{"id":101,"date":"2025-02-12T07:36:58","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T07:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollcom.fr\/skyroll\/?p=101"},"modified":"2025-02-12T07:42:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T07:42:20","slug":"the-information-society-a-thought-trap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rollcom.fr\/skyroll\/en\/2025\/02\/12\/the-information-society-a-thought-trap\/","title":{"rendered":"The information society: a thought trap"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A passage from one of my favorite novels, \u201cThe Never-Ending Story\u201d by German author Michael Ende, represents for me the difficulty of thinking in this particular moment of the information society revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

The gaze of a Sphinx has no relation to that of any other creature. The two of us, and all the others, perceive things through our eyes. We see the world. Sphinxes, on the other hand, see nothing – in a sense, they are blind. Their eyes, however, are transmitters. And what do you think they emit? All the riddles of the universe. That’s why the two Sphinxes are constantly looking at each other. Because only one Sphinx can withstand the gaze of another. And now imagine what happens to anyone who dares to interfere with this exchange of glances! He freezes instantly and can’t move until he’s solved all the riddles of the universe.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Bombarded by information, it seems difficult to think. We remain passive in production. We have so much to discover that we no longer express ourselves. The image of the hedgehog facing the headlights of a car is also telling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another passage is fairly symptomatic of the difficulty of creating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

There was a large gathering of people there, men and women, young and old, more strangely dressed than ever, and not speaking to each other.
and who didn’t speak to each other. Everyone was immersed in himself. On the floor were scattered a large number of large dice, and the six sides of each die bore letters. These people were busy shuffling these dice over and over, then staring at them. What are they doing there?\u201d murmured Bastien. What kind of
is this game? What’s it called?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s the game of probabilities,\u201d replied Argax, gesturing to the players and exclaiming: \u201dBravo, my children! Keep up the good work! Don’t get discouraged!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then he turned to Bastien and whispered in his ear:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey can’t talk anymore, they’ve lost the ability to speak. That’s why I thought up this game for them. It keeps them busy, as you can see. And it’s very easy. If you think about it, you’ll agree that all the stories in the world boil down to twenty-six letters. The letters are always the same, only their combination changes. From letters, words are formed, from words, sentences, from sentences, chapters, from chapters, stories. So look: what do you see there?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bastien read :<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

H G I K L O P C H K L O
R J K M F V B Q E Z A I H G T Y I U L J GV
R F G B N J K L O I T
G B L J D X Q Z T U P Y T E L M B
Y F C V X E T U I J
U J B V C X W H G F D S S
Y G V L I O P M F D C X W B N
U H B G T F D C S X W U J K O L M P H G
Y G T R E Z S A O S A<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes,\u201d Argax chuckled, \u201dit’s like that most of the time. But when you play it for a long time, all year round, sometimes words come up by chance. Not necessarily spiritual words, but certainly words. And if you go on playing for a hundred years, a thousand years, a hundred thousand years, then, in all likelihood, a poem is bound to pop up by chance sooner or later. And if the game goes on forever, all the poems, all the possible stories, must necessarily arise, as well as this story in which we are conversing together. It’s the game of probabilities\u201d, Argax replied, waving to the players and exclaiming: \u201dWell done, my children! Keep up the good work! Don’t get discouraged!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Post previously published in 2007, still relevant today<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A passage from one of my favorite novels, \u201cThe Never-Ending Story\u201d by German author Michael Ende, represents for me the difficulty of thinking in this […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":99,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rollcom.fr\/skyroll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rollcom.fr\/skyroll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rollcom.fr\/skyroll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rollcom.fr\/skyroll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rollcom.fr\/skyroll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rollcom.fr\/skyroll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104,"href":"https:\/\/www.rollcom.fr\/skyroll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions\/104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rollcom.fr\/skyroll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rollcom.fr\/skyroll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rollcom.fr\/skyroll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rollcom.fr\/skyroll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}