by Ethan Johnson
June 13, 2006

I'm going to get the noodle-bending line out of the way first, so you can decide whether you want to hang in with the rest of this article or not: Look around you. Observe the physical. Pick up the closest solid object (that lends itself to being picked up comfortably). Check this out: The object you are now holding/observing is made manifest by atoms that are compelled to form that object. I know!

Which means you are too. That thought is good for some tossing and turning for a few nights as you contemplate why the atoms are compelled to hold this shape and/or represent this form.

As one might imagine, I have been turning this thought around in my mind quite a bit lately. I'm sure molecular biologists and the like can provide chapter and verse of why atoms and molecules bind together to form all of the things that they do. That in no way detracts from the root wonderment that anything has any degree of permanence, ever.

My thoughts on the following are still taking shape, and are in no way meant to stand as a definitive statement of belief or anything like that. But another thick thread running through my thought processes lately is that of symbolism: Everything may have varying degrees of permanence, but all things are symbolic in nature.

Geoffrey Moore states:

Symbolic competence creates competitive advantage. On the web, as one cartoonist famously noted, no one knows you are a dog. All they experience about you is a function of your ability to manipulate vocabulary and symbols.

This puts liberal arts education in high relief. The digital world will move from being an engineering phenomenon to a cultural one. Memes, brands, reputations, causes—all will seek to recruit the most powerful symbolists to their ends.

(Parenthetically, I would prefer that his list not be called "truths", as they are more accurately statements about reality. And what manner of truth is this that asks for correction?)

As I have noted several times about the internet, it serves as a metaphor for God, the Universe, mankind's quest for knowledge, whatever. I think that there are many aspects of the internet that are themselves symbolic of physical (and metaphysical) concepts that are somewhat easier to model artificially and in turn examine their nature. For example, we create our physical reality, every day. It is possible to create a fairly complex artificial reality using software like Sim City or Second Life. We can really throw ourselves into this "fake" reality, not realizing that we do these things in physical reality all the time, including inventing computer games that let people form their own alternate reality.

As I observe our present reality I am indeed seeing a lot of what I will call "alignment of symbolism", usually with the intent of conveying some sort of inevitable end result. Example: I align myself with diamonds and gold, even if it is all borrowed. Symbolically, this reeks of opulence and success. People respond to this symbolism and call me "the Bling King" or "that rich guy". I can then exploit this symbolic association to serve my own ends. What criticism or skepticism that is directed to me in the early going is turned aside as this symbolic association snowballs.

In this way, we do align ourselves with the appropriate symbols that best define our personal reality.

To Geoffrey Moore's point about symbolism cropping up more frequently in the media, the Copa Mundial has his back:

"We wanted to whet the appetite for what will hopefully be an upbeat FIFA World Cup", explained Andreas Abold, proprietor of abold, the agency commissioned by the OC to work alongside their London counterparts on the design of the logo: "Our goal was to convey, via a symbol, the incomparable emotions that can only be evoked by football."

The logo is pretty cool, I think, and mission accomplished. I saw the logo on TV, and then saw the excited fans, and then I got excited - how exciting! Not bad for a logo to evoke such a response. I can think of worse things.

I should probably sign off the vast majority of my articles this way for the next few months, but I will have much more to say on this topic in the future. Set a bookmark for the site that always makes you think and notice stuff! And has the great recipes, and talks plainly about wine, and... <EM>