Texting, Email, Telephone and Friendship

OK, I think there is a pattern. I often come in contact with the strange species. People who on one hand insist on calling themselves “friends” and at the same time declare their preference for the digital communication. They actually say “we hate the analog”, the telephone and a live conversations for sure. There are two problems here actually, first is the definition. To be a friend you need to smell things together, have some fights. Most importantly develop a feeling for the outside chance that this person might have your back when the push comes to shove and hope to return the favor. If you are guys you probably would rate some chicks together or talk about your dreams and disappointments. Friends would walk the darn streets of Lyceum at 3 am, it takes years and I mean decades.

But back to the communications. Ever heard of the Turing Test? Look it up. The genius who broke the Enigma Code during the war, before he killed himself in despair over the cruel hormonal torture performed on him by the British. Before his death Alan Turing invented this test. He maintained that in a digital conversation between a computer and a human, most of the time you would not be able to tell if you are talking to a machine. And here is the rub, people who insist on the digital want to sterilize interactions from any emotional current. No microbes, no smells, no smiles or laughter, no screaming and spitting, no bodily fluids, no fluidity of a live conversation. Supposedly there is a place for this in our life. But while texting, emailing, commenting, tweeting, etc. prepare to talk to a human who moonlights as a machine or wants to cross dress as a machine specifically with you. Bless the unpredictable nuance and bless the heroic courage to be vulnerable!