The connectedness of things

There is a trend in the IT world I work in to talk about a world of connected things where your mobile talks to your car and your car talks to the petrol pump and so on and so forth.

In this modern utopia the collective data, or knowledge, as the seers would have it, is magically transmogrified into wisdom by dint of its sheer volume and its interconnectedness, into wisdom.

The "new age thinkers" (sic) also claim we are living in a new age of spiritual wisdom engendered by the interconnectivity of all this data, claiming that, "The new technology IS the new mythology. The shimmering global web is consciousness, is the digital web connecting us."

Mythology means the creation of myths and like all myths the devil, or god (take your pick) is in the details when it comes to translating a mythology into reality.

This fact was brought home to us during today's physiotherapy session.

One of the things stroke victims have to deal with is the lack of muscle tone on one side of the body affecting bodily functions such as chewing and defeacation. Control of those movements that all of us take for granted have to be painfully relearnt.

One of the retraining procedures Jo and I use is a daily regime of cafe con leche for breakfast. The warm milk and strong coffee triggers a predictable bowel movement that Jo is learning to recognise and control.

When the physiotherapy sessions started I realised they followed on from these ablutions but thought no more of it. Then today a neighbour called at just that crucial time when Jo would have been practising her daily toilet. Consequently the physiotherapy began without Jo having made this daily movement.

When Jo started to walk her anxiety was immediately apparent and we all struggled to understand the source of it.

It was only when Jo walked to the bedroom and expressed a wish to be placed over the toilet that the penny dropped.

Sure enough, once she had emptied her bowels her walking was much more assured although still a little hesitant, as you can see in the video.

Proof that the interconnectedeness of things is far more sublime than any of us realise and governs our every step in ways we cannot foresee or control.

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