In my life up to that time, I'd made only that one phone call to Mr. Moore. Nevertheless, I found out later that, after talking to me, he called the Indianapolis police. He filed a complaint, although I don't know what he might have thought to accuse me of.
Old "Uncle Joe" would have been proud of him.
Mr. Mark Swearingen, of the adjunct faculty of the department, e-mailed that, "informatics is, in my mind, the study of information."
"For my purposes," Mark continued," it is medical information. My course is on the creation, storage, disclosure and retention of medical information."
But does "informatics" really have a common thread? Looking through faculty biographical information, I found phrases such as "video game development," "ceramic art and design," and "cartoon network."
I think the one thing that may unite the disparate elements of "informatics" is the way that the money was obtained to construct their building. As a guess, I'd say that some of it was obtained, perhaps indirectly, from federal security agencies. I haven't been able to get anyone at IU to discuss this question, however.
Again: Is it unreasonable to ask: "Don't federal security agencies have buildings of their own? Why do they need to be on college campuses?"
On April 25, 2007 I had a pleasant conversation with James Brown, Assoc. Exec. Dean of the IU Journalism School. His department shares the same building with the Indianapolis Informatics department. My question was whether informatics and journalism are compatible.
One of the reasons I'd thought to e-mail Mr. Mark Swearingen was that a Mr. John Swearingen had been head of Amoco when I'd first approached that company regarding space colonization in 1973. Mark e-mailed me in 2007 that he wasn't related to that John Swearingen.
But Dr. Glaser's proposal to replace burning of oil with satellite solar power (see beginning of this article) was put forward quite a while ago, in 1969. It's been given neither proper funding nor proper representation in the popular media. It's important but almost no one has heard of it.
One might ask, "Why not?" Is that due to intimidation of the media by the oil industry? My personal testimony here is that intimidation has indeed been used.
And fraud.
It might seem as if a good deal is being done to combat global warming, but a lot of that is talk. There are "feel good" gestures, activities, and public relations. And some of that does have a certain amount of substance.
But BP-Amoco fully intends to drill planetary oil reserves down to the last drop. That's what they've indicated to me.
What's the connection, if any, between reality and what people believe? If a statement is misleading or untrue, does that constitute a form of "information?" And does "informatics" include propaganda techinques and illicit ways to suppress information?
Dean Brown defined "New Media" this way: "any form of technology used to produce messages either for mass or more focused audicences."
It goes "beyond print," he continued, to appeal to "a combination of senses, using visual and sounds."
Now, a "more focused audience" could comprise just one person alone in his apartment--indeed, a person such as me. As I mentally review the abuse I've received over the past twenty-five years, I find that I can make a match with the "New Media," a match that's more than merely plausible.
It's, perhaps, a matter of semantics. While I feel that I'm being electronically stalked, harassed and interrogated, practioners of New Media may feel that they're simply "focusing" on a small audience--of one person.
What I think of as nightly "interrogation" and "abuse" isn't interrogation at all. It's "interactive media."
As Dean Brown correctly pointed out, any form of communication can be used for fraud or other antisocial intent. However, I don't think we should be teaching antisocial intent to IU students.
What could be done? I realize that it may not be feasible at this point to do away with the name "informatics." Some have earned that degree already. But, since, it's basically just a snazzy-sounding Russian word, perhaps my friends at IU should try to broaden the subject matter. Perhaps a mandatory ethics course might be a good addition. And my academic qualifications are similar to some of the adjunct faculty. They could hire me as faculty if they wished to do so.
There's a legitimate mathematical subject called "information theory" which has helped me a good deal as an adult. Perhaps a little ot that could help give added meaning to their new word which has been translated from the intriguing Russian.
DAVID MANNN, PRIVATE EYE
In 2007 new cowboy moved into my apartment building, a rough, tough establishment, inhabited to a significant degree by male beings of the highly independent--or perhaps, indeed, "social outcast"--category.
However, I was uncertain as to the new hombre's last name. He said at first that his name was “Bill Pence” and that he was related to Mike Pence, the Indiana congressman. Later he asked to borrow my cell phone to talk to his lawyer. And, while standing near me and doing that, he seemed to use as his last name, a name that I'll replace here by "Snoopy," the common name of a high government security official and a member of the informatics faculty.
When I enquired about a possible name contradiction, the new cowboy friend in my building came up with yet a third last name, a hybrid of the two names he'd given previously. So I was apparently being given the opportunity to choose whichever name I might like best.
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