OPINION TechNews STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SINCE 1928 McCormick Tribune Campus Center Room 221 3201 South State Street Chicago, Illinois 60616 E-mail: editor@technewsiit.com Website: http://www.technewsiit.com TECHNEWS STAFF Editor-in-Chief Ryan Kamphuis Assistant Editor Hannah Larson Opinion Editor Mike Purdy Campus Editor Utsav Gandhi A8E Editor Ryan Hynes Sports Editor Melanie Koto Copy Editor Chris Roberts Layout Editors Kori Bowns Karthik Kumar Swasti Khuntia Chris Roberts Pranava Teja Surukuchi Art Editor Adin Goings Distribution Manager Mike Purdy Business Manager Ryan Kamphuis IT Manager Pranava Teja Surukuchi Financial Advisor Vickie Tolbert Faculty Advisor Gregory Pulliam MISSION STATEMENT The mission of TechNews is to promote student discussion and bolster the IIT community by providing a newspaper that is highly accessible, a stalwart ofjournalistic integrity, and a student forum. TechNews is a dedicated to the belief that a strong campus newspaper is essential to a strong campus community. GENERAL INFORMATION TechNews is written, managed, and edited by the students of, and funded in part by, Illinois Institute of Technology. The material herein does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Illinois Institute of Technology or the editors, staff, and advisor of TechNews.There willbe no censorship ofTechNews publication by the faculty or staff of IIT. Sole authority and responsibility for publication and adherence to the values set forth in this policy rests with the TechNews staff. This paper seeks to bring together the various segments of the Illinois Tech community and strives through balance and content to achieve a position of respect and excellence. TechNews strives for professionalism with due respect to the intellectual values of the university and its community. All material submitted becomes the property of TechNews, and is subject to any editorial decisions deemed necessary. SU BMISSIO NS TechNews is published on the Tuesday of each week of the academic year. Deadline for all submissions and announcements is 11:59 pm. on the Friday prior to publication. Articles, photos, and illustrations must be submitted electronically to the TechNews website at technewsiit.com. EDITORIAL POLICY The editors reserve the right to determine if submitted material meets TechNews’ policy and standards. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters to the editor may be submitted by anyone, but are subject to review by the editor-in-chief. All letters-to-the-editor become the property of TechNews upon submission. TechNews does not accept or publish anonymous letters. ADVERTISING Legitimate paid advertisements, from within or outside the IIT community, which serve to produce income for the paper, are accommodated. TechNews holds the right to deny any advertisement unsuitable for publication. Media Kits are available upon request. Ad space is limited and is taken on a first-come, first-serve basis. Contact the Business Manager at business@ technewsiit.com for more information. LOCAL ADVERTISERS To place an ad, contact us via email at business@technewsiit.com. NATIONAL ADVERTISERS To place an ad, contact Mediamate at orders@mymediamate.com S'.' I.. i.. ILLINOIS INSTITUTE I// OF TECHNOLOGY MIKE PURDY opinion@technewsiit.com TechNews | Tuesday, March 27, 2012 Maybe it's just me... Naked lies, philosophy By Chris Roberts COPY EDITOR & LAYOUT EDITOR I had an argument with a (non- IIT) philosophy instructor last week. The argument began as a discussion about the work of writer and humorist David Sedaris, whose most recent work, “Naked,” has been shown to contain many deliberate exaggerations and factual inaccuracies (or lies, as they used to be called) despite the fact that “Naked” was being marketed as autobiographical. Whole situations were fabricated; real people were given false quotes so as to more effectively convey points Sedaris wished to make, adding a greater emotional punch to a “true” story than an audience might otherwise have taken from outright fiction. The discussion focused on whether Sedaris was justified in packaging falsehoods as facts (or rather truth... we will get to that later) in order to more effectively engage readers on an emotional level. As you may guess by my wording and tone, I am decidedly against Sedaris on this topic. However, the discussion swiftly changed course when a college philosophy instructor took issue with my claim that things do not cease being what they are because of how one feels toward them. For example: loving Watchmen will not make it a documentary; disliking organic chemistry classes will not change the properties of 1,2-dichlor0ethane. This instructor had a differing view. He claimed that things are ever only what humans feel about them. I tried to counter by pointing to physical realities which remain indifferent to the ever-shifting emotions of humans, to which he boldly replied, “objectivity IS a myth.” I ‘- I' " 1" " " I I- I I" ‘ “ I' I I" Iv I" I' I I I' II Foramoment,Iwas stunned. Given the academic credentials of my opponent, I was expecting an epic duel in which I would be deftly disarmed and run through by superior knowledge and logic. Instead, I found myself feeling rather like Napoleon trying to invade Russia: vast emptiness as far as the eye can see, with no sign of any real opposition or enemy strategy in sight. The primary source of his argument was a video of two people discussion human consciousness, while apparently trying to see which of them could agree with the other the most times, a complete intellectual echo chamber. It was brought to my attention that my opponent was likely relying upon solipsism: the notion that nothing can be adequately demonstrated to exist outside of any given human’s subjective perspective. In other words, physical reality does not objectively exist. It was then that I realized that we were not two people having an intellectual battle at the same location. We were in completely different dimensions of thought, each wondering how the other could possibly believe what they were saying was true. This confusing tangent succeeded in doing two things. First, it demonstrated that, despite the diversity of education that my major, science journalism, requires, there is always new material to take into consideration. Second, it showed that not all new material is useful. Not only is solipsism antimatter to what I do, talk about physical I . ‘ I I m i I. ”I H. reality, but I suspect that on some level ( d \ l ( 5 6( d] 15 'l Ii II I”. I. I' F. x. E II my opponent does notbelieve all of the implications of it himself. That is unless, instead of using his hands to type messages on physical computer hardware to be transmitted to me via an objectively- existent electrical network, he was using some sort of upgraded Care Bear Stare to convey his feelings directly to me. Then again, maybe it’s just me... Images courtesy ofthetaleofsirbobblogspot. com & heebmagazine.com