Observing the geopolitical chaos of the last month, I’ve felt uneasy in that I’ve been unable to shape my thoughts into anything coherent. This essay helped me find the thread. Thank you.
As a practical chemist, but one that spent at least a couple of courses in the study of quantum mechanics.... I find "the observer effect" compelling. Simply, the act of observation, and/or measurement of a system changes or disturbs that system.
I honestly did not know about that term specifically, but it sounds very much like perspectivism applied to science. At the turn of the 20th century, many writers and artists talked about this same "observer effect" but applied to society. It was the inspiration for Cubism and works like James Joyce's Ulysses. As I mentioned in the piece, Ortega y Gasset was also privy to this in his assessment of mass politics in his own time.
I guess the main difference today is, every observer has something of a megaphone or at least some outlet to comment on their observing, whereas a century ago this would be organized into proper electoral parties. As a result, today we have a lack of ideological coherence and more destabilization. In such a vacuum, I think what ends up happening is negation by and large rather than the building of anything constructive, which I why I believe we are living in an interregnum period that's still very undecided.
Observing the geopolitical chaos of the last month, I’ve felt uneasy in that I’ve been unable to shape my thoughts into anything coherent. This essay helped me find the thread. Thank you.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it.
As a practical chemist, but one that spent at least a couple of courses in the study of quantum mechanics.... I find "the observer effect" compelling. Simply, the act of observation, and/or measurement of a system changes or disturbs that system.
I honestly did not know about that term specifically, but it sounds very much like perspectivism applied to science. At the turn of the 20th century, many writers and artists talked about this same "observer effect" but applied to society. It was the inspiration for Cubism and works like James Joyce's Ulysses. As I mentioned in the piece, Ortega y Gasset was also privy to this in his assessment of mass politics in his own time.
I guess the main difference today is, every observer has something of a megaphone or at least some outlet to comment on their observing, whereas a century ago this would be organized into proper electoral parties. As a result, today we have a lack of ideological coherence and more destabilization. In such a vacuum, I think what ends up happening is negation by and large rather than the building of anything constructive, which I why I believe we are living in an interregnum period that's still very undecided.