Columns

Soldiers — celebrated with soaring hosannas that foster myths once war is over — have been treated by their commanders for much of history as what in now known as “cannon fodder.” Military personnel, during most of the world’s great wars were issued no IDs, so identification of the dead, was chancy. Identification tags, weren’t issued until sometime in 1914.

All societies and individuals possess, consciously and unconsciously, a lexicon of myths. Historically, most youngsters embrace a central myth of youth — they are invincible — apart from their societies’ widely held concepts of immortality in various forms. Some myths come from a dense pre-historic past.

In Western cultures other myths are made immortal themselves by Greek, Latin and biblical literature. While a great many people today believe myths are no longer useful, they operate in cultures that deny them while subliminally utilizing them. The iconic “modern” example of course is George Lucas’ artful use of Goethe’s instructive Faust myth in “Star Wars” and its myriad cultural offspring about the universal hero. And in our modern midst are judges clad not in business suits, but draped in “magisterial” robes straight out Greek mythology and time. If being a judge in modern society were considered a mere “role,” the garb would be a CEO’s pin-stripe suit. “For law to hold authority beyond mere coercion, the power of a judge must be ritualized, mythologized. As does much of modern life today, from religion and war to love and death,” one cultural analyst has pointed out.

There is a certain body of water I have swum in, sailed on, and flown over at various points in my life. For centuries, since 1550, everyone has referred to it as the Gulf of Mexico.

As we reflect on the tech news of the past 12 months, stories have ranged from virtual reality games to foldable smartphones. Yet, the topic dominating much of the conversation this year has been artificial intelligence (AI), particularly ChatGPT.

As I am starting the process to write this I am visiting New York City where this afternoon I enjoyed sort of a man-on-the-street interview with a local whose attention was attracted by my hat.

Software as a Service (SaaS) is the direction in which the software industry wants to move so that everyone is required to pay a recurring fee (every month or every year) to keep using their software.