Dolly + Me

3-6 September 2026, SQUAMISH, BC

Today, the physical reality of Bipolar Disease truly landed on me. Oddly enough, watching interviews with Dolly Parton is what triggered it. Seeing someone whose mind and actions had been so perfectly and deliberately aligned made me realize just how chaotic my own wiring has been. She was an extraordinary business person, among so many talents. Language is the number one, yet I didn’t see anyone talking about that, in so many words. She was a quick and witty wordsmith. It’s something that was clear from her interviews. No question of design upon her then or now, and nary a negative word from her, seemingly ever positive and radiant. This was a natural genius/talent nurtured well by her family. She developed a narrative, a seemingly simple series of events resulting in success. Several times she recounted events, particularly of family or childhood.

One particularly repeated story was of her high school graduation at which everyone stood up and announced what they were going to do with their lives. She recounts that she announced in all innocence and seriousness, she was becoming a country star. The story goes ‘they all laughed.’ ‘But I didn’t understand why, ‘cuz I was serious!’ And, of course, that is what she did. She puts it plainly, ‘I graduated on a Friday, and I went to Nashville on a Saturday.’ This was using the magic of language. She stated it Friday, calmly and with deliberation. She then took immediate action. Doubtless she was excited about this move. Once she had finished doing what she was doing, going to high school, she declared her future, then took immediate action. What else was there to do? Wait? Having a clear mind and a buxom, healthy body, there was no need for delay. And, by all accounts that is what she continued to do, day after day. One step up a continuous ladder of success. This was not easy. It was simply effective. Having a singular purpose in mind does certainly simplify answering the question: ‘What is next?’ One simply follows the closest-to-hand option that leads to answering that purpose. This will work well if you act in integrity towards purpose, so that one’s path remains clear of doubts and needless calculations. It was clear from all the interviews with her, that Dolly Parton was raised with great integrity, no matter humbly. 

Dolly Parton died last month at age 80. Not only had she accomplished so much professionally, creatively, in largesse of business and of charity, but she had not stopped! The ongoing list of projects she was working on, or planning, is extraordinary. Of course, being Dolly Parton, these projects will continue as she has made plans for everything and, of course again, she has an amazing team around her who are continuing to move ahead. By the word of everything I heard and saw there is no doubt these plans may not only see the light of day, but be successful as well. Much of this is philanthropic; her legacy is sure to go on for years.

Not everyone has all their wiring so well put in place and is so encouraged. So, it is possible there are other geniuses out there as well, possibly still sorting out their wires, still in need of encouraging words, but prodigies nevertheless, hiding in plain sight. The only challenge is seeing their genius. This is a challenge both for the prodigy and the parents, friends, neighbours, etc. because frustrated genius rarely appears as genius. It appears as some kind of chaos or confusion, which makes identifying the underlying genius challenging, to say the least. This can be most frustrating to the prodigy/genius because from the interior perspective our hero senses something big yet he feels unable to articulate this ‘THING’, its purpose and vision. Like wanting, needing to sneeze, yet never sneezing. Like that, but it is not your nose that has that frustrating tickle, it is your life.

Recently (about three and a quarter percent of my life) I learned something about me that I was not aware of. It turns out that a few of my “wires” have some crossed signals. Apparently my brain has a neurotransmitter imbalance. This affects how my brain processes rewards, energy and emotional intensity. This impacts both my executive functions and how I process emotion and stress. I have less ability to balance and restrain emotions and can have stress pile up faster than other people experiencing the same things. This disease also affects my body’s circadian rhythms, which I find alters my sleep architecture, my hormone cycles and my metabolic functions. This disease is called bipolar disorder and I have it through a variety of genetic, environmental and maybe other factors. 

This disease is polygenic, which means hundreds of specific genetic variations act together to disrupt neural development, synaptic plasticity and cellular communications across generations of families. Two years ago I found out that I’m bipolar. This is a physical disease, meaning that it is not a personal choice, character trait, or normal mood swings. The good news is that as diabetes can be managed with insulin, bipolar disorder responds to biological therapies. I have found out that a balance of right medications and therapy is gradually mitigating many aspects of my life that were not working so well. There is a lot of trial and error. But once I knew I could be better off than I was, like Dolly Parton, I took immediate action. I will tell you: it is like before I lived life in the clouds, mist drifting every way, hard to get my bearings, let alone navigate my life or create order when suddenly the clouds begin to part, starting a little here, a little there, until I see a misty path before me and see my feet upon this new vision.

How do you describe a rainbow to the blind or a bird song to the deaf? How do you explain what ‘normal’ is to someone who has never known this before? All that I knew was that sometimes it felt as though the entire world as we know it had abandoned me. In this state it seemed pointless to try, it just made things worse, like stepping on the gas when a four wheel drive has all four wheels spinning in mud. Other times it felt as though I owned the world and had it by the tail. If one had felt one way or the other reliably, then I might have learned to cope with it. However, the nature of this disease’s harm comes from the unpredictability of when a switch occurred. It might not happen for months, when suddenly one random morning I wake up polarized the opposite way. If I had been depressed, now I was ecstatic, bouncing off walls. Manic, or hypomanic. If I was manic, seemingly as unpredictably one morning I would wake up dreading the day ahead, clear in this conviction that there was really no hope whatsoever. Obviously this was extremely difficult for those around me, including friends, family and cohorts. It turns out that relative stability is a pretty frequent prerequisite for most people in forming and maintaining relationships.

Often then I really truly was alone in life, sometimes going days, weeks or even months without true human contact, excepting my own, of course, whose only comfort during these times was its rancid familiarity. Other times, I felt like a human magnet: people so predictably and enthusiastically related and connected with me. Again, it was the uncontrollable switching which prevented connections from sticking. The variations of emotional intensity which occur with bipolarism are uncontrolled, virtually uncontrollable in some situations, externally. While internally the stress of the intensity and its switching polarity tested the roots of my being, directing me to question everything including my own purpose and validity. Externally, this appeared sometimes as uncontrolled bursts of violent emotion calibrated to separate me from everything and everyone dear in this life.

Executive functions are impacted by bipolarism. Having a finite supply of executive functioning, I learned how to make the most of my attention and focus when I have it. I try to decide things, if possible as they pop up, because delaying means I may get overloaded with complex inputs or I might forget. Talk of forgetting things reminds me of how much I taught things to myself through data. Realizing my executive functions are not always reliably effective means I have learned how to record things, employing a wide variety of both digital and analog methods. My favorite of all was and is my ability to create hybrid means of memory and recall, that is combining both digital and analog media, generating something altogether new.

Dolly Parton declared her vision and went to Nashville the next day. My vision is to build a global brand of sober bars—creating a healthier, more conscious way of eating, relating, and building community. By exploiting my knowledge of writing and of technology, I am creating my Nashville. That’s how I get to see my vision realized. I don’t think you need to be born with perfect wiring to build your vision. I think I can build a life I love just exactly the way I am.

About the picture, I was not fortunate enough to meet Dolly Parton in this lifetime, but if we had been firsthand friends I would have loved to have her over for dinner. Bless you Dolly! -BMW

If Only I Could File Time

If only I could file time, conjectured Pilot smoothly, autonomously, inwardly. They sat down, volumnously with toes spread far apart, on each side of the chair, splaying ankles apart and hugging the chair like a saddle. Pilot sat bolt upright, engaging all his leg muscles.

Perhaps I can, he thought, surreptitiously glancing at his dishwasher, even now displaying 1:41, causing him saved time. Wasn’t. a dishwasher just a saved program, of a very specific nature? Same with the refrigerator, a gleaming LG model with freezer (drawer) on the bottom and fridge where it ‘should’ be, at eye level 🙂

Refrigerator notwithstanding (as it literally paused time for objects placed within it, so cunningly designed, it was), all tools do, in a way, ‘file time’, as each one solves a usually time consuming method required without said tool.

A matter of fact was, Pilot could not survive without tools, s/he was encased in one, in the first place, and this entire planet seemed to run everything through tools, it was not an option to get along without becoming proficient, where possible expert, at said tools.

This required on-going acquisition of tools, in this case the latest being a fast, sleek electronic glass kettle, creatively purchased along with two sets of matching glasses using rewards points. So much of Pilot’s time was being saved, in point of fact that s/he was beginning to get ahead of the curve and frequently was able to and did sit and think about a thing or two, before acting.

Thus, at an inflection point of growth, Pilot suddenly found his diet enriched with much more than protein powder. While he ate a lot of that, this new diet and its directions promised even more, in other directions, than the enhanced physique the protein powder helped provide access to. No, it was a whole new life, this new diet promised.

{Pilot’s Story} Marketing at its Edges

Pilot had experienced the edges of perceived perception up, down and sideways, not to mention a thousand other ways including at least eight known dimensions and more like sixty-four.

It was while he was occupied, exploring perception when Pilot most often got his most fierce ideas. Ideas that now once it was done: launching the GENR8 EXPLORER; were genesis of a new life for him and others, as well.

That this coincided with the occurrence of ‘publishing + public relations’ points to yet more guidance that Pilot was somehow receiving, in an unknown way from a great source.

That this guidance pointed Pilot, no matter belatedly to completion of said book, category got Pilot anxious as yet troubled seductive charm of anxiety raged its rear head quickly enough yet baring teeth only is swiftly energized swept away extinct now done by therefore leaving space. 

In its place imagining waving sets of books like old school encyclopedias at students accustomed to apps and emails. What if this goes wrong? It is likely to, this he knew, therefore, better to imagine in what case it can be proved successfully? Exactly, yes.

Pilot’s Careful Research

Tuesday. Day of connection. On his usual perambulatory exercises Pilot could feel his fourth appendage somewhat pulling in, as he frequently had. It was a complex movement. This day he worked at turning this tube back directly into the fourth position. Of course, its fourth position was unique in perspective to any other tube’s fourth, so knowing how exactly this felt and even how to go about it was primarily a matter of look and feel to him. 

The cylinder kept wanting to stay in its usual position and to move in its usual way. This track, however, was not ideal, at least for Pilot’s intent, and besides, any track held to overlong could only serve to wear that track, possibly even resulting in failure. As both Pilot and Elevator knew, failure at anywhere near this juncture was inadvisable and therefore it really was best to find a new stride: if only it was not difficult to balance into fresh equilibriums!

Viele Zähnräder im Getriebe einer Maschine als Panorama

Perhaps this leg’s fourth position was somehow related to calibration, for that had been Pilot’s primary focus for several days next. Reaching it far out behind him, to stage left, he felt his appendage quivering there, unwilling to stay passively in this extended ‘fourth’ position. That had to change. Perhaps indeed it already was in the process of changing—he knew it was, but there was a ways still to go.

For all that, Pilot maintained his position, uncomfortable though it may be, it helped maintain a sense of ‘aliveness’ that spurred and even ignited thoughts and further actions. For instance, he scanned alternate ways to activate this motion further in the future. Skates maybe?

Pilot spent the morning furnishing and caring for Elevator’s needs, besides his own. Needing both to begin to function in synchrony permanently was the idea, Pilot to that his own idea was at once both fiction and necessary made the whole thing not so maddening overall. There was no doubt whatsoever he had piloted Elevator to the edge and he had no intention of skating there for a nanoseond more than was necessary. Piloting Elevator was a lot like skating around, he thought dreamily. It was easier to move in arcs, generally. Once departing from a standing stop, however, ANY direction might be arrived at, the question at once departing was; had he stopped?

Yes, he remembered distinctly, he had even made a note about it. It was the beginning of the end day. Today was day 3 since. He had been fully stopped, then he had started again, quite slowly. Today he was up to queries he had formed the day hence, yesterday. Today was, in fact, about looking forward towards a destination time, sometime in the future, instead of the past. This time in the future had been dialled in yesterday, and yesterday as well questions had been posited, to fulfill on this day’s destination.

Already, in addition to care and maintenance for El, as well as its enrivons, taking a high perch on a new seat, in the sunshine of another room, facing South, Pilot next considered many research points he had visited in the last few hours.

Businessman with backpack and binoculars watching from above the city

Big wheel starts rolling

Point of Interface: Pilot deciding to address his point of interface is the last frontier of humankind. Becoming aware that what we choose and how we choose it fundamentally forms our relationships and our shares, becoming certain brands + marks. This idea is what GENR8 technology forms today, coaxial communications node systems designed to form the future beginning today.

What’s next?

And then??

Can We Talk?

I Don’t Know Best How To Communicate With You.

I may never have been able to communicate truly effectively.

It is not my fault, and it’s not yours: it’s language’s. After all, we’re only human.

Allow Me To Offer You A Framework:

I’ve spent a lot of time developing structural concepts relating to founding psychological concepts, technical ideas, biases and economic cooperation plans and their documentation.

Then I find I can’t express them very well at all.

What Is The Issue?

Context: The ideas I have almost always have to do with some technological aspect of communications. (I am a designer in publishing). Today, it is safe to say people could not live without language and technology (including agriculture, of course).

But, the languages we have, although precise (English and French have a LOT of words), fail in communicating my ideas completely, because they are incomplete. Incomplete? Yes; by their very nature spoken and written languages are not exhaustive (they’re always inventing new words, because of this) and they are only loosely accurate. Language is indirect, it is representational, immaterial. The sound of the word ‘water’ isn’t the same as the substance we are mostly made of. So language is loosely accurate, at best.

Language is loose? Spoken words are loose because while I am attempting to convert my thoughts into ideas, then into words, you are trying to convert my words into ideas into your thoughts. See the problem here? It’s easy to see why words and thoughts often get lost in translation using spoken language. It’s how misunderstandings arise, and why they happen all the time in writing as well.

Your context and my context are not identical. Sometimes this completely prevents me from communicating with you–especially if we speak different tongues, or maybe come from different backgrounds or eras.

What About Technology?

Technology can’t understand us at all. Sure, it can parrot spoken words back as text, but it has no idea of their meaning. Now I’m really stuck. You can’t understand me and neither can your (or my) equipment get me either. The experience of this is isolating. In agriculture today this may be expressed through the reductive ‘monsanto’ reasoning that has become a de facto standard (where farmers aren’t allowed to own the product of their own crops). In social media it can be expressed through digital plagiarism and also similar ‘monsanto’ reasoning where now your data and thoughts don’t really belong to you either, but to large conglomerated corporations. We are witnessing all the attendant symptoms of disempowerment, including various forms of addiction, i.e. withdrawal, loneliness, not taking care of business, as well as crimes of frustration, protest, etc. You could say technology’s influence is helping produce something like a global ‘ISOLATION SYNDROME’ of frustration. Hmm, does this scenario sound at all eerily familiar?

Society, including everyone and everything from agriculture to social media, seems at war with itself through language–complete with all the endemic misunderstandings this brings. This is not trivial, as real wars emanate from warring words, as we witness daily. The polarization of politics is just one (obvious) aspect of this which has become so virulent that our own democracies and democratic institutions are figuratively and indeed literally, under attack. The odd thing? We have recently had so much extraordinary technology added to our toolbox; yet contrary to common sense, it seems at present this very technology is making our ‘wars of words’ WORSE and our ironically common sense of isolation and loneliness MUCH WORSE.

Is There A Solution?

Is there a solution? Yes. We are going to need a bigger ‘wrench’: a bigger, better language system. Specifically, we need a (much) bigger, (much) more powerful and (way) more resilient toolset to communicate between ourselves, using technology as our intermediary substance. 

Here is what I mean: remember how I am having thoughts in my head, attempting to put them into words and then you are hearing words and attempting to convert them into thoughts in your head? This actual process is what we must find an effective way to do with machines. If we can teach machines to understand us, possibly machines could also communicate with us and we with them. That means we could then converse with our pocket computers. This also means we could bring some mighty technological leverage to bear on solving some pressing problems. (A few of which are getting critical, in fact).

Science Fiction or Science Fact?

At the moment, the idea of being able to hold a discourse with a machine IS science fiction. For some people, the prospect of this technology frightens them. The principal and obvious reason the possibility of true opulence in our technical and communications fortitude can be frightening is likely because the existing global oligopoly business structure would, if it controlled such a thing, indeed make a mincemeat of our freedoms. Let’s set this one thing aside for now and address the issue at hand. What’s needed to increase the utility of language such that it can be both an accurate means of communicating with machines (and machines with us) AND the beautiful, poetic and emotional toolset that we already enjoy in day to day speech between every one of us?

What is needed is a new FORM of language communication now. This form of language must be about containing the thought or intention, not (necessarily) just the words used. For want of a better word at the moment, let’s just call this language a ‘Framework’.

It turns out that a Framework, if there were one such thing, would not be arbitrary. In contrast, it would present its rationality in full transparency for all the world to see. That would be the only way to stuff it full of features as efficiently as possible. Not a ‘black box’, a ‘glass box’; the Framework provides a form for a pipeline, a shape to the complex hose of communications that runs in potential between every one of us (and every one of our machines). All we really need to define is this Framework because its specification, like that of an elevator shaft, dictates the form of its conveyances and their function, but not its contents. The contents, knowledge or data on or in a Framework is up to us.

What’s New and Different: a Classification System

Framework structure is defined by stability and efficient processing since ultimately it is conceived as a utility: a taxonomy of thought or intention, if you will. It is also conceived both as economical in structure and universal in methodology as possible given certain constraints, namely, people and computers today. In other words, the effective Framework is a universal classification system (ie taxonomy) for the organization of thoughts, intentions and ideas. 

Being of an economic nature means that it may be widely applied without net cost and being universal in means, means it may be applied throughout technologies and with reference to any human direction or activity in all circumstances. What more can be said about an appropriate Framework’s structure? Let’s wrap up today’s discussion with an outline of three specific qualities I observe that an effective Framework must have.

Three Framework Qualities

1: Crystalline Form

One of the first qualities of the communications Framework is that its form is crystalline by nature. In chemistry, a crystal is defined as any solid consisting of a symmetrical, ordered, three-dimensional aggregation of atoms or molecules. A Framework will have these qualities: It is crystalline, that is precise, ordered, multi-dimensional and self-aggregating. In this way it reflects the natural world as well as our own biology.

2: Suprarational Shape

Being crystalline in form does not dictate the shape of our Framework. Crystals come in many shapes and colors. Its shape may be described as ‘suprarational’, which I define as being both mathematically precise, exact; and capable of resolving advanced fuzzy logic / ambiguity issues at the point of interface. The effective Framework is pseudo-psychological; it has distinctive and commonly well-defined and delineated conceptual ‘entrances’, ‘exits’ and ‘points-of-call’ so that it easily connects ideas within itself. This may also be described accurately as having a twisted pair geometry, providing both built-in grammar and the opportunity to connect long strings into complex ‘ideas’, much like DNA does. 

3: Human Exchange Mechanism

The final critical quality of the communications Framework I’d like to call out today is its ability to effectively exchange and communicate not just thoughts or ideas but transactions, trades and real exchanges as well. In other words, you can say the effective Framework is also a trade or exchange mechanism, working on a granular basis between us. Like any exchange, a Framework must convey both the actual context and ‘living color’ of its descriptions, providing a valid and secure way to authenticate both itself and the named objects it describes.

Conclusion

We need a better language set to solve the rapidly escalating communications needs we will continue to experience in the twenty-first century. This language must provide a combined way to communicate between people, people and machines and machines with each other.

One reason we have yet to launch such a Framework is the issue of corporate control. We propose the Framework will not be built (or controlled) by large corporations, but by individuals and that the product itself will be owned not by any one individual or company but by humanity.

As the issue of architecture is surely an overarching concern, I would like to contribute my development research to the architecture. While it is in one sense ineffable (as I have been at pains to explain through this short article), on the other hand I have given a few clues through a short, 16 word appellation: It is the Reality-Based Object-Oriented Local Personal Quadralinear Universal Fuzzy-Logic Architectonic Rapid Input Ergonomic Data Integrated Knowledge Building System. This term describes everything (and nothing) about it. 

Ready to Learn More? Want to Contribute to This Project?

I want to help build the general communications infrastructure of the 21st century.

Would you like to contribute? We need contributions to help support ongoing development costs. [https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=VZBY2BRA7LJCC]

Would you like to get involved? [comment or email me; we need passionate team members!]

Incidentally, I’ve included a detailed top-level scalar plan of this FRAMEWORK in the back of all GENR8 Brain Paper notebooks: [https://amazon.com/author/brainpaper]

Bryce Winter is the author of Signs & Symbols of Success, a treatise on archetypal forms including color in the world of branding. He is also the co-author of How to Work With Teams, an introduction to PEAK communications archetype forms and their use in day to day communications. Bryce is the author and architect of GENR8 technology forms, which are described synoptically in this article.

Fumbling In The Dark

Halfway into the midcentury game, Pilot fumbled its ball, again.

Then, scrambling to get back under the ball as it jumped up and off to one side at a random-seeming angle from where he fumbled it. Pilot wished one of his teammates might be able to polish off the point, because possibly, then tho he had fumbled it and so it wasn’t called, it was still a legit setup for an experienced player, not even an expert, necessarily. Any intermediate player worth his salt could have at least returned the fumble for a setup on the third. Or, taken it for a low spike.

No.

Instead, Pilot knew there was no other experienced player on the court at all, besides himself, at this juncture. So, gathering up his steam, Pilot soldiered underneath where he felt said ball might be coming down, and gathering strength he lowered his chassis, alert, close to the earth in a relaxed, open attitude, receptive while under tension. Relaxed, yet alert he dove for the ball.

Getting down in time (hope was). Rounding off three or four quick throw-away shots that might dampen his prey, pilot picked himself up, dusted off his things and crossed the street to the Library to address this issue.

The second floor reading room was easy entrance plus Pilot was prepared with both battery powered devices as well as a variety of battery-free devices, namely Four Notebooks by Nourish!

It has been a while since Pilot has glimpsed his mission, again, in all regalia. Glancing up, he glimpsed light, pale Northern Winter light through leafless tree branches that surrounded his side of the library. Wide bands of thermal insulated windows kept a warm, comfortable environment by his side and a unique, molded wheeled chair under its hips and shoulders and elbows. Huge extensive feet pressed firmware into library carpeting. Pilot was temporarily thrown into low- contrast perception by direct sunlight suddenly piercing prehensile cloud drifts, tree branches and glass.

Corduroy elastics behind its ears kept Pilot’s mind distracted, at first plus from time to time as after two years, Pilot STILL has not acclimated fully to public face mask wearing and therefore has not equipped itself with available technology fully.

Saying that Pilot was not an enthusiast was not strictly true as he has found it several colors and styles of facial covering. Nevertheless it was still wearing a low-cost, poorly fitting mask so clearly enthusiasm was lacking.

Stylish but less than practical, Pilot thought about the mask worn this day at the library as corduroy dug uncomfortably into skull latches at either side of the head. Nevertheless, he resolved to allow his flesh to become used to it, for a while at least sooooo he could concentrate on other things, like being a better player. Players must not get distracted by clear wardrobe malfunctions, just ask Janet Jackson.

Taking a deep breath, Pilot settled himself comfortably in its seat. Glancing up, he softened his gaze. Shallow but sky-encompassing white filmy Winter clouds kept light piercing the bare tree branches soft now, and he could feel both his brow and his breathing soften.

It really was. All right.

With abilities to ‘chunk’ information and file things, Pilot was gradually able to realise things. Now, he no longer had to ‘finish every task’, as once it was begun, nor did he trouble himself much with judging the impoverished state of that which was incomplete, primordial really. Instead, he filed it away, into one of a thousand online files or into one of a thousand pages he has battery free access to.

#schoolforlife #genr8 #papernotebooks #nowornever

Novella Notebooks
School For Life prompted journals
Nourish Publishing

Take It Racing

..one way to improve any performance is to take it racing.

Some YouTuber

Pilot heard the phrase in his echoing chambers resoundingly, even now, and it must be hours (and hours!) later.. What made it clatter so?

Maybe because Pilot was looking for ways to improve performance, maybe because it appealed to the wind-cheating design of his, maybe because he was (at last!) ready to ‘get the lead out’ as it has been described. All this, plus his design did need further tweaking and inwardly Pilot knew he had done enough on his own, it was time for his formulas to be put the test.

Why not race it?? The thought kept circulating with Pilot throughout the day.

By the end of its day (this was early in 2022 1 11 to be exact) Pilot imagine he could see all that was his to be laid out in a giant race track for others to view. Races. Racing. Wasn’t that what a contest was? Hadn’t that been what it had been doing all along? He had started that, at Acadium so far. Now, suddenly more, much more came up on his central screen, long obscured by chiaroscuro. 2022 was proving to be all that he had dreamed so far. It was going to be a trip!

The Interface War

The answer cannot be to be away from all people, all other people, it must be instead to be independent of other people and unmoved by their noise and circumstance. Is that it? Can one be both independent and simultaneously ‘with’? Can I?

Meanwhile, the War plays on, uninterrupted, save I, for the moment a ‘conscientious objector’, using a notebook, not an electronic one either, a paper and pencil analog notebook. Isn’t this rather avoiding the issue, instead of facing and addressing it head-on? I prefer to think of it as respite before heading back to the trenches. Besides, what difference does it make if I abandon my post temporarily. It is not as if I was under direct attack, is it? Only, like you, I AM under direct attack, with almost every interface experience today. There is no such thing anymore (if there ever was) as ‘neutral’ communications. 

Every tap on every ‘Black Mirror’ screen, every tickle of every keyboard is logged and rolled into an unceasing complex of data and information tracked, mined and fertilized with more information and used to retarget more of the same. It was not the mining that caused the war. It is actually the ‘more of the same’ that started it all off. The endless cacophony of more-of-the-same promotion racket that has been running for two decades now. It is so commonplace that younger generations have never seen anything else. As a result they are almost universally cynical. At least older generations had the advantage of television to develop immunity to commercials. With television, you see, commercials came at predictable intervals, grouped together, for predictable (usually short) amounts of time. True, there was the occasional half hour or one hour ‘infomercial’ program, but these were rare and truth be told, often quite amusing and there was no doubt whatsoever they were paid commercial broadcasts. Today, instead, we have slyly inserted micro promotions and attention / intention-grabbers anywhere and everywhere throughout the digital experience. Now everyone and everything is a target for more-of-the-same no matter the occasion. Browsing? Yes. Shopping? Yes. Emailing? Yes. Messaging? Why not? Nothing is sacrosanct, nothing is sacred in this environment.

Used to be more-of-the-same was universally labelled as new, (or brand-new!), whether it was breakfast cereal, cars, or clothes. Now, everything is recycled more-of-the-same but the focus has shifted from new more-of-the-same products to new more-of-the-same interests, focus, beliefs or attitudes. The result is that with more and more information we are becoming more and more polarized. War is the reason why. The Interface War.