Influenza
It is said that a person who has no awareness of relative rank is not able to speak, or even sit and eat. In everyday life, she is expected to be ready at all times with differentiated, delicate degrees of understanding and expression - able to address every specific context with the appropriate measure. Seniority and merit are the backbone of this vertical order, to which we may add a third, timeless element: reputation. To understand the invisible interaction between these three attributes is indispensable. Those who master it are able to move through the world with elegance, with the power to effect change in indirect or intangible ways.
There is an intrinsic imbalance in this triangle of influence. While time and achievement can be objective barometers, one's reputation is like a fleeting reflection in the eyes of others, forever taunting and compelling us to adjust. What we imagine that other people see in us can become the guiding rhythm in an infinite and distracting performance - negatively affecting the established social geometry. Digital relational networks are the perfect embodiment of this triangular, asymmetrical structure: chronological, event-driven, and highly sensitive to the unpredictable fluctuations of human judgement.
The Medieval Latin word influentia described the belief that epidemics were due to the influence of the stars. This vertical ordering of the world continues.
