From Trivium to Tedium

We will not stray too much from the truth if we admit that much of what we talk about in the course of a normal day is much about trivia.  What we experience on the drive to work, on the subway or some other public mode of transportation that took us to work, what was on TV last night and, oh, the weather, what’s coming up over the weekend, etc. are all trivialities that far outweigh the serious stuff we do or discuss.  There are exceptions, of course, and perhaps I am exaggerating here. But get this.  Even surgeons and their staff talk about trivia while in the middle of a surgery.  Navy Seal Marcus Luttrell (of Lone Survivor fame) relayed the story in his book (which was featured in the movie version) about a conversation while in the thick of a mission.  He was admonishing his Seal buddy that it is Arabian horses, not Arabic horses.  And they did spend some time talking about that particular breed.

What is it about trivia that permeates human culture?  Human interaction is, culturally speaking, defined by our capacity to absorb and disburse information, vocally or in writing; however, we do know that trivial stuff fills the bulk. We expect public speakers, no matter how serious the topic, to begin with something amusing or just plain funny anecdotes or quips about trivialities.

It is very unique to us because no such thing happens in the animal world.  Notice how ants stop each other every time they meet along a single path.  They exchange nothing but serious information about where food can be gathered from somewhere at the end of the line. There is no time for trivial stuff in the animal world – it is all about food, should one flee or fight and, by the way, finding a mate is serious business and decidedly so if one is trying to hold on to several of them if you’re the top alpha overlord of the pride, the pack, the gaggle, the herd, or the pod, etc. 

Humans, on the other hand, have time for other things when food, finding a mate and flee or fight decisions do not preoccupy them constantly. We do have time for trivialities even though these do not have anything to do with basic human or animal needs. There is an exception. Trivia becomes supremely important when one is trying to win in “Jeopardy”, “Wheel of Fortune” and the former top show, “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”.  It perplexes me though that the show about trying to win a million dollars failed while shows where winning a very tiny fraction of a million are still popular.

Now, here is the thing.  The ultimate trivial information ever is where the word trivia comes from. But first it must be duly noted that there is some validity to why some folks’ complain about Wikipedia. You see, it was pretty clear cut for a very long time that trivia comes from Latin “tri-via”– three roads or the intersection of three roads.  Latin was popular then because at one time, believe it or not, “all roads led to Rome”. Anyway, according to early etymology (fancy but clever one word to describe the origin of words) travelers would leave important messages to family members or friends posted at the intersection of these three roads.  Indeed, where the tri-via - the three roads – intersected was a strategic location suited for relaying important information about travel activities and destinations. However, over time people were soon leaving unimportant pieces of information that progressively turned notably un-notable. It did not take long for what used to be important stuff to become trivial pieces of information. But this is no longer the popular explanation since after Wikipedia was inundated with so many explanations and origins coming from all sorts of sources.  Soon, many generations from now, trivia will etymologize its origin from three letters, www, or the World Wide Web. Reason: Facebook, Twitter, and others will be the new tri-via.  It will be multi-via, numbering in the millions of intertwining connections now fondly or derisively labeled social media, to which this blog is a sporadic epistler of sort.

I do not have a Facebook or twitter account so I can’t open or view them.  I therefore hold judgment. During the 1st quarter of 2016 I read that there are 1.65 billion active users of Facebook.  There are an estimated 974 million accounts in twitter.  Granted there are overlaps, that is an awfully big number of social media users.  If we include You Tube that has monthly active users at 1 billion, Instagram and blogs (including this one), that is a lot of electronic signals that propagate at light speed from the twirling globe. 

There is an earth based scientific program, SETI, for Search for ExtraterrestriaI Intelligence, which dedicates arrays of radio telescopes listening for any kind of signals emitted by an intelligent life form from anywhere in the galaxy.  So, if we’re doing that it presupposes that intelligent beings outside of our world, if there are any, that had advanced their civilization as we have are doing the same thing.  We know those SETI folks would be excited at any meaningful signal they can and, hopefully, will capture someday. If there are aliens out there, listening, they’ll also pick up all TV and radio programs, military, radar and distress signals, etc. that had so far been propagated since Samuel Morse tapped the first electronic signals over the air waves.  They won’t pick up any non-electronic material like animal sounds, even the infrasound elephants make, whale songs, even roars of lions and least of all actual tweets birds make.  However, the alien listeners could conceivably pick up the primal scream Marlon Brando made of, “Stella!!!”, if they happen upon a rebroadcast of “Streetcar Named Desire” from Turner Classic Movie Channel.  But not right away, of course.  They will have to wait at least a few years from the time the signals leave earth (even at light speed) if they are from some planet orbiting stars within the same vicinity as Proxima Centauri (our sun's closest stellar neighbor).  It could be hundreds if not thousands of years if they’re panning their antennas from across the galaxy.  Residents from Andromeda Galaxy won’t get I Love Lucy reruns or know last year’s Super Bowl winner sooner than 2.6 million years.

The good news is that mal-intentioned aliens as Stephen Hawking seems to be concerned about may quickly lose interest after decoding the signals they get.  They may be fearful if they happen upon humanity's bad behavior and proclivity for war; or, we may not be worthy of their effort based on how trivial our world is.  On the other hand, well-intentioned alien listeners may suffer from tedium upon what they observe on social media.

Stephen Hawking can rest easy.  We may after all be saved from alien intervention if trivium makes them grimace with tedium.