The Law of Stretched Systems
More demands more demands more
I spent the weekend visiting acclaimed actor Loren Schofield (and dad) and used the opportunity to go web-free. Instead, we talked - for days. Covered the gamut. Looked deep into the world and saw it for what it was and then bullshat about something else.
In a few short weeks (I hope) I will share a series of short life stories we recorded, wherein I (38) interview him (nigh 78) about a life interestingly lived for whom the Fates had a soft spot.
Now, here, sleep-procrastinating, I’m dwelling a little on legacy or its impermanence, on well-intended projects slow to finish (so slow they risk never being finished). I worry I am neglecting
, or that I have lost steam for , or what about Byrnharrow, or what about The Friar, or Lady-in-Waiting, Thegns, or what about the bills and the creativity — the best of me — I trade to VCs to pay them.The law of stretched systems is that every system is stretched to operate at its capacity.
The more RAM computers have, the more RAM browsers will require for tabs. The faster networks get, the bigger web pages will be. The larger memory gaming consoles have, the larger games will be. The more data processing capabilities we secure, the more data we will collect. What is available will be used.
I am a stretched system.
What I came to recognize this weekend was that in being disconnected I came to feel the grounding threads that tether me to reality, and that what’s real isn’t — your writer waves aimlessly — this.
It is true, of course, that the self is a place of illusion — but it is also the only place where our physical reality and social reality cohere to pull the universe into focus, into meaning. It is the crucible of our qualia. It is the tightrope between the mind and the world, woven of consciousness. — Maria Popova