Random Thought #168

We live in the Information Age and as such are bombarded with tons of information every day. How do we filter that deluge? How do we cope and still retain some semblance of sanity? Just a tiny example today. I was on my way home and saw a bumper sticker on the back of the vehicle in front of me for the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. I immediately thought to myself. What the heck is that? How would someone go about deciding if they wanted to train to be in the Coast Guard? My next thought was ...eh, not interesting to me. Now don't get me wrong. I have nothing against the U.S. Coast Guard and I'm sure they do a lot of very important work but it just doesn't interest me so I immediately filter it out and don't think further about it. But that very filtering mechanism is likely what is adding to the deluge of information we receive each day. It seems like everyone has got a "thing" that they are passionate about and technology has allowed everyone to share that thing with everyone else around them. I watched a video yesterday about a person who heard voices in their head and was diagnosed with Schizophrenia and now she is part of a group that is all about hearing voices in your head. I saw another video about a guy who formed a group about clouds. I think this is great as it allows like-minded individuals to connect and share but it has also led to the chaotic world we live in today where every special groups seems to think they need to push their views onto the world stage and get fair treatment. This has gone to an extreme and has caused chaotic warfare amongst the common people. If we all have special interests, that's great and we should recreationalize with others who share our view. That's shows our great uniqueness and subtle commonalities but we should do it for our enjoyment and leave others to do the same. In case you're wondering, my thing is nature and biotechnology. Anybody else share my passion?