We all have certain things we know about. We know about what we do for work, what we’re interested in, what we see on the news, what we read about, whatever seeps into our memory over time. Let’s call all our accumulated knowledge a sphere of awareness.
Once years ago I read a review of a movie called “The Star Chamber,” which was about a group of judges and police who decided whether to unofficially execute criminals who managed to avoid conviction. The reviewer wondered why the science-fictiony name “Star Chamber” was used. I was surprised that she had never heard of the original Star Chamber, which was a royal court of last resort in England where the king could right what he considered to be mistakes in the regular court system. The Star Chamber was in my sphere of awareness, but not hers.
I routinely call out BS in movies involving the military, usually because of hair that’s too long, but sometimes because apparently the writers don’t know how low-ranking personnel treat high-ranking personnel. I worked for nearly 30 years in missile defense, and I had lots of contact with soldiers, so lots of military things are in my sphere of awareness.
Leah and I usually watch the Today Show as we eat breakfast (or at least we have it on while we eat). On Thursday, there was a great example of things out of my sphere of awareness, and things out of the hosts’ spheres of awareness. The first thing was a segment about “one of the most popular boy bands in the world” called One Direction. There is an upcoming movie about their “epic tour”. The entertainment reporter for USA Today said that One Direction is “just huge right now, they’re humongous.”
I know what One Direction is because I think I saw them once on the Today Show or the Tonight Show or somewhere, but I am totally oblivious to what they are doing right now, probably because I’m one of those people who never read People magazine outside the dentist’s office. One Direction is within my sphere of awareness, but just at the margins.
And then the reporter started talking about another new movie called “The Imitation Game.” It’s about a “Nazi code breaker”, a “mathematician who figures out how to break this Nazi code.”
As soon as she said “Nazi code breaker” I knew she meant someone who broke the Nazi code rather than a Nazi who broke a code, and I knew she was talking about Alan Turing.
They mentioned Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Turing, and Keira Knightly, who plays one of his assistants, but they never mentioned Turning’s name. My impression was that they did not know who this person was. From this I assume that Alan Turing is not in the hosts’ spheres of awareness.
Alan Turing is one of the most famous computer scientists in history. His Turing machine developed the very concept of computing and computer algorithms we use today. The Turing test is one of the foundational concepts of artificial intelligence. And aside from all that, some people consider Alan Turing to have made perhaps the largest contribution to the Allied victory over Nazi Germany of any single individual when he and his team broke the Nazi military code*.
Since his death he has received widespread recognition. According to Wikipedia, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most important people of the 20th Century.
Given all that, I was a little surprised that Alan Turing was apparently outside these peoples’ spheres of awareness. But different people know different things. They would probably consider me hopelessly ignorant of current culture because I don’t follow One Direction.
* Despite his contributions, the British government prosecuted Turing in 1952 for homosexuality. He pleaded guilty and was given probation with the condition that he take a female hormone that rendered him impotent and caused other physical changes. He lost his security clearance and could no longer work as a government cryptanalyst. He died two years later, apparently of cyanide poisoning, either by suicide or by accident. In 2009 the British government apologized for their persecution of Turing.
Interesting insights, Mark. I find myself noticing the limits of my sphere of awareness when I see a television program or a movie that introduces me to a new concept or a word, and then I run into that word or concept when I’m reading. A bulb above my head lights up and I say to myself, “I know that word (or concept)!” I suspect that when I’m reading, I sometimes just skim over (or just lightly absorb) some words/concepts.
I like the concept of “sphere of awareness.” I think one of the reasons I enjoy reading blogs is that it increases my sphere.
Scott — I do the skipping or skimming thing when I’m reading. I just kind of assume a meaning based on context. That was a bigger problem back in high school, when the teacher might ask a student to define one of those words.
Robin — I agree. So many people know so much more than me about so many things, it’s fun to just go along for the ride, and maybe learn a few things along the way.
I like this approach to thinking about the disconnect between people. I think we all know it intuitively, but it’s a nice model both in time and in interests.
I’m still heavily involved with 20-year-olds as a result of my work, and generally more intimately than a professor or instructor would be. They often ask me what’s my favorite music, what’s my favorite movie? (Seldom what’s my favorite book.) I can’t answer such questions satisfactorily. I’ve watched 50 years of movies, and have had ups and downs on the contemporary music I’ve listened to over a similar period. I do like Cold Play! For them, the favorite of anything is probably going to be the last thing they liked a lot. For me, it’s dozens of things, and for all kinds of reasons. That’s the discontinuity of spheres of awareness in time.
Then there’s the discontinuity in interests. I could, but hardly need go farther than my interest in box turtle populations and movements, something which takes up much of my time and reservoirs of guilt. That one is hard to explain to most people. I’d guess there’s only 100-1000 people on the North American continent who dabble in this.
Alan Turing was a tragic figure, but for most he was outside of their sphere of awareness. But for a journalist reporting or reviewing on the movie, and not being aware of the man himself? That’s a disconnect that says something!
Wayne: Why does your interest in box turtles take up “…reservoirs of guilt”? Please explain. One of my board members ran across a young man with a box turtle in my natural area preserve last week. He was going to say to the guy, “I hope you’re not taking that turtle out of the preserve,” but he didn’t, and the turtle is probably doomed to a long, protracted death as a “pet.” We hardly ever see box turtles here any longer.
By the way, I have seen The Star Chamber, with Hal Holbrook, I think.
Wayne — I was 35 when I went to work in Huntsville, and there was a fair number of recent college grads starting about the same time. Sometimes I felt like I was from a different planet when they talked about their interests and activities. One of them is now in his 40’s and he feels far more like a contemporary to me. We talk about the new people who have come to work and how they look like they should still be in middle school.
I thought about box turtles when I replied to Robin’s comment about reading blogs. I have to conclude that a thing is worth being interested in if someone has a great interest in it, even if I don’t quite understand why at the moment (a few things, like the private lives of movie stars, excepted). I think that’s why there are so many people in the world — to make sure there are enough people around to be interested in every single thing that exists. If I don’t know or understand why someone is interested in something, that’s my problem. I just need to pay attention long enough to figure it out.
I try not to be too judgmental about what people don’t know, but in the case of a network reporter, I really think they should have at least a passing acquaintance with, let’s say, Time magazine’s 100 most important people of the 20th Century. And, really, Alan Turing? They don’t know who Alan Turning was?
On the other hand, when I was a reporter with three or four years’ experience, a new reporter I was talking to didn’t know which countries were on which side in WW II.
I can remember when Saddam Hussein was toppled and a bronze statue of him was literally toppled that a newscaster noted that the statue was hollow, taking that as a sign of the weakness and emptiness of the regime itself. Having done some bronze casting myself, this was in my sphere, and I knew that the statue would have to be hollow. All bronze statues are. I chuckled at the wrongness of the newscaster’s observation, all the more since she then built her political/philosophical response based on it.
Pablo — That kind of thing has happened to me, both ways. I once made fun (in a friendly way) of a coworker for calling a hose a hosepipe. I suggested that the usage was kind of “north-Alabama.” And then I read a book by an English writer who described a scene in which the fire department had strewn their hosepipes across the street while fighting a fire. It turned out that I was the one skirting the edges of my sphere of awareness.