XVI. "Morning Has Broken: "Desert Song;" From Data to Information

William Laraque, Managing Director at US-International Trade Services

22.07.2015 01:00 am

You've heard of "Desert Song." You just know it by another name; "A Horse with No Name." The song as I explained in XV. "A Horse with No Name," was originally written and named "Desert Song" by the song writer Dewey Bunnel and contains an unusual 12 string guitar tuning and chord sequence during the whole song. This inspired me to drive home the following point about noise, data and information:

Music is distinct from noise. Eloquence is distinct from data. Just as data requires intelligence, instinct and imagination in order to become information, the same is required to turn imagination into art, music, oratory, and transformative economics into reality.

My mother taught me that empty vessels make the most noise. This is why it is so difficult to disseminate information in our world. There is so much noise and so little music.

"Do you hear the people sing,

Singing the song of angry men?"

Angry men make the most noise. They live in violence, in the dark. They are "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."Life is but a walking shadow. "It is a tale told by an Idiot."

"When you point your finger at the moon, the fool (idiot) sees your finger, the wise man sees the moon." -Mao

In my junior year of college, JFK said "Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."

Speech at the University of Kansas, Lawrence (18 March 1968).

In 1968, JFK called for us to land on the moon. Now we circle Pluto but we neglect those who live in the deserts of our mind.

For Cyrano, an angry man, Monfleury was that idiot, a poor actor. Cyrano ordered Monfleury off the stage for a month. Not because he was a poor actor but because Montfleury made a pass at Roxanne. Montfleury interfered with, obstructed the signals of love that Cyrano was so desperately trying to send Roxanne.

Noise is the obstruction between data and signal. Technology does not improve the situation. It is a poor actor. Einstein said that "gravitation cannot be held responsible for two people falling in love."

Technology, like gravitation does not provide the connection between data and information. This requires intelligence, insight, imagination...and courage, courage in love. Freud said that all of humanity desires the same two things, work and love. Art is the union of work and love. Love is the unifying principle.

Tim Cook of Apple, the world's most successful technology company said that you are only relevant if people love you.

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." - Einstein