The alphabet is a miracle, one that’s compounded by books. And the teachings we be taught from this cornerstone of recent tradition apply to organizations, conferences, tech, politics and nearly every part we do collectively.
Your copy of To Kill a Mockingbird comprises each single phrase that Harper Lee had within the version she signed off on. Even when the paper, the web page depend and the typography change, it’s a high-fidelity duplicate of the unique.
She wrote the ebook utilizing the identical 26 letters that each writer within the English language makes use of, and if you learn it, it would reveal itself in exactly the identical format as she meant.
The constancy is excessive. Each duplicate is identical.
And the work isn’t compressed. It unfolds exactly because the creator meant–26 letters, all accessible to every writer.
That is completely different than AM radio or a tune copy on a cassette. AM radio is compressed, and by the point it will get to you throughout the town, it’s additionally low constancy. MP3s are compressed, however each copy is a high-fidelity duplicate of the primary one. Then again, with cassettes, every copy loses one thing. Ultimately the copies turn into nothing like the unique. 800 copies later and you don’t have anything however static.
Lossy compression is perpetually. Info was deliberately eliminated. What you hear isn’t what the artist heard within the studio, and all of the gear on the planet can’t restore it. Then again, math and computer systems can now typically give us reversible compression, however that’s a unique dialogue. We compress info as a result of smaller information give us an opportunity for larger constancy and cheaper networking.
Excessive constancy implies that every copy is what we anticipate.
Lossless compression (or no compression) implies that we haven’t left something out to be able to get the constancy or sharing to work.
Packaged meals corporations and makers of cheap chocolate prize the consistency of excessive constancy (each bar is identical, if awful) over the magic of one thing particular. In order that they mix components and dumb down the recipes so it’s at all times the identical. This compression isn’t accomplished in error, it’s one thing they work arduous on.
A Broadway present is excessive constancy if you see it, however that disappears in the event you strive to put it aside. You must be there dwell, a reference recording on video isn’t the identical. Telling somebody in regards to the present just isn’t the identical as seeing it.
And the script just isn’t lossy compression. In reality, the script is strictly what the playwright meant, however the director and the actors embellish the script in every manufacturing and efficiency. That’s a part of their job. Form of the alternative of compression.
Gossip is compressed and low constancy information of the neighborhood, and each worsen because it spreads.
One of many miracles of e-mail and the web was how excessive the constancy is (prompt good copies, perpetually) and the flexibility for textual content and sure types of different media to be uncompressed as they unfold. In fact an MP3 can’t be turned again into the unique reel to reel grasp recording, and a Wikipedia article adjustments over time.
Language translations are lossy and likewise low constancy. Nuance disappears as we swap one language for one more, which is why a proficient translator is a lot extra worthwhile than a pc doing the identical work.
And conferences? Conferences at work are largely low constancy and finally fairly compressed. Not like a memo that may be in and of itself, a gathering is a efficiency, after which it’s summarized, and summarized once more, till it turns into a narrative that’s a shadow of what the one that began the entire thing had in thoughts. Nuance disappears.
Democracy might be greatest served by excessive decision and the non-lossy compression of concepts and arguments. Alas, the web and TV, whereas including velocity and influence, in all probability decrease the decision and enhance compression on the similar time.
As Jeff Jarvis factors out, GPT and different AI chatbots are primarily lossy compression mechanisms for the online. They learn the whole internet and compress it on demand into a couple of paragraphs. Like Cliffs Notes, one of many issues of this comfort is that it will possibly’t be uncompressed. The nuance disappears and is tough to reconstruct.
Our lifetimes have seen this pendulum shuttle, time and again. From black and white TV to paint (this affords approach much less compression of the unique picture). From movie within the theater to low high quality streaming on a cellphone. From a landline cellphone dialog to a nasty connection on a cell to a couple characters in a textual content message. CDs sounded worse than a great LP, however SACDs and MQA can sound higher in the precise circumstances. Firms go from handbooks and memos to hallway conversations to Slack checkins.
Lossy compression is perpetually. Constancy is a robust delight. Tales unfold and resonate, however by their nature compress the reality of what we simply encountered. A novel is the writer’s full telling of the story the best way they selected to inform it, whereas historical past books and journalism at all times compress what truly occurred.
If you wish to change the tradition, or perceive a know-how in media, or do historical past, mess with constancy and search for compression. Robert Caro is a low-compression biographer…
And now, AI redefines constancy altogether, typically embellishing what was there earlier than and presenting one thing that may mistakenly be seen as a excessive constancy authentic.
And nonetheless, the alphabet is a miracle. Excessive constancy, low compression, resilient and broadly distributed.
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