Real or Imitation?
October 15, 2009 (Thursday)
The wave of the future may be the hybrid automobile. A hybrid car, or an electric car, runs quietly. It is so quiet that pedestrians may not hear it coming. So the manufacturers are working on this problem. One car maker has come up with the idea of speakers in the front bumper, making sounds that imitate a gasoline automobile engine. Of course, any old sound will do if the only purpose is to get the attention of the person on the crosswalk.
About a year ago, I wrote in this blog about two noise-making devices in my cars. One was an old “wolf whistle” that worked off the exhaust manifold, and the other was an electronic chimes device, that played songs through a speaker behind the front grill.
The thought of synthesized sound to make people think the noises are coming from the engine reminds me of similar inventions: the sounds of the sea recorded and played back in a bedroom as the insomniac tries to go to sleep, coconut shells sounding like horses pounding the pavement on the old radio shows, celebrity voices on answering machines, etc. are a few examples of sounds that simulate the real thing.
Is my life the real thing or a simulation? When I say, “I love the Lord,” do I really? When I say, “Christ lives in me,” does He? When I tell someone, “I’m praying for you,” am I? If I say to someone, “I forgive you,” do I? Or are these simulated sounds that could well be recorded and played back through speakers?
“It’s who you are, not what you say and do, that counts. Your true being brims over into true words and deeds” (Luke 6:45 The Message).
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Luke 6:45, NIV:
“The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”
Luke 6:45, KJV:
“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.”