I am increasingly feeling like I am living in a made up world. It almost feels like a game that is being played by some greater power, and I am watching the whole thing unfold. It could also be that I am a character in that same game, but I digress.
Such games are called “augmented reality games”. As always, a definition is in order
“Augmented reality (AR) is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data.”
If we are indeed just playing a part and everything around us is being generated as we go along, is it really that strange that there are TV shows and politicians seemingly making up shit to fill our heads with what they want us to believe? And could it also be that those that are loudly proclaiming that the fake shit is actually fake, are really the prophets of our time.
There is a radio show that I used to listen to most Saturday mornings called Car Talk. In that show they have a statistic called “bogosity”. Bogosity is the degree to which something is bogus. Bogosity is measured with a bogometer; in a seminar, when a speaker says something bogus, a listener might raise his hand and say “My bogometer just triggered.” More extremely, “You just pinned my bogometer” means you just said or did something so outrageously bogus that it is off the scale, pinning the bogometer needle at the highest possible reading (one might also say “You just red-lined my bogometer.”).
Sadly, the bogometer does not actually exist, but I can say with some authority that we all have one inside of us. Each persons bogometer, sadly, is not calibrated to a NIST standard, so we all have different tolerances. For some people, the bogometer has been completely disabled. These sad individuals swallow the shit as it is spewed and are always hungry for more. Sitting dumbly in front of a TV watching Fox News and MSNBC they can be observed, wisely nodding their heads in agreement.
Still others have their bogosity meter set to self protect mode. Their approach is to agree with every statement that aligns with their core beliefs and disagree with all else. Their defense mechanism is to simply repeat what they believe until they believe it themselves, using the theory that if you repeat something enough times, it becomes true. These are disciples of the George Castanza school of Augmented Reality, whose central maxim is “It’s not a lie if you believe it”.
Let us end this whole discussion with some words from the Bard of Avon hissef
BTW, I believe that I am currently in the “Full of wise saws and modern instances” phase and can clearly advise anyone on what not to do.
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
