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Recently we published minutes from the Daviess County Board of Equalization meetings. This isn’t the kind of fluff you read on Facebook or even the lighter fare you read elsewhere. Choosing what you read is like eating at a smorgasbord. There are things you know are good for you – meat, potatoes and vegetables – but the temptation is to thumb on past those articles to gorge on the “desserts.”
We heard good comments from some readers chewing on the “meat and potatoes” of the equalization meetings. This process should interest every taxpayer. Who wants to pay more than her or his fair share, more than his or her neighbor?
I want to suggest an even more effective means. Simply publish the property tax each and every one of us pays every year. Yes, the first printing almost guarantees turmoil. But my bet is that people would help straighten things out in no time! By this, I am not saying that the assessor’s office or the Board of Equalization is performing poorly; quite the opposite. I simply mean to say when everybody has the same facts, people change.
Another story this week carries this same idea in a different direction. I read where the CEO of Facebook predicts someday we will communicate by telepathy. Really! Internet satellites, virtual reality, artificial intelligence won’t be needed. Instead, folks will communicate brain-to-brain, using telepathy.
I’m not at all sure I want to be a part of that world. Hopefully, we’ll still have a choice to Facebook or not to Facebook.
Of course, this prediction on telepathy is more than just a small leap. First, those in that pursuit must come to fully understand how the brain works.
All we know now is how your nervous system is composed of cells called neurons, which communicate with one another using chemical signals. When this occurs a tiny electrical spike becomes the signal picked up by the brain. Millions of these signals are required for everything your brain does – tying your shoe, reading this text, holding your coffee cup, etc. So thinkers are now suggesting ways to remap those signals.
Even those who are inspired by such ideas admit today’s technology is crude. In fact, the problems in thinking through telepathy are so daunting that other researchers predict that an actual application is unlikely to have any practical impact. At this point, scientists can’t quite capture brain activity, much less remap it.
Need an example? Consider our “leaders” at Jefferson City.
Sexual harassment of interns at our state capitol has made the headlines recently, complete with a resignation and near unanimous condemnation. This temptation among those who govern is as old as life itself. How do you go about changing that environment, changing that mindset?
One legislator suggests instituting a dress code for interns. Yes, how a young woman dresses matters. Yet, victim-blaming isn’t a cure or even a quick fix. When things deviate to the lowest level and a man (or woman) crosses the line into actual harassment, the problem is far beyond how interns are dressed.
Hmm. I dunno. If an intern could actually know what the offending adult had in mind, access to the same facts revealing intent …well, maybe a little telepathy might not be a bad thing. Transparency – whether it’s body cameras on policemen, email hovering in hyperspace, or the prospects of telepathy emerging from SciFi into reality – raises all sorts of complicated issues and decisions. It all makes something like the Board of Equalization seem quaint.