Task-free Information.

So why is it our particular younger gens know the names and histories of the famous as assiduously as a racehorse trainer knows the lineages of his stabled stallions? What earthly point is there in filling one’s brain with the career histories of actors? These thesps who after years of struggle finally managed to hitch onto the TV gravy train and began appearing in everything? If one was really interested in the underpinnings of talent one would be also curious about they stints in drama school, Burger King and call centres. But no, it only extends to their bit parts in Sex and the City or being second from the left in an X Factor boy band. It’s as if one’s personal history is plotted by these career arcs; as if one is aging on the back of people you don’t know and will never meet acting make-believe characters who fought dragons or implausible plot lines you never quite got. This as I understand it is useless information of the highest order and utterly unworthy of assigning brain cells to. It’s as if useless information is the new knowledge base, the product of our super highway interconnectivity. It fulfils the necessary requirements of ‘information’ yet doesn’t include the inconvenient downside of having to do anything meaningful or useful with it. If one learns to plumb in a sink one will sooner or later be lumbered with hours of being moistly inverted attempting to make a watertight joint without burning the house down. If one’s knowledge lies elsewhere, like knowing Johnny Depp played a bit part in Home and Away circa 1997, one can justifiably leave actual work to others. If one doesn’t know where the supermarket is how on earth can one be expected to do the weekly shop?