Thursday, June 9, 2016

Speaking In Memories

It's a peculiar thing, a strange feature of this different age.

I'll be on social media, browsing my array of friends and acquaintances, and I'll encounter a statement or a thought or an assertion.  That statement, thought, or assertion will trigger a memory of a movie.  Or a memory of a show.  Or a memory of a speaker.

And instead of commenting, I'll go to Google or Youtube, search for a version of that moment, and then share it.

I'll typically only do this if I feel that the human in question will get the reference...but I'm still just passing along a shared memory.  "Here, observe how the concept you have shared is mirrored/flavored by this other story we both have as a shared experience."

It is...peculiar.  In part, because it reminds me of the style of communication used by an alien species in one of the best Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes.  Their language was comprised entirely of references to their myths, history, and storytelling...making them not unlike Trekkies, honestly.

I've seen reference to that episode surfacing in numerous places, to the point where Darmok and Jalad and Tanagra is itself almost a meme.   Or at least, it is in the circles I travel.

And what strikes me about our apparently lingering fascination with that one particular story is that, increasingly, we can communicate in much the same way.

Peculiar, as things are in this 'net age.