Making Nothing Look Like Something

One of my observations is that a lot of human effort is put into what I call "making nothing look like something".
I feel sad about it, and see society/culture moving this way at breakneck speed.

I see it in a lot of ways.

Movies: jerky, split second shots, trying to convey fast moving chaos, when if you saw it in one continuous shot it wouldn't look nearly as interesting.

Music videos: again, split second shots, flashing lights, a lot of distractions; if we just saw the performer standing there doing their thing it might not be so great. Unless the person is really talented of course.

People using flashy expensive objects to imply success, when really they feel inadequate and unsuccessful.

Anyone else notice this?
Any more examples?

 

Instant Karma Potty Training​

​

Nothing from nothing ain't nothing when you can make soup from a stone,​

For it was the most naive among them that broke the magic spell,​

By daring to laugh at the funny naked man in the parade.​

The smallest molehill yet grows into a mountain of crap,​

Only to inexplicably vanish completely in the light of day,​

Yet a puddle, sheds invaluable light on the Big Picture,​

It is the tale of the "Toddler's Mad Dash for the Potty!"​

Where everything always works out in the end or doesn't,​

Where Goldilocks learns instant karma rules Murphy's Law.​

Everybody either makes it to the potty on time or they just don't!​

But, sooner or later, everybody learns how to put the pieces together,​

Sooner or later we learn how to wipe our own butt, and avoid falling hard.​

Simply by dashing back and forth to the potty the one truth remains inevitable,​

And, all you ever have to remember, is to run in circles screaming and shouting!​

Childhood's End is upon us once again, let the celebrations begin, wear your finest training pants!​

 

I understand the conceptual "nothing look like something" phenomena you are talking about but I'm not sure I necessarily get the same melancholy response towards it.

A lot of the stuff on the computer is similar, images are comprised of many pixels, buttons to change pages/sites are pretty much an illusory action and a lot of animations suggesting 3D or depth on the screen, are not truly 3D.

This type of stuff is likely to display and utilize more complexity than what is available in the building blocks of these phenomena. A lot of it exploits or maybe even in some instances, emulates our mind's tendency to filter and/or compartmentalize reality.


Many of these techniques are utilized as a means to further other concepts, which is pretty obvious surfing the web and watching and analyzing a movie. I suppose one could make the argument that these technologies kind of propel something of a "false reality" that that detracts us and our awareness away from the authentic environment around us. Reminds me of the Matrix.

 

Humans have done it to themselves for decades..

Hear the saying, fair coat, no knickers?

 

strangeness is wonderful, epicness is crap.
epicness/excitement to hide lack of substance.

each of us have our own interests.
trying to impress each other is a waste of everything.

i'm not sure how you'd paint an invisible rock
without an invisible rock to paint,
except with words, by means of which of course,
we can conjure anything.

though one thing i've discovered;
they don't always conjure same things
in two different people's minds.

lots of illusions are created by symbolic value.
the whole house of cards rests on that illusion,
that symbolic value is a symbol of something real,
when its only as real as someone else recognizes it to be.

now something you can use to do something with,
that's something real, or something in nature or the universe,
that's real too.

never heard the expression "fair coat, no knickers"
i'm guessing that's british, if i remember right.
i'm on the other side of an ocean and a continent
which i'm guessing is why i hadn't.

makes me think of either flashers, or little furry critters,
with their natural fur coats and no need for knickers.

i like the one george martin came up with for his havaland tuff:
"you can call yourself a bowl of oatmeal,
but you still look sillier then hell,
sitting on the kitchen table with milk on your head"