Living in an Echo Chamber

Excerpted from Wikipedia: An echo chamber is a hollow enclosure used to produce echoing sounds, usually for recording purposes. In music, the use of acoustic echo and reverberation effects has taken many forms and dates back many hundreds of years. Medieval and Renaissance sacred music relied heavily on the composers' extensive understanding and use of the complex natural reverberation and echoes inside churches and cathedrals. This early acoustical knowledge informed the design of opera houses and concert halls in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries; these were deliberately built to create internal echoes in order to enhance and project sound from the stage in the days before electrical amplification. Sometimes echo effects were the unintentional side effect of the architectural or engineering design, such as for the Hamilton Mausoleum in Scotland, reportedly having the longest echo of any building.

So there you are!  An Echo Chamber adds to the quality of sound and is great for musicians, operatic performers, church choirs and especially to you the listeners.  Let’s practice reading to sharpen our delivery of the language: the best place in the house to do this is while in the bathroom.  As a child, I always wondered why my father would read certain sections of the newspaper in the bathroom.   It dawned on me a sound in the bathroom creates an echo that reverberates.  Information about the sound, its tone and volume gave valuable data.  It reinforces to the speaker when and at which word in the sentence to be read require a change in voice intonation and modulation.

But supposing one is found in a vast space, a cavern perhaps or a deep gorge?  Can one rely on the echo he/she hears as a motivator to explore his/her surroundings in that vastness?  Is this echo the driving factor then, this sort of information, a feedback mechanism that motivates a listener? 

Alexander Albano had this to say after we conversed on the topic on Father’s Day June 16, 2013: The echo is defined as a reflection of sound that reaches the listener some time after the direct sound has been emitted.

If you could, close your eyes and imagine yourself in a dark room. Close them now. Imagine now that all knowledge of worldly things has escaped you. You are without concept. You are alone and all you have ever known is this darkness that cocoons you. Somewhere along the time you have been in this darkness, you decide to call out. The immediate boom of your voice startles you. You have never heard this before. What rouses you evermore is the call that mirrors the call you had just made. There is something else in all that dark space. You believe now that you are not alone. Calling out, you rise up and move towards the response.

This phenomenon, in the context of this situation illustrates the concept of reinforcement; be it derived from an auditory illusion telling this naive version of oneself that someone is there, a degree of comfort and security may be experienced. In all that darkness, someone hears you and feels the need to call back in response. Now that the interest has been piqued, the pursuit has been initiated and the search into the unknown has now begun and whether it is walls or others in this self-same darkness to be found, the motivation is now apparent. This is all because of the notion of feedback. This feedback is what keeps things going.

My “Echo Chamber “pictures were taken during Father’s Day June 16, 2013:

With Kristina & Nicola

With Kelsey, Alexander, Jordan, Auriel, Kristina & Nicola

Auriel, Jordan, Nicola, Kristina, Alexander and Kelsey

From Wikipedia: The echo chamber effect is a situation in which information, ideas, or beliefs are amplified or reinforced by transmission inside an "enclosed" space.

Anyone’s survival, growth and development take into consideration interaction with family, friends, co-workers, virtual acquaintances (Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin, etc. users, I am looking at you!), government, your employer and so on and so forth.  Just so you know, my family has always been a feedback loop for me: they are the ones who echo/provide feedback to what I do or say with the intent to make me a better person.

Nick Bilton blogs about thinking small within a powerhouse community, an echo chamber in the land of Apple, Facebook, Google, and many other technological giants. (my bold font for emphasis)

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/disruptions-the-echo-chamber-of-silicon-valley/ Silicon Valley Engineers tend to move to the Bay Area because of the opportunity to get together with other engineers and, just maybe, create a great company….. But in a region that has the highest concentration of tech workers in the United States, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the bars, restaurants and other haunts of entrepreneurs can be an echo chamber. The result can be a focus on solutions for mundane problems.

“Some of the start-ups being created are designed for people who have rung the cash register already,” …. “They are not necessarily bad ideas but they are not the ideas the world needs more.” As George Packer wrote in The New Yorker last week: “Life inside Silicon Valley can be a paradise (for its winners) of opportunity and reward. Meanwhile, life outside falls further and further behind.” Mr. Packer’s critique started a new round of hand-wringing in the industry among people who worry that they are, well, thinking small.

Ever wonder what is was like for St Francis of Assisi at the time he ventured into his ministry?  Coming from a wealthy family, he chose to live a life of poverty.  Obviously, he was taking a call from some other source when he started to serve our Lord Jesus Christ.  His motives were held in suspect by church priests at that time when he offered help to rebuild the dilapidated chapels.  However, Francis (birth name Giovanni) persisted to follow this vocation.  He chose to live in cottages, stables and other shelters not befit a person of nobility.  He was a person close to the wolves, bees and other denizens of the wild.  He chose for himself a simple life, wore coarse clothing, took care of the ill, eventually rebuilt the chapels in his community and spread the Word of God.  In the 12^th century, he made a few attempts to visit and establish a ministry in the Middle East but failed to pursue that goal due to ill health.

Francis had many followers in his native Italy and in Europe.  Towards the end of his life, he had stigmata in his body similar to the wounds of Jesus Christ.  His concept at that time attracted dozens of noble persons who found a greater purpose and role in life to serve the Lord through their fellowmen.   Much later on in this ministry, a fellow by the name of Anthony from Lisbon, Portugal, joined the order and later became known as St Anthony of Padua, Italy, he with the child Jesus and the lily flower (we’ll save this for a future write-up) we are all familiar with.

Francis did not rely on any support structure.  His family could not be an echo chamber to push him toward his goals.  Perhaps from the Holy Spirit he found the inspiration and then the direction to pursue his goal.  A prayer Catholics and non-Catholics mention often is solely attributed to this nobleman from Assisi who gave-up his riches and himself wholly to serve our God and others:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love.

for it is in giving that we receive;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.