Connectivity

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CONNECTIVITY

I do not as of yet fully know all of the interrelated meanings through connections and affinities involved in this story. 

Two days ago I was involved with a social media chat forum thread where somebody presented a symbol for a vehicle which changes shape as it moves from one dimension to another. 

One interpretation is the vehicle becomes a guide for the characters in the form of ‘the DungeonMaster’. It is the 1980s Dungeons and Dragons cartoon.

The vehicle has a specific logo on it. 

On the forum I presented a compatible and related logo from a television series called Black Mirror, a special episode of which called Bandersnatch which has an interrelated logo of its own. 

Bandersnatch is about video games, but more, it is about psychology and perceptions. It is about jumping between dimensions when we make choices and not knowing which dimension we are in at a given time. It is about whether we have multiple paths or whether they will lead to the same end, if there even is an end. It is about philosophy. 

We are all on the same journey together. When we arrive at the end, we will all arrive at the same time because the end is outside of time as we know it. Outside of time is singularity. 

When all the time-lines converge in a synchronicity of deja vu, we step outside of time. The moment of death is the moment of renewal and rebirth.

One of the symbols for this relayed tale is the USB logo. USB was invented as ‘one connector to replace all connectors’ (“one ring to rule them all.”) 

My experience which this story is about starts with a motorway traffic policeman standing at what we call a junction which is technically a dead end. The only safe place for him to stand is the apex of the footpath behind him, a pedestrian point terminating at where three lanes of motorway converge. A very dangerous place to be on foot.

The policeman is there to observe the traffic. They would perhaps use the word ‘monitor’ the traffic conditions. 

Officially the policeman’s duty is ‘traffic management’ although quite clearly, because of the circumstances, they were not managing, not managing very well at all.

The motorway junction has, because we are in Britain who drive on the left, to the left side an access road entering onto the motorway.

On the right side one of the lanes is closed just past the access point by 200 yards or meters or however it is they measure distance these days in this country. 

It creates a bottleneck.

It is here my use of the various logos, the USB logo, the dungeons & dragons train cart ride logo and the bandersnatch logo, all connect together to symbolise the situation which we lived through yesterday while being stuck in a traffic jam on the motorway.

What we call the outside lane is the slower moving lane of the motorway. Central to the motorway facing oncoming traffic except for a thin crash barrier between the two opposing lanes, is what we call the inside lane of the motorway.

Traffic from the inside lane, the fast Lane, had to slow down and enter into the slow lane for it to continue where the fast lane has been closed.

The traffic problem is such that the slow lane is the only straight line open road. The road from the left with traffic entering the motorway from a minor road blends into the motorway. Those cars have to join the slow lane, which of course slows down the slow lane to a grind as more traffic enters it.

The cars overtaking on the right because it’s the fast lane, also due to the lane being closed have to enter into the slow lane. The slow lane has ground to a stop because two lanes of traffic the left and the right to entering into it. Three lanes of traffic converging into one.

What was slowing down the central lane and annoying all the drivers stuck in a traffic jam is the drivers in the fast lane. Getting further up ahead on the motorway then cutting into the slow lane just before the fast lane closed. The fast lane traffic had to merge into the slow lane.

The cars further back in the slow lane were static. They weren’t moving at all because so much traffic was blocking that lane, which effectively meant the only way to get ahead was to join the fast lane, overtake all the cars stuck in the traffic jam and cut back into the slow lane again.

My friend who was driving while I sat in the passenger seat has ethics. She was angered by the impatient people overtaking us, effectively blocking us so they could get ahead. 

I observed the only way to get ahead in this situation is to behave like the people who have absolutely no care for the other people.

There is an established philosophy of psychology that you can tell a lot about a persons personality by how they drive. 

A lot of these drivers are selfish. I suggested the only way we can do anything from our position is either to cut into the fast lane and back again, which my friend thought was immoral, or to come bumper-to-bumper with the car in front, so nothing at all could cut in between ourselves in the car in front. Were every car in the lane to do this it would very quickly dissolve the traffic jam in this lane by pushing it into the other lanes. 

 

At exactly this moment we arrived at a point on the junction where the traffic to our left entering onto the motorway was attempting to cut into the slow lane. 

Those cars were unable to cut between us and the car in front because my friend had gone bumper to bumper with the car in front. A car we had driven past in fits and starts at a snails pace cut in behind us and immediately went through to the fast lane, overtook us, went ten cars up ahead and cut back into the slow lane again, so they could get further ahead. It was a prime example of what my friend describes as selfish driving.

It is also a prime example of somebody who does not care what other people are doing and simply gets ahead. Given the choice to sit in a traffic jam relying on other people and apparently random gaps between other people, or to look at the situation and simply get ahead of everybody else. Regardless of any ethics, we have to question what the best successful strategy is here.

Even coming bumper-to-bumper, so nothing cut in between us, could be considered selfish and certainly was by the people on the access road who we were not enabling to enter the motorway at all. 

To not go bumper-to-bumper is to be pushed out of the way by other people who are also being comparatively more selfish, those causing the jam in the first place by their behaviour resulting in not allowing it to clear. 

There is no easy answer to this situation.

Very clearly, in black-and-white, we see people who exist in one universe where they get walked all over, and people who live in another universe where they walk all over everybody else to get ahead. There is no middle ground. 

The ones getting walked all over may believe themselves morally superior because they are not causing problems for anybody else by are behaving according with the only strategy which will end the bottleneck quickly for everyone. They are also not moving forward. 

Were they to do that by joining the fast lane and cutting in ahead, they would be behaving the same as the other people who don’t have a problem with that, but they would also be walking all over the people who are sticking to their guns about being moral and who are doing the only strategy known to successfully clear the tragic jam. 

Traffic needs to flow.

It has to do with whether a person has the patience to do it the sensible way, which is to not cut ahead and create further traffic jam that allow it to clear. Some people simply don’t have time for that.

So both play styles are in place simultaneously.

We get to directly compare them. 

We get to decide for ourselves which type of person we are. 

Military training; “A group can only move as fast as its slowest moving member.”

Tribalism: “If you’re not one of us you’re one of them.” 

Additional: 

The next time I got into a car to drive on the motorway myself was the very next day. I stopped at traffic lights at a motorway access roundabout. Directly in front of me was a truck bearing the following symbol:

I am beginning to believe there is something cosmic going on here.