I had to ask. You see, very recent experience leads me to wonder where the future epicentre of the world will be. I have the inkling that it might not be in the West for much longer.
Now, the experience that leads me to wonder whether the future is Asian is one that offers the same chance to all nationalities, but then allows me to observe their differing
reponses. It was not a deliberate experiment, but it has turned out to be most informative.
On Wednesday 13
th October, 2010,
Ainan and I, announced some of our scientific work together. Specifically, this was to announce
Ainan's discovery of a novel human sense perception, which I termed
Velociperception. This is a little complicated but, in essence, is the direct perception of angular velocity as a colour coded experience. It means that
Ainan is able to recognize the angular velocity of moving objects, at a glance, in that his mind automatically categorizes them, by assigning a colour code particular to an angular velocity. We believe this arises as a new form
synaesthesia. Anyway, this post is not one for too many details, at this time, of this discovery in perception. What is of interest to me here, is the differential response of media from around the world.
I sent out invitations to local and Western media alike. What happened was rather startling. The Western media responded very quickly indicating interest in covering the event (we said it was to announce a scientific discovery), sometimes within half an hour of mailing them. The local media, however, were rather slow to respond: only two
RSVPed, at all. All the others remained silent.
On the day of the press conference, something unexpected happened. None of the Western media showed up, despite their having
RSVPed their interest. As for the local media, almost ALL of them showed up, despite not having told me they were coming. I found this quite startling. It seems the Western media - at least, the ones operating in Malaysia - just don't keep their word at all.
Now, we presented rather a lot of information to those who came - perhaps too much. So, it was no surprise that only two papers had articles the following day (the conference ended about 3.30 pm the previous day). However, later on the day after, news broke on a Chinese language news agency...and electrified the Chinese speaking world. The news has been taken up by many Chinese language newspapers and portals, including
Baidu and Yahoo in Taiwan and
Hongkong. Almost all of the hits, referring to the new phenomenon of
Velociperception, are Chinese. All of the rest are Asian. Nowhere to be seen, is the Western media world...
To me, this is most telling. It speaks of a differential willingness to acknowledge a new phenomenon. The Western media, have remained silent so far...or have actually failed to keep their word on attending the event. This includes all major Western news agencies, which have just ignored the development. The Oriental world, however, has embraced the novelty of this discovery and news of it is spreading fast. So, who, therefore, is the more forward looking society? The silent West...or the chattering East?
Frankly, I am very surprised by these results. I had not expected this, at all. I had always believed the West to be more open to new ideas, but this may no longer be so. It is, from this diagnostic situation, the EAST, that is more aligned to an open future. The West have stonewalled the new work, so far and even if they do eventually cover it, the coverage would have come very slowly. The East, however, has come alive with the news, in a quite excited manner. Many sites have labelled our news as a "hot topic".
This situation does not auger well, for the West. A society that is not receptive to new ideas, that does not invite new ideas to be considered by the masses, dwelt on, by them, given attention by them, is a society which will become brittle and fossilized...a society which will slowly die. I had thought that the East, would be more likely to be such a society...but no, it is my native West.
Perhaps, then, it is not so bad, that we live in Asia, over the Europe of my youth. Perhaps, here, we will be better appreciated and find more ready acceptance of our work. Perhaps, here, too, we will find a more open future than the one I left behind a decade ago, when I left London, for South East Asia.
I didn't know this, then, but perhaps I made a good choice after all.
(If you would like to learn more of
Ainan Celeste
Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers,
Fintan, 6 and
Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to:
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Labels: Asia vs the West, media silence, The future of the Human race, the rise of the East, Velociperception
