You’ll always have morons like that, swallowing belief patterns whole so they don’t have to think for themselves.

Altered Carbon

One of the crazy problems of our rapidly advancing technology is going to be sorting out reality from imagination. Thanks to advances in editing, it is now possible to make videos and sound clips that look and sound almost exactly like people who are well-known, like celebrities and politicians.

One of the unfortunate rallying cries of our age is that of “fake news.” But what we really seem to be calling out is bias and a twisting of the facts to suit a narrative.

Already, as an educated adult, it can be difficult to separate the facts of the news from the opinion and analysis surrounding it.

But we will soon live in a world where it will be possible to make convincing fakes of whatever people want. How then do we determine what we believe and what we don’t?

I don’t have the answers yet, but I firmly believe one of the most important skills we can develop is to critically question any information that fits a belief we already hold.

Just as a primitive sextant functions on the illusion that the sun and stars rotate around the planet we are standing on, our senses give us the illusion of stability in the universe, and we accept it, because without that acceptance, nothing can be done.

Altered Carbon

The more humans learn about the world, the stranger it becomes. Particularly on the scales of the very small and the very large, mystery dominates our lives. Even thinking on an atomic level, the computer I write these words on is mostly empty space.

Our understanding of physics is far from perfect, but we can still land a man on the moon and send probes to explore Pluto.

Our knowledge of our own bodies is lacking, but we can cure an amazing number of diseases.

More knowledge is almost always a benefit to humankind. But perfect knowledge isn’t required to accomplish great feats.

I’ve written recently about the fact that I’ve been getting more into comics this past year. While there are certainly great comics and bad ones, overall I’ve been really impressed. I had so many misconceptions about comic books that I’m glad have been laid to rest.

One fact that I’ve realized is that for me, the Avengers comics don’t generally work very well, and I think I know why.

First, a caveat: This thought is based off of reading about 60 Avengers comics and watching two big-budget movies, which I realize is a very small subset of the entire run. I may very well be proven wrong later, and I would be excited if that was the case.

When it comes to world-ending or universe-ending calamities, few stories go as big as Avengers, and if that’s your thing, I can see how they have grown so much in popularity. For me, though, I’m not as interested in the disaster facing the Avengers. I’m interested in the characters themselves, and that’s where Avengers generally fall short.

The whole principle of the Avengers is that many superheroes need to band together to fight evil. Although there is always some small drama happening in the background, it’s entirely consumed by the foe the Avengers face. I want to see how characters react to the chaos of their time, how it changes them.

The single-character comics are much better at this. The focus is tighter and the stories have more emotional impact.

I think we see this in the movies as well. In the first Avengers, there were only a handful of characters, and I think Joss Whedon did an amazing job of balancing character development with Loki’s plans. By the second movie, the universe had grown too much in scope, and the demands on the movie were too great for a single film. My fear, as the universe has grown even more, is that this problem is only going to get worse.

I have no doubt Infinity War will be a visual spectacle, and probably enjoyable, given Marvel’s track record. But I have a hard time believing it will be anything more than an enjoyable popcorn movie without much depth.

I’m curious what others think. Do you feel the same way about the Marvel franchise, or do you have a different opinion?