© Pierre Maré,
2004 - 2007
Offbeat 67
Here’s a piece of trivia. This is the 67th Offbeat column, and I was born in the year 1967. I know it’s completely useless, but it is fun, if only for me. Perhaps it’s just a case of coincidence being statistically inevitable.
If you happen to be a doctor or a health fanatic, one of the many websites I found on the topic of trivia pointed out that ‘apples are more efficient than caffeine in waking you up in the morning’. Cool stuff, huh?
I love knowing things. I collect bits of trivia the way bored housewives collect scraps of material to be recycled dish polishing cloths or a spur-of-the-moment quilt, albeit of the threadbare variety.
By the way, a local newspaper has informed me that most lipstick contains fish scales. This is confirmed by another trivia website. I hope the news doesn’t spread. It could entirely change the nature of personal grooming for women. I don’t know how this will be of use to me personally, other than putting a quick end to a gratuitous conversation about the relative merits of make-up, but I am glad I know it anyway.
I am not a major trivia buff. I can make it through a game of Trivial Pursuit with my dignity in tact, as long as the questions involve things like, “Name a piscine ingredient common to most lipsticks,” or “Name a fruit that can be used as a substitute for caffeine.” For real trivia buffs, you need to go to Asia where certain groups of young freaks take pride in knowing the serial numbers and relative measurements of Barbie dolls during the 60s, 70s and 80s. Fortunately you don’t get that sort of question in Trivial Pursuit.
It seems that in the future, knowledge will become currency of some form or other. As robots take over the task of manual labour, the ability to use a spanner or a welding iron, or haul a ton of coal out of a mine will not count anymore.
The loss will lie in traditional employment, but as these things go, future generations of pure people will find other low paying jobs. Already, previously expert programmers are being put out of work by code sweatshops in India. And if your kid has decided to become a 3D animator, now is a good time to take him or her out the back and start talking about the importance of earning a salary that covers the food bills and some basic toiletries. You may also want to mention that guys and women who live with mom and dad into their late forties don’t get dates so easily.
Some knowledge-based careers will maintain their status. As yet, if you need an appendix removed, there is very little to beat a qualified surgeon. If you are a teacher, your employment is virtually guaranteed, however don’t expect significant salary increases until you finally decide to get out of the profession. Don’t spend too much time studying psychology either. Millions of happy and contented people swear by Prozac and Viagra, psychotic episodes and heart-attacks in the heat of passion aside.
Humanity has gone through several major periods of intellectual evolution. There was the development of verbal concepts, the written word, fire which led to better eating if anything, and the invention of paper which seems to have found its culmination in the contract. A relatively short while ago, Babbage and Boole came up with the foundations of modern computing, not Bill Gates as everyone believes.
Development of a knowledge-based economy with clear values assigned to knowledge seems to be the next step in humanity’s mental evolution. Without a clear idea of value, even the idea of ‘priceless’ is tenuous at best. The person who manages to synthesize alcohol that doesn’t cause hangovers will be valued beyond measure. The person who invents a process to effectively replace the liver will probably be runner up.
For now, though, knowledge will still take second place to good looks and the muscular coordination needed to manipulate a ball. But there is a future in knowing things. Get out your Trivial pursuit set and start preparing now.
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