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Monday, March 10, 2008

Then and Now

20 Years Ago

John sees a segment about the phenomenon of synesthesia on TV. He makes a mental note to research the topic. He finishes watching the show and hits the bed. Early the next morning, it’s Saturday, he wakes up and takes the bus to the local library. Half an hour later, he’s sitting on the floor of the psychology book section, next to a pile of books ranging from “An Introduction to Synesthesia” to “Synesthesia: Explained.” While John quietly reads through the pages, Jane, who’s new in town, walks by and stumbles over one of the books John piled up. After a quick “sorry,” John and Jane begin to talk. It turns out they share a common interest in psychology, and over the course of the next weekends, they meet up in the library again and again, now involved in a joint research project, and later, love. John is now happily married, and an expert in synesthesia.

 

Today

John sees a segment about the phenomenon of synesthesia on TV. During the commercial break, John quickly jumps to his desk to check the synesthesia article on Wikipedia; while scanning the article, John discovers an interesting link pointing to another Wikipedia article on the subject of blindness... and wondering why that article is semi-protected, John gets into a 3 hour edit war until Frank pings him on his IM to send him a picture showing a female US politician hilariously photoshopped into a man. Confused, and knowing as little about synesthesia as before, John hits the bed.

 

PS: In case you were wondering, yes, there’s a lesson in here: Wikipedia should NOT protect so many articles. It’s just wrong!

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