One of my favorite podcasts of all time is Clay Shirky’s “Ontology is Overrated”. This was my first experience of Shirky’s keen insight and cleaver delivery. He’s a funny guy and makes his points quickly and logically. I have used this presentation so many times, in doing analysis, that I mindmapped it. Shirky points out that the ontological battle boils down to two world views. One where the world makes sense, and one where one needs to make sense of the world.
Recently it’s occured to me that this is the same conundrum that faces agent Scully, when dealing with the X-File‘s Mulder, Aliens and monsters-of-the-week on Chris Carter‘s famous TV series. Scully’s med-school scientist is convinced that the world makes sense. Unfortunately, anyone that believes that the world makes sense, will run into circumstances where those beliefs don’t fit the evidence. In that case, the only logical conclusion is that there must be something wrong with the world.
Mulder’s ongoing attempt to make sense of the world allows him the freedom of thought to observe the fantastic with aplomb. Unconstrained by empirical notions, he is wide open to understand the paranormal. In the media metacosm, that the Internet and the web have introduced to our intellect, it seems that these critical thinking skills will be the difference between the success and failure of generations struggling to cope with the onslaught of data.
“Scully! Over here!”
Tags: Chris Carter, Clay Shirky, Critical Thinking, Dana Scully, do we make sense of the world, Does the World make sense, Fox Mulder, Mindmap, Ontology is Overrated, The X-Files, World View