Write a Playscript

I’m going to write a play.  It will be the third play I've written and it will be the best one yet.  I just finished the second book by Stanislavsky and have a glimmer of understanding of what is necessary for acting in a play.

There are three basic elements in a play that an actor has to incorporate into creating his role and two of these are supplied by the playwright.  One is the Super Objective and the other is the Through Line of Action.

A play created without these in the playwright’s mind leaves it up to the actor to supply them and work with them.  There is, however, a problem with this in that the actors may have a different interpretations.

It is the job of the director to make the final judgements on these two elements and make sure that all of the intermediate activities of the play follow the Through Line of Action and fulfill the Super Objective.  This would be true whether or not the playwright made it clear.

The next big job of the playwright is to write the dialogue of the play.  In order to be accepted for production, this has to be real; it has to be genuine to the Super Objective of the play and allow it to be achieved, no matter in how circuitous a manner.

The Super Objective of Our Town was to illustrate life, living, and dying.  The Through Line of Action was the life and death experiences of two families.  There it is, as simple as that and yet profound.

Then there was a great variety of things that transpired on stage.  They ranged from the important to the mundane but each added to the achievement of the Super Objective of the play.  There was nothing superfluous in the script.

The two plays that I’ve written were done so without a full understanding of these requirements.  Yet when I reflect on one of them, Duplicity, I can see that there is a Super Objective and a Through Line of Action as well as a variety of situations that support them.  It can be rewritten to make them clearer.  Looking back on the play, I can see that it has promise.

This is where one of the major bugaboos of my psyche gets in the way.  I see it but does anyone else?  How do I go about getting someone to take the time to work on it with me?  Whom do I ask?  Will he/she tell me the truth?  Will they be able to suggest changes to make it better?  I dunno.

This is where I am in life.  I don’t seem to have the ability to ask for help and get it.  A friend read it, said it was good but that isn’t for what I was looking.  I need someone who will take the time to read it, understand it, and then work with me to first of all make it worth producing and secondly give me the confidence I need to propose it to a theater company.

There is one production company for which I have been in eight different plays.  This company has a process that they use for the development of a play that they may produce.  There is, associated with this company, a playwright with whom I am acquainted on a professional basis and she said she would be happy to.

Duplicity may be a worthy candidate for rewrite into a murder-mystery and be seen all the way through to the stage.  On the other hand, it may be better to conceive a whole new play and go through the development process with them on that.  Then use the experience of that to develop Duplicity into its own production.

I am more favorably disposed to the latter strategy.  Mainly because Duplicity is a story that needs to be told and in it nobody is murdered or dies.  The theme of it is the current self-centered philosophy of the Millennial generation, “you only live once,” and how that can run amok.  It would be taking the easy way out to rewrite it for a murder-mystery.

There it is, an answer to my first decision.  Write a play for the murder –mystery stage and make it a new and different plot.

There is still the artistic requirement that it have a Super Objective and Through Line Action.  This is self-imposed because from what I’ve seen of these plays it isn’t always in the mind of the playwright when it is written.  

A further requirement is that it have supporting objectives, situations, dialogues and characters that advance the Super Objective and do it along the Through Line of Action with enough complexity that the audience is involved with the characters and sub plots in an interesting love-hate relationship.

There are many possibilities to realize these objectives.  It is now up to me to decide which one to use.  It will be a new and different approach for me but one that may yield surprisingly good results.  

My goal is to write a murder-mystery that gets produced on the local stage in the 2017-18 season.  My main objective now is to decide on the Super Objective and the plot that will achieve it.  This is not going to be a quick process and I may run a few of these plots before my friends to see what they think of them.

Writing the plots will be a good exercise in creativity but I must decide on a Super Objective first, then come up with a plot that will support it.  This may be after trying out many plots, which are possible for achieving a Super Objective.  There are many streets one may take to reach a certain address.

This is the first installment in my quest to write a play.

The Disillusion Point

In perspective there is the vanishing point.  In human endeavor there is the disillusion point.

All of the lines of sight tend to converge on a single point somewhere behind the eye.  The parallel lines of a track, the vertical lines of a building, and the edges of a box tend to converge.  They don’t, of course.  The track never narrows as the train proceeds, the building doesn't taper, and the box has a cubic volume based on its measurements.

In a human endeavor, as effort is spent but enthusiasm wanes because progress is not perceived, enthusiasm diminishes and approaches disillusion.  Once that is reached the endeavor is abandoned and replaced.  The advantages of success in the endeavor don’t diminish but the perceived possibility of gaining that success diminishes to the point that further effort doesn't seem worth it.

There are a long list of my personal endeavors that have been selected and discarded along the way.  Some discarded because they were found to be shallow and not worthy of pursuit; others because they became passé, and still others because the incremental gain of pursuing them was not worth the effort required.

There is also an impressive list of endeavors that have been successfully achieved.  These tend to be projects that had an inception, a period of applied effort, and a point at which they could be considered finished.

Endeavors of a different kind are subject to the phenomenon of the disillusion point.  They are generally in the skills arena, stage and film acting, voice-over performing, writing, digital technology, painting, sketching, dancing, pool, athletics of one kind or another, horseback riding, management training, the French language, fitness, and asset maintenance.

Some people, in whose company I had the pleasure of being, had an enthusiasm for life and what they were doing that pushed the disillusion point back toward the horizon.  Others were less optimistic and discarded endeavors with ease.  

Both of these types of people never reached the top of the heap but the former were happily engaged in the pursuit of excellence even when they realized that they were never going attain more than a modicum of it.  They chose their path and then stuck to it until a destination was reached where they could objectively say that they’d done it.

Those who wouldn't/ couldn't stick it out were generally jaundiced in their outlook on life and living, more negative than positive and especially so when they reached the end of the period of initial enthusiasm for a pursuit.  They changed the emphasis of their life.  In education they changed majors or never graduated from college.  In jobs they changed careers often before reaching success in any one of them.  Content with rationalizing their efforts by saying, “It wasn't for me.”

There seem to be two extreme points on a continuum; complete failure and the pinnacle of success.  Most of us operate somewhere on this continuum and, if we are cognizant of it, know when to say, “I've done this.”

Now I am looking at what I’ve done with my time and my life and wondering if there is something else I should be/could be doing that would lead to a more satisfactory outcome.  There’s still lifetime enough left to do just about anything of which I am physically capable.

My first glance is at the endeavors with which I am currently involved.  There are only two of them that are considered the aggregate of my activities, acting and writing.  

Then two more recreational endeavors, golf and pool.  I would like to mention another activity that brings me much joy, riding horses, but in my heart of hearts I know that I will probably never have unlimited access to a horse.

One can’t help but notice that money doesn't make the list.  Making money was never a goal for me.  This may be one of the reasons I’m writing this piece; money has been in the background all my life.  Whatever I brought home, that’s what we used to live.  I was always able to get whatever we needed including college for the kids.

My parents barely scraped by but thanks to my mom’s cleverness they left a nice sum of money to my sister and me, her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  This was due to the fact that she worked outside the home for about ten years before reaching age 65 and saved every penny of it.  She achieved her goal.

Then when our kids started coming one after the other, it was all we could do to make ends meet.  It wasn't until we went to Houston and a high paying corporate job that things started easing up for us.  Even now we are comfortable but far from wealthy.

There is a question being posed here; should I pursue “making money” as an endeavor?  It’s worth some effort to answer that. 

What do I have that would allow me to be successful at such an endeavor? I have all the personal attributes necessary to be successful at whatever I decide to do.  I have a source of capital that would finance any reasonable venture; I have intelligence and knowledge; I have access to people who could put me on the right track.

What holds me back?  Taking on that endeavor would require dedication to it on a routine basis and perhaps even at the expense of my acting and writing unless it was they that made the money. 

Actively marketing my talents would require me to contact others and convince them that what I am proposing would be profitable to them when I may not be all that convinced of the quality of my talent.  Or find products that are desirable and focus on marketing them.  Although my history has been to doubt even the best of products that I've represented.

This last sentiment lays bare a personal, fatal flaw.  In spite of objective evidence of performance and accomplishment to the contrary; I don’t feel that what I have to offer is of monetary value.  Unless and until this is remedied there will be no personal financial gain associated with my performance.  I am at the disillusion point.

Acting. An Update

The decision to act was made by me in 2009, after thinking it through and discussing it with a trusted advisor.  He was most helpful as he tackled what was, for him, an unusual case.  

He mostly dealt with troubled youth, s.t. I didn't know when I first approached him, and he agreed to take me on as a client because he thought it would be an interesting change for him and he thought he could help me and he did.

All of the reasons that were in favor of acting are still valid today.  There is no long term commitment to a project; it starts with auditions and goes through final curtain or wrap.  There is no lingering responsibility when the project is over.  The project involves people but only during the production.

During the project, all are working for the success of the venture.  There are axes to grind but they are subordinate to the script and the director.  The cast performs on stage and there is little off-stage interaction that is not scripted.  Not that it is prohibited or discouraged, if it happens it does so quite naturally.  There is a community of actors who for the most part are all doing it for the love of the craft.

There is risk involved.  The prospect of auditioning for a part requires one to step out there.  The feelings associated with not getting the part are easily rationalized by repeating the advice, “Don’t take it personally.” 

The disappointment of the first few rehearsals is felt; all are in the same boat vis-à-vis the script so it isn’t so bad.  It’s after the “off-book” date that one is devastated by his inability to remember the lines.  Then the lines are assimilated and, once again, life is good.

The rehearsals put the show on the stage; repeating it in rehearsal over and over again, tweaking the blocking and the delivery until one is comfortable with it and the interaction with the rest of the cast.  The project is joined by technicians who do scenery, sound, and lights.  In some cases, musicians to provide for the necessary.

Then there’s opening night, all is on the line for the first, paying audience, live performance.  Some of what I’ve read says that if you get through opening night without a disaster you are home free.  My experience in my productions/ performances  has been that there have been no disasters, at least any recognizable by the audience.

Another aspect of the craft is the continuing development required by the actor.  In my case it means studying in classes, from books, in workshops, and in discussion with other actors.  It is an endeavor at which one can never be good enough.  There is no perfection but the striving for it allows one to incrementally improve, role after role, forever.

There are downsides as well.  The doubt of ones capabilities is profound.  No matter how objectively one tries to look at a performance, one cannot accept what he did as good enough.  Cast, friends, and even critics try to support the performance but in one’s heart of hearts he knows that it wasn’t the performance that he would prefer to have given.

During rehearsals there are highs and lows as the characters develop.  If one is too critical of himself he will become moody and even depressed.  This is when doubt in one’s ability seems to come to the fore.  Yet winning this struggle with lines and blocking is paramount to moving on; a lesson in life as well as on the stage. 

The most frustrating of all acting activities, for me anyway, is that of learning the lines.  I got into this business rather late in life, so my memory and brain are not as absorbent as they were twenty or more years ago.  There are times during the process that I get frustrated to the point of wanting it to all just go away; saying this is my last one of these.  Then there comes a point when the lines are mine and I can recite them without error. 

The confidence floods back until they are recited for the first time in company, in rehearsal, with full cast and crew standing by.  Then my ego goes back to a blob of jelly until that same ownership is established again in the new environment.  There doesn’t seem to be a similar step-function change when going live before an audience; by then the lines are mine.

Little errors in performance are magnified by one’s imagination to larger than real magnitudes.  Often they are not even noticed by the audience because no one is following a script in his lap, nor are they privy to the blocking scheme of the play; but to the actor, it is quite a different story.  Cast members laugh it off but the sting of the misstep is still felt by the stepper.  For me, there is a little gremlin inside who expects, even demands, perfection.  He never gets it but he causes all kinds of emotional grief when he doesn’t get it. 

Someone asked me which I preferred, stage or film, and I replied stage.  There is a world of difference between the two in how they are performed.  In film, there are at least three takes for every shot and the subtlety of expression, both facial and vocal, are quite different. 

On stage, you are performing so the audience can enjoy what you do while you’re doing it.  They may or may not remember it, it is “in the moment.”  They go away with an impression of it.  In film, your performance is going down for the record and a good director and cinematographer will make sure that what is saved in the final cut is worthy of posterity.

On stage, the audience reacts with a laugh or a sigh.  In film, the audience is a camera recording images without emotional response.  It is intimately close to the performer so vocal projection and movement exaggeration cannot be tolerated.  Often in film, you don’t know what it’s going to look like because the takes are disjointed and then edited together for cohesion.

So, this is where I am now after several years of “treading the boards.”  I wrote this to get my thoughts down and now see that it was, is, and will continue to be a good decision for me to continue acting.  It doesn’t pay in money but it gives me a ride that keeps me stimulated.  It requires fighting dragons, they are inside but just as ferocious as the fire breathing beasts of fantasy.

Why Did That Happen?

At a time between 1973 and 1976, the Administrative and Technical Services Department was in a crisis of poor self image in the shipyard.  The company was very old, had a great reputation and employed about 30,000 people in jobs that ran the full gamut of responsibility.  The heroes worked on the big ships, the underdogs supported the heroes and that was the rub.  The division unfairly assumed a subordinate rank.

The company produced a public relations piece that was superb.  It told the rich history and achievement of the company over its long history.  When I saw it on public TV, I was duly impressed by it and a light bulb went off in my head!

I was the person to whom the Admin and Tech Services division reported.  This represented a fine opportunity to let all of the people working in it, about 350 souls, just how important they were to the operation.  So I organized a showing of the film in the Apprentice School auditorium and in several shifts ushered in all of the people to see it.  I delivered a prologue introduction and epilogue reinforcing their role in the operation.

It had the desired effect.  The division transformed into a much more enthused group of people.  Oh, there were those who would never be of a positive mind but, by and large, the attitude was to be much more proud of working in this division in this company.

Shortly after the event I was summoned to the office of the VP of Human Resources.  There I was harshly criticized for having done this.  It seems that the union was now pushing for the entire shipyard to get to go to see the show; a demand that wasn't met.  My own boss, VP of Engineering and Administration, simply said to me, "That was dumb."  I wanted to argue my point but was silenced with a raised hand.  I was also left to figure out for myself why that idea wasn't very good.

It took a long time but I finally came to some conclusions.  The biggest lesson was that in a large organization, or even family, one should get some advice and input from trusted advisers who are a bit removed and can offer objective observations before doing something affecting the rest.  It delays the decision but sometimes a lost opportunity is better than one taken without regard for the effect on others. 

Ground Hog Day

Living with someone who has memory problems is a lot like the movie Ground Hog Day.  The same situations keep coming up and are resolved, only to reappear a little later as if never addressed previously.

There seem to be two categories of memory lapse.  One is not remembering what transpired and the other is not remembering that we already talked about this; both combined with a marked deficiency in imagination.

There is a need for me to keep my perspective and not remind her of any of this.  Although sometimes I simply say, I’m not going to tell you the answer to that again, I've already told you three times.  This sounds unkind but at the same time it is accepted as fact and we go on.  It also defends my sanity because after the third time it begins to freak me out.

It is important for us both to have some outlets for social intercourse.  The inclusion of others in our activities and the exclusion of each other in some activities allows for resetting the counters to zero in the patience department for both of us.

What worries me most is the lack of outside activities in which she is willing to participate.  After Xmas and the departure of the family, she became reclusive to the point of causing me some real concern.  If we go out, and we often do, it is always together to an event that I have suggested.  Rarely, if ever, does she suggest something.

Finally, after much encouragement, she ventured out to the wellness center and joined it to go to the therapy pool for exercise twice a week with some friends of hers.  This, in my opinion, was a big step forward in the process of getting out there.

The fact that she forgot that she drove the car to the wellness center and didn't discover the lapse until she came home with others to an empty garage didn't help any.  It was quite a shock to her.  In an unrelated accident she broke her shoulder and the aerobics went away for four months and is only now restarting, slowly.

It is my opinion that part of the problem is knowing that she has this memory deficiency frightens her and has led to a crisis of confidence.  She will have to overcome this in order to function independently and I think she knows this and is willing to give it a try.

It requires a lot of patience to see and hear this and not react to it except to ignore some or go back over what was done or said so she is reminded, over and over again.  This isn't difficult but has an effect on my ability to function.  There are times that I doubt my own memory of things but I’m reassured when I check it.

Where do we go from here?  “For better or worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, and in health, until death do us part” That is the deal.  We will stay here as long as we can.  I've seen the care in residential facilities for people who have to be there and it will be a last resort.

When mom had to have rehabilitation, she went to the best one in town and they almost killed her.  She was constipated so the weekly doctor visit resulted in instructions to give her a laxative.  This caused diarrhea and the nurse kept giving her the laxative!  

The food was way too much for her, so we brought hot soup and other nutrition to her on our own.  I swore then that she’d never go back to the hospital or a nursing home no matter what because they would only succeed in killing her.   I am of the same opinion still.

My strategy is to deal with it, one day at a time.  I am smart enough, objective enough, and caring enough to make the decisions that are necessary when they are necessary and not before.

This house is a masterpiece of convenience and livability.  The neighborhood is safe and the community is mixed both in age and ethnicity.  There is no reason to leave it except for the transportation aspect of it.

The next big hurdle will be when we lose our driving privileges.  That will be a shocker and may cause us to move out of this house.  That will come later because there is no age limit for a license, only capability to drive, i.e. see, hear, drive, and obey the law.

Who knows, there may come a time when mobility may be enhanced with cabs, shuttles, and mass transit being linked from the neighborhood, say the lodge, and a nearby shopping center providing a link to the rest of the city but there is much to be done for this to happen.

We are on our own, there aren't many, if any, others here that we can count on in any continuing way but paid assistance is available..  There are many that I can call upon for a favor here and  there but none that can come in on any regular basis should that become necessary and I don’t think it will.  And this is OK for the present and for the foreseeable future 

It would be to our great advantage to expand our social support system.  The women of the sorority are there for Carola.  If, and it is a big if, we could find a church to join that would not be onerous to me; that would be a big help.

There will, however, come a time in 15 years, or so, when neither of us will be able to take care of the other.  It is at that point that we will have to call upon the kids.  The timing is about the same as it was for my mom and dad, age 85 for them, but it will probably be a later for us.

So for planning purposes, there is nothing to be done at present except, of course, to maintain the health and vitality of this brain-body.  There are considerations for the future but they will be handled in due course.  Then the further out future will have to be addressed at some point—down the road a ways.

Mind the Yellow Line

Running longer distances on a more than a once-a-week schedule for about 15 years taught me a few things about life and living.  The one that I missed, in retrospect, was the effect of being twenty pounds overweight and still running longer distances.  The end result was a herniated disc and the end of running for me.  A word of caution to would-be athletes out there is to listen to your body.

 

I also figured out that weight and fitness are not related.  This was deduced after watching older, heavier runners pass me with impunity.  One can be overweight and fit; more so than a thinner person who is not so fit.

 

Also in retrospect, I was not a runner but a jogger, one who covered distances faster than at a walk but certainly not the three-hour marathon pace.  One needs some training insights from experienced runners to keep the pace.

There were, however, many enjoyable mornings and afternoons spent in the solitude of running and thought.  Many of the insights that shape my thinking about life and living were experienced while “on the trail” either running or, later, walking.

There was a phenomenon of note that deserves a few words.  It concerns drivers and the yellow line.

I ran along the edge of the road, facing traffic, and at most times there was little or no traffic on the road in either direction.  After many instances of meeting cars coming towards me, I began to mentally keep track of the drivers and their way of dealing with encountering a lone runner along the road especially when the yellow line was on their side of the center line.

Drivers came in two categories, male and female.  With no yellow line in place, the drivers would invariably move to the other side and pass safely giving me the runner a wide berth.

With the yellow line in place, more than 90% of the male drivers would still move to the other side and give me a wide berth; the female divers, however, were a different story.  More than 90% of them would not cross the yellow line, even if it meant me jumping the ditch to avoid being hit.  Why?  Rules are made to be obeyed without regard to common sense.

While in Neuss Germany on a visit to the plant there, my French companion and I were on our way back to the hotel where we were staying and it was about three in the morning.  I’m not going to tell why we were out so late, it has nothing to do with this story.

We were walking along the sidewalk and came to an intersection.  The light was red in our direction and the “Don’t Walk” sign, in German, was lit.  There on the corner stood a German man waiting for the light to change.  Michel and I walked on across the street because at that time of morning there was absolutely no traffic on the street.  The man dutifully waited for the light to change.  Why?   Rules are made to be obeyed without regard to common sense.  Michel said, this is the difference between the French and the Germans.

We are just coming off of a debacle in our club, there were some agreements made that weren't documented and it has caused a great deal of upheaval.  There are no minutes of board meetings for the past several years; an agreement was made, not documented, and then denied.  A principal to the agreement had a stroke and lost his memory.  No records, undocumented expenses, reputations besmirched, resignations requested, and still without minutes of board meetings.

Meanwhile, at a recent event there was a $20 expense for coffee that could have been reimbursed from the tips received at the event; and it would have been done with.  But we are now told that it has to be approved by the board of directors and a voucher and check have to be issued to cover the expense.

A petty cash item of $20 for coffee is being treated like the expenditure of $100’s of dollars for supplies for the club.  This determination was made by Madam President; she is not German but does drive a car.  Why?   Rules are made to be obeyed without regard to common sense.

There is no way of teaching common sense; it is something that is learned through experience if the person is open to it.  Some people, men and women, have little or no imagination, or have stifled their imagination to make it ineffective, and are then missing one of the main ingredients of making decisions.  The whole list is memory, imagination, reasoning, and decision making.

It is an iterative process that is confirmed or modified by experience and the loop is made again and again until the results are acceptable.  This may be why in many cultures age is revered, the older person has had the benefit of experience.

The yellow line, the “Don’t Walk” sign, the minor amount are all examples of rigidity in thinking that kill progress and innovation.  OTOH, there is the danger of rationalizing almost any action for the convenience of the actor. 

This is where morals and ethics enter into the picture.  One must have a good set of them in order to keep from making expedient decisions that don’t stand the scrutiny of hind-sight.

We aren’t talking religion here; religion prescribes a code of conduct that includes morals and ethics but adds eternal damnation to the mix for violating one or more of the rules.  This may be another reason: Why? Rules are made to be obeyed without regard to common sense.

More and more, I am reaching the conclusion that religion should be divorced from organizations that are not religious by definition and a good set of morals and ethics take its place.  The French enacted such a separation of church and state in 1905 based on the principle of laicite’.

Life is good and I appreciate having this blog to write my thoughts.  In a big way it allows me to get them out of my head without causing a lot of trouble for me with others.

We Are So Great!

There is a delightful man, Professor Rufus Fears, who does Great Courses programs.  One of these is Life Lessons from the Great Books in which he brings an everyday understanding of historical works that speak to us, are written in noble language, and have deep meaning for us.

It is precisely this course to which I am now listening and about which I have had some thoughts of my own.  Not that my thoughts are of any importance to anyone except me but then I write these little essays for me.

The first thing that comes to mind is that some of these great works were written so long ago, yet have come down to us in languages that are completely new to any used at the time of writing, or telling.  Even the Greek and Roman writings are now accessible to us in beautiful prose that we can understand but were written in languages that have since gone out of use, at least in the form used then.

I think this speaks to the scholarship of mankind, that some people would make a large part of their life’s work the assimilation and translation of an ancient language to the extent that they can faithfully translate the ideas given then.  Not just know the meaning of the words but faithfully express in a modern language the thoughts written so long ago by people living then.

Having these works available in words that we can understand also makes me aware of the depth of thought that has existed from the time when we, mankind, received the spark of intelligence that allowed us to express ourselves completely.

It can be argued that many animals communicate within their species and we don’t really know how completely this is accomplished.  Certainly when momma bear roars at the cubs, they get back to her immediately and we can only imagine the communication that takes place among ape and whale families.

We have had the remarkable advantage of having written words available to us, words written anywhere from 3000 BCE to now, in language that we can understand thanks to the work of scholars.

What/who decides what is worthy of posterity?  When one thinks of the quadrillions of words that have been recorded in the span of 5000 years, how is it that certain words are deemed worthy of preservation and others are rolled up like yesterday’s newspaper and put on the fire?

Professor Fears may say it’s natural selection; some may be due to flukes where this or that was found in legible form as was the Rosetta stone.  Thank goodness for that record because it allowed us to decipher the hieroglyphics.  One has to suppose that for all that have been preserved and handed down over the generations there have been millions and millions more that have faded into the gloom of the forgotten.

And we can recall the Egyptian, Greek, Roman civilizations, pre-Colombian American; the Jewish civilization that is still alive and well with traditions that go back thousands of years; Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and other Asian civilizations that continue. 

Yet there are other great civilizations that have come and gone without leaving much of a record.  These were located all over the globe including Europe, Asia, North and South America, Australia, and Oceania.  Without a written record, civilizations disappear with only the trace of artifacts to give us a glimpse but the record of their thinking is gone.

With or without the written record, it can be seen that the modern person is at no great advantage, other than having much more data at his disposal.  The conclusions to which he comes are still governed by memory, imagination, and reasoning.  The record of history shows that the imagination and decision making capability of the ancients and the moderns are comfortably similar.

There is some advantage in the memory category because included in this is all the data that is now available to the decision maker; because it is stored and accessible it is memory.  Yet the decisions made are as alarmingly flawed today as they have been in the past.

Another aspect of technology is communication.  Imagine a great fleet of warships afloat in the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean, barely in sight of one another.  They are making a coordinated effort to find the enemy fleet and engage it while keeping their position on the globe as secret as possible.  One of these has the Admiral aboard who is directing the effort.  His commands are transmitted via shuttered lights blinking a coded message from one ship to the next until all are informed.  The enemy fleet, found and engaged, was destroyed.

It could have been a 1000 W light bulb or carbon arc, it’s not important, but it wasn't a satellite orbiting the earth after being sent there by millions of pounds of force from rocket fuel, after years of research and development to develop the technology to assemble, launch and operate it.  No, it was a shuttered light bulb no more than 80 feet above the surface of the water.

One can argue that communication is much better now; I would only admit that it is faster but not better.  Being faster; often there is less thought given to the message.  Wars have been fought with communication by messenger and telegraph.  The successful side was the one with the superior strategy and intelligence, not the faster communication. 

Yes, we've come a long way but in essence we are the same human beings we have been since the great spark lit us some 200,000 years ago.  Our senses gather data, our reasoning melds memory and imagination to reach conclusions, and our decisiveness leads to taking an action.  Memory and imagination play a significant role in the equation; they, along with emotions, provide the color that would otherwise make us robotic.

We have children and they are not quite us but are heavily influenced by the genes passed along to them and how they are raised.  In the 200,000 year history of our species, we have arrived to the same point as every other generation before us, now.