Our most precious faculty
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More
and more we are living in 'digital times'. Increasingly we hand over
our decisions to codes with complexities surmounting our spontaneous
apprehension. In parallel, we are advised to distrust face-to-face
communication, especially if contacted by strangers. Both strategies
have their own merits and dangers.
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In
principle, each spoken word relies on digital content, each sentence is
composed of words following rules, that we are seldom aware of. While
engaging these natural ('primary') communication channels, we stay the
master of our own decisions, although we may not be able to explain
each subtle detail of our utterances. Incorporating additional content
into our message using electronic equipment will be helpful, if both
sides command these utilities to a sufficient extent.
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'Primary'
communication requires our full attention and may take some minutes,
sometimes even hours. Humans experience a natural inclination to this
type of activity. Without anyone to talk to, we soon start to feel
uneasy. On the other hand, our ability to deal with multiple
communication partners has limits. More partners can be treated in the
'secondary' channel with the effect that they remain unknown to us.
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Do
we need to know all our partners? It may be up to us to decide, but in
many situations time pressure will curtail the availability of our
channel number one. In former times, before the advent of 'channel
two', careful time management solved the problem. But today, we no
longer apply these pains. We subscribe to agreements with partners we
don't know, even on matters with serious consequences, simply due to
lack of time (or indolence).
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We
are lured into such superficial contacts by the illusion of 'security':
We (or, better to say, our personal communication device) know his /
her fingerprint, iris pattern, gene sequence, without having spoken a
single word. While digital data may indeed single out any
individual against a background of 10 billion (or more), they can -
with some skills - be stolen and used without authorization.
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To
arrive at sure contacts, we need to know our partners. A few minutes of
focused conversation tell more than a million basepairs. A personality
is difficult to fake. Each human being has the faculty (to some part
inborn, to some part by education and experience) to become aware of the true
intentions of a communicating partner. It would be a mistake, not to
make use of this precious gift of nature.
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6/24 < MB 7/24 > 8/24
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