.

I’m hearing construction sounds this morning and am able to go look down the street at the house they just knocked down to build a new one, and there I can see the people who will be hammering into my head all day long.

That is not the situation when you are receiving signals from a phone.

On your phone, you do not now know the source of many signals you receive.

Additionally, the nature and motive of these signals are not always clear either, nor their boundaries, because the real world and your real life are still very much in play even if the geography of your inputs spans the globe.

But most of these signals start off innocently enough…

Part of the issue here is, we are not just getting “content” from our devices anymore.

In terms of polished and professional material, we’ve been largely robbed of the level of quality that used to qualify as content and had it replaced with anyone and everyone’s hot and cold takes of everything, where the gossip and mean remarks people used to have to whisper in the shadows can stand right next to the propaganda and stupidity that used to struggle to infect the masses, but that now can do so from center stage.

In many cases, we don’t know the who, what, or why behind the communications we receive. Yet reading what we are reading and seeing what we are seeing is directly resulting in how we are going out in the world acting as we are acting.

Human culture is clearly not mature enough to handle what we have wrought on ourselves, so we get this instead…

If only it were that straight forward.

If only it were that diversified.

If only there weren't algorithms warping space and time on our phone such that people all around the globe have the chance of walking on the wrong side of town without leaving their home.

The pathways to bad places have never been so paved and well-lit.

And if you are wondering why your control is hitting the ball back toward a phone that doesn't care... now you are making the connection that counts.

Your phone doesn't care, and that could be a reason to ask why you care so much.

Because though it might not be interested in what you think, don't lose sight of the fact that your phone is very much paying attention. It's learning every day about you and your connection to the world, whether you are or not.

What can be done with that information playing right back at you via some app is what our phones care about, and it is a far more expansive proposition than anyone ever responsibly considered.

That responsibility has fallen to each of us individually, hence the need to ask "what is happening?" more often when we are looking at our phones.

We are at a dramatic disadvantage with the technical power lighting up the screens in front of us.

We are being computed and used.

We are fish in its barrel.

And for what? ... Everything and nothing at once.

For... is the point not to overwhelm you?

... Are you overwhelmed?

Because you are certainly distracted.

The real game might be more something like this...

Though it is not made clear in the game, you have just lost.

Though it is not made clear in the game, you have just lost.

Though it is not made clear in the game, you have just lost.

...

Thanks for (realizing you are) playing!

...

Next time we'll take it in a different direction. This was supposed to be a post about mental competence and current events. Anyway, until then, ...

Shameless plug...

If you are interested in more of my negative take on smartphones, check out the best-selling You and Your Phone are Boring over at The Papercuts Library!

If you read The Civilian Noninstitutional Population post, you might have wondered… where is all of this coming from?

Why is this guy talking about economics, and why should I bother reading it?

Well, this new series of posts I’ve started are directly picking back up on economic studies I developed back in 2008-2011 as part of my conceptual art think tank, Ape Con Myth.

My story of working with data goes back much further though.

I was fascinated by numbers at an early age.

But far from being able to claim any understanding of it, I think initially I might have been drawn to finance simply from the daily stock market report flashing numbers with strange abbreviations in front of me.

I didn’t know what any of it meant, but it looked like fun, and thanks to shows like Family Ties and movies like Wall Street, the mirage of the markets got me out the door, to New York City and business school.

As it went though, I was disillusioned by the whole thing on the first day of Economics 101.

All it took was seeing the supply and demand curves for me to think better of it all.

Supply and demand are too easily manipulated for it to be the basis of so much, especially when it comes to the way we make our living and attempt to survive.

Ironically, it was leaving business school to study dramatic writing and literature that eventually led me back to my own study of economics, as I literally and figuratively struggled with the concept of making a living firsthand.

That was ultimately the genesis of Ape Con Myth, which operated under the header: “the struggle for survival is an incredible waste of time.”

The premise that we are wasting our lives trying to make a living has only grown more concrete in my mind, from both personal experience and paying attention to the world around me.

Look at us. Look at this mess. We aren’t even trying to make it easier on ourselves.

Supply and demand are getting the best of us all, and it warps the spacetime of our lives every day.

That is in effect why I’m here. That is why everything you see on this site is happening.

We needlessly suffer and struggle. I don’t think it has to be like that.

What do you think?

To create… well, with my brand of creation at least, … it is like working in a laboratory of one’s self.

I am here this morning surrounded by all my lab equipment, my past work, and my active experiments, which take the form of the files and windows open and stored on all these computers, the papers on the wall and in all these boxes and drawers, and all the things swirling around in my head that haven’t made it out yet.

It is a wonderland.

But in the larger scope of things, there is always my life, which impacts the disposition and flow in this lab.

Time spent is the precious commodity, and what I have to spend it on often overwhelms and displaces what I would like to spend it on.

Everything goes in phases though.

This is a self-conscious one for me.

A time of renewal and recalibration.

It’s not the first time I’ve been here. I know this place because it usually coincides with me returning to the Tao Te Ching.

D.C. Lau’s 1963 translation is my preferred version, and it begins…

The way that can be spoken of
Is not the constant way;
The name that can be named
Is not the constant name.

As a generalist, I have had an easier time connecting with these two simple yet daunting concepts that stand at the beginning of this work.

For someone who somewhat needs and seems to thrive in a basic routine, my every day, every week, and every month are nothing but different. It doesn’t matter how consistent the schedule is, the experience is never the same. Even when I like and particularly note a pattern, I cannot seem to repeat it.

But I’ve been reading those words above over and over again since high school and I do like to think that part of my operating system has been written with them in mind.

Who can keep up with the ideas that are actually sticking over time though?!

The nameless was the beginning of heaven and earth;
The named was the mother of the myriad creatures.

These two lines are easy to pass over, perhaps because of the rug that they pull out from under us, said myriad creatures. We didn’t come with names, we were given them.

We have given names to everything we could think to name, while not knowing what we were missing.

And that’s where these next two lines come in. They identify the self-conscious moment I’m in right now…

Hence always rid yourself of desires in order to observe its secrets;
But always allow yourself to have desires in order to observe its manifestations.

There is it. The precious moment I’m having is being rid of any specific desires for a moment.

“Allowing” myself to have desires is not often a choice, once an idea takes hold.

The Papercuts Library is in effect a tunnel I’m emerging from after nearly seven years.

So many forces shaped the reasoning that led me there. And as a vehicle, it has served me well in its purpose. … It is not going away either. … However I am in the midst of shifting my creative center of gravity.

I have long preferred not to utilize this website for reasons we will be exploring along the way, but for the moment, suffice to say, I’m stepping out of the vehicle of a book series and into the vehicle of myself.*

My laboratory … or whatever this existence is and represents.

But sitting here without desire, I am observing the secrets of The Way. … And I’m trying to learn what I can, while I can, because I know soon enough an idea will take hold and I will be off on my merry and directed way toward a new destination, observing its manifestations.

What I haven’t cracked yet is the end of this first chapter:

These two are the same
But diverge in name as they issue forth.
Being the same they are called mysteries,
Mystery upon mystery –
The gateway of the manifold secrets.

So you are never without The Way, whether driven mad by desire or sitting there like a rock.

This faucet is always on.

Being aware of that is the key, and the challenge.

There are eighty more chapters to this amazing work if you are interested in being challenged as such.

I cannot recommend it more.

In my copy you can still see the six or so lines I highlighted back in high school. They were the only ones I felt I understood at the time.

Even now, I wouldn’t necessarily claim to understand any of it, while also feeling that I am helplessly living it in more ways than I’ve ever noticed or imagined.

It’s that kind of thing.

You can’t put a name on it.

Embrace that.

*It’s all in the packaging, folks.

There it is, you don’t even need the rest of the book.