A Gossip Culture

So this is the kooky story I promised you....

I once read a story in a magazine. It was a sci-fi story where in, a top honcho at NASA has a visit from his mother in law at his office. Even though the meeting had been fixed earlier, when she arrived there was tension and chaos in the office. The reason for this was that, the astronauts sent sometime ago, had reached Pluto!

Now the Big problem facing them was that sending a signal from Earth to Pluto would take well some hours. And then they would have to wait for a reply for another few hours.
Now the window when Earth and Pluto were aligned so as to be able to communicate was very small just a few hours!

Light from Sun to Pluto take 5 1/2 hours

So obviously carrying out communications was going to be a major hassle cause in the time available they would probably be able to ask the Pluto guys one question and receive the reply and then kaput connection would be out!

After a lot of coaxing the top guy confided with his mother in law about the problem. And the mother in law just smiled and said "Every woman knows what the fastest way to communicate is, you just have to keep on talking! That's how women seem to know everything about every woman on the block! They just keep talking to each other when they meet. That way they say the most and get the most information!!"

The NASA guy just stared at her, cause she had just given him a solution! Both the satellites when aligned would just have to keep relaying info! The Pluto guys could have the answers to the questions from Earth ready the next time. But still in the mean time they would just relay important information to Earth, and most would be gained in that short time.

At my year at a Yoga Center as a full-time volunteer, I came across the Monk's Grapevine, of all the people staying there the Monks gossiped the most, they are also the main admin people. And I realised how great it would be if these people would actually utilize this information from gossiping for better administration of the place!

The point I am trying to make here is that gossip can be a very powerful tool of communications and it could be harnessed for better admin, better management, creating better informed people!
WARNING: This theory is untried and untested (that is why it is a kooky story :D)

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