Tech of the Times: Tracking the Unexplained in the 21st Century
Commenting on the way that researchers in the modern Internet era use the web to outsource tools for monitoring even the most esoteric studies, Jon Thompson at TechRadar.com discussed how Ufology is also going through “great changes” thanks to newly available technology.
“The Internet,” he says, “has certainly brought it chaos, but it has also been a catalyst for new life and opportunities. It’s now easier to be taken seriously if you have what you believe is an extra-terrestrial experience—and the very organisations you might try to contact in this case have also had to adapt to change brought about by the internet.”
True, the new methodology applied to the study of UFOs encompasses everything from using programs and utilities like Google Earth to “map” UFO hotspots, to capturing occasional airborne anomalies using outdoor webcams. More simply, however, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are making waves in the field, with online fan groups, networking forums, and even syndicated feeds that bring relevant news to our news collectors and cell phones without anyone having to look for them. Thanks to the web, mankind has all but created a filter that catches the summation of our ideas and interests, categorizing and capitalizing on them in new, exciting, and accessible ways.
But it’s not just the Internet that’s hooking up UFO hunters in ways that previously were unavailable. More and more photographs of strange things in the skies are now captured with camera phones, and images can not only be circulated from phone to phone via SMS text messages and email, but they can also be uploaded directly to the web via mobile applications, putting the stranger, seldom seen aspects of existence more in touch with the masses than ever before.
Although Google Earth is becoming a common tool used in the dissemination of information about odd locations and, occasionally, aerial phenomenon photographed via satellite, another feature Google provides is at the forefront of providing information to researchers once it has made its way to the web. Google News allows people to search for the most relevant news stories that include key terms they enter, and even sorts them into categories spanning frequencies as little as stories posted within the last hour! Additionally, Google Alerts will automate the same function in reverse: enter a term you want Google to send you notifications about, and you can get email messages with links every time they appear anywhere on the web. Instant news, and for users of BlackBerrys and other phones that carry email services, instantly at your fingertips!
With the growing availability of social networking and web-based resources, the field of Ufology will indeed continue to change… as well as virtually every kind of news gathering and reporting. Terms like “citizen journalism” come to mind, and a future of rich, constantly renewable source material is growing closer with every nanosecond. But what lies around the next bend? Where will it go from here, and more importantly, will technology be smart enough to crack any new leads on the mystery of strange objects seen in the skies?
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At the risk of treading over familiar and unpleasant ground (and, of course, being a spoilsport), with great power (in this case, the power of gathering and filtering huge amounts of information very quickly), comes great responsibility. Yes, I’m talking about the responsibility to avoid the Daily Me phenomenon.
A fortean researcher, presumably dabbling relatively even-mindedly in those affairs that others conciously filter out, is perhaps most damaged by the Daily Me. The ability to normalize all your input and filter out conflicting perspectives is dangerous for anyone, but this echo chamber is even more dangerous for someone who already works on the fringe. The tendency to be attracted to the fringe is perhaps one of the reasons why many people take up the study of the fortean, but the temptation to automatically silence all dissenting voices is what turns level-headed people into (otherwise level-headed) crackpots with no connection to consensus reality — and consensus reality is, of course, the only thing that could potentially give this study any kind of social or economic legitimacy.
We’re already on the losing end of the culture war — there’s the understanding that there are a few good and level-headed analysts who want to rationally research and understand that which is currently not sufficiently explained, but even that is popularly marginalized. We can’t lose any good researchers to the temptation of an echo chamber, and all the loss of perspective that brings. Don’t give a sword to a man who can’t dance, and don’t give a wand to a man who can’t deal with reality — and don’t let either keep holding their weapon when they’re too drunk to see straight.
Comment by ENKI-][ — March 2, 2010 @ 5:56 pm