NASA uses “clean rooms” for important projects, such as the building of the James Webb Space Telescope that, as of this writing, is currently under construction. Clean room: Yes, filtered air and people wearing white suits and operation-room masks. You get the picture.
That we can make a clean room is a technological wonder in itself. Think of all the stuff on us, in us, and in the air around us: Clay particles too tiny to see with a light microscope, bacteria, parts of bacteria, pollen, soot from volcanoes and factories. This is a “dirty” world, one that keeps putting dust on the coffee table and collecting as dust bunnies in college dorm rooms.
We ignore the dirt over which we have little control unless it comes to our attention in some big way. Even the dust gathering on the coffee table is visible only after it accumulates sufficiently for us to see a dulled finish. Accumulations are key to our observations.
And that appears to be the key to our observations of all things human and societal. An isolated behavior is a mote. Accumulated behaviors are a layer.
Could we see a mote if we wanted to see one? Of course, but the effort required is considerable. We would have to look from various angles and with some considerable magnification. Layers accumulate subtly. Changes in behavior that appear like a dust layer on the coffee table occur one mote at a time. We don’t notice until the dust bunny hops in the corner, energetic by the sweep of a door’s opening.
NASA looks for the motes before they accumulate, goes to great lengths to keep them out. Why would builders take any chance with an eight-billion-dollar experiment like the James Webb Space Telescope? Why? Well, let’s just say that every once in a while you clean your sunglasses or prescription lenses.
Observing requires clear vision. Clear vision means no dust on the lens. No dust on the lens requires some screening for particles that could accumulate, to eliminate the possibility of a dust buildup. The dust is there, all around, but those concerned with its potential accumulation act before the buildup occurs.
We need some clean rooms to filter the motes of inimical behavior. The care NASA takes to make an eight-billion-dollar device an effective instrument is a model for the care all of us might emulate in the formation of an instrument far more valuable: An individual. Of course, we will have to look from all angles and under some considerable magnification, but if we can just keep one behavioral mote at a time from settling, we can keep the accumulation of inimical dust from covering what we value most.
That we can make a clean room is a technological wonder in itself. Think of all the stuff on us, in us, and in the air around us: Clay particles too tiny to see with a light microscope, bacteria, parts of bacteria, pollen, soot from volcanoes and factories. This is a “dirty” world, one that keeps putting dust on the coffee table and collecting as dust bunnies in college dorm rooms.
We ignore the dirt over which we have little control unless it comes to our attention in some big way. Even the dust gathering on the coffee table is visible only after it accumulates sufficiently for us to see a dulled finish. Accumulations are key to our observations.
And that appears to be the key to our observations of all things human and societal. An isolated behavior is a mote. Accumulated behaviors are a layer.
Could we see a mote if we wanted to see one? Of course, but the effort required is considerable. We would have to look from various angles and with some considerable magnification. Layers accumulate subtly. Changes in behavior that appear like a dust layer on the coffee table occur one mote at a time. We don’t notice until the dust bunny hops in the corner, energetic by the sweep of a door’s opening.
NASA looks for the motes before they accumulate, goes to great lengths to keep them out. Why would builders take any chance with an eight-billion-dollar experiment like the James Webb Space Telescope? Why? Well, let’s just say that every once in a while you clean your sunglasses or prescription lenses.
Observing requires clear vision. Clear vision means no dust on the lens. No dust on the lens requires some screening for particles that could accumulate, to eliminate the possibility of a dust buildup. The dust is there, all around, but those concerned with its potential accumulation act before the buildup occurs.
We need some clean rooms to filter the motes of inimical behavior. The care NASA takes to make an eight-billion-dollar device an effective instrument is a model for the care all of us might emulate in the formation of an instrument far more valuable: An individual. Of course, we will have to look from all angles and under some considerable magnification, but if we can just keep one behavioral mote at a time from settling, we can keep the accumulation of inimical dust from covering what we value most.
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