Event Horizon By Matthew Montague Print this out and take it outdoors. Go on. Now stand still and look around. In your mind’s eye, compose a three dimensional structure of all you can see. Trace out your line of sight, from your feet along the ground to the structures, vegetation, and landmasses that form your horizon, and past the horizon to the furthest reaches of your vision. In the day, this the blue of the sky; at night, this will be the darkness of space and even light years out to the stars. Trace this all the way up to directly overhead. Now, slowly swivel yourself 360 degrees. Your structure will form a jagged hemisphere. This is the limit of your perception in this moment. It is simultaneously vast and limited. Theoretically, this structure is your world as you absolutely know it at this moment. This is your event horizon – all events within this horizon are known and actionable; all event outside are unknown and unactionable. Ask yourself or, better, have someone ask you a series of questions that require considered decision. For example: * Would you prefer water or milk with dinner? * Would you rather be a camel or a horse? * What sort of computer do you prefer – Mac or Windows? * Would you rather have a job you enjoy that pays little or a job you dislike that pays a lot? * Would you rather have high unemployment and low inflation or vice versa? Note the amount of time and attention you can pay to these questions while standing still. Now, begin walking slowly and repeat the exercise above. Note how the requirements of movement – moving your limbs, and scanning the ground below and the terrain ahead – begin to shrink your event horizon. The amount of space that can track, and know, sharpens from behind you forward along your flanks, and narrows to a wedge of the hemisphere you formed when standing still. The need to attend to change in your position has narrowed your vision and reduced the extent of your certain knowledge. Reconsider the questions above, or new ones. Notice that the very act of movement, of change, has shortened your attention span, reduced the consideration you give to your answers. Walk faster. Your event horizon narrows further and your attention span shortens. Begin to trot and then run. Note how the event horizon narrows further and further. It is almost impossible to give the questions any consideration at all. You may begin to blurt out your answers randomly. Get on a bike and increase your speed. Now, technology has taken over some of the mechanics of change, but with increased speed, risk increases. Note how there is a certain short-term blurring of the ground immediately beneath your wheels and how the responsibilities of using the technology has taken more of your attention away from the questions before you. Get in a car and go even faster. Now, you have a ton or more of mass to guide carefully. While the physical effort is reduced to almost nothing, the mental effort has increased vastly. Or it hasn’t. The security of the auto chassis and safety systems reduces the perceived personal risk and many take this security as the means to relaxation. They turn on the radio, talk on the cell phone, roll up the windows, and blot out the immediate world. They can now drive swiftly past squalid slums or monotonous suburbs with nary a thought as to the people living there, a feat impossible while standing still or even walking. As the car goes faster and faster, the ground beneath wheels begins to blur further and further outward from the front – creating a “hole” in the event horizon. (I first noticed this effect on the autobahn) Finally, get on an airplane and accelerate to nearly the speed of sound. Vault entire oceans at once. Cross the world 35,000 feet above the ground, your event horizon reduced to a small oval of glass and the interior of the aircraft. The earth below is a gray haze, the sky above a featureless blue expanse, the movie on the little screen in front of you is very funny. Change is accelerating, that much is very clear. New technology is constantly and dramatically altering both the very foundation of life and its attendant details. This change comes unevenly but inevitably to the entire world. This fact is unsettling but not unwelcome. This is not a polemic against technology or change. This is a discussion of how change narrows and focuses the event horizon, shortening decision times and altering the decision process (narrowing the parameters and introducing “noise”), resulting in decisions that are short term in nature and ill-considered – in personal, business, social, and governmental arenas. Copyright 2010 Matthew Montague Smashwords Edition, License Notes This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.