11-14-2020, 09:16 PM
(11-14-2020, 07:52 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:(11-14-2020, 01:54 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:(11-13-2020, 08:33 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote: Does 1+1 = 10?
Sure. In binary.
In hexadecimal, 7 + 9 = 10
Note that we usually use decimal arithmetic, and someone using something other than base-10 so identifies this.
Your binary and hexadecimal examples remind me of an old software engineer’s story. In those days, many such programed in assembly language, and depending on the mini computer manufacturer dealt absurdly commonly with arithmetic in either base 8 or hexadecimal. An engineer often came to see that these bases unusual to most people were the only possible natural bases.
One such engineer got into a loud and deeply felt argument with a bank teller. His monthly bank statement had an obvious mistake. I mean, it is painfully obvious that 7 + 5 = 14, not 12, right? How could the bank want to stick with such an obvious mistake?
The difference between myself and Xenakis is similar. He commonly deals with minor power where tribal thinking is still common, and the older Agricultural or Industrial Age tribal thinking is still dominant. If in the Information Age has had to deal with nukes and proxy wars, and the major powers have had to find other ways to change, the many minor powers have not yet run into nukes and proxy wars. They are still using tribal thinking, have not had to switch to the WEIRD. Insisting that the old tribal thinking is the way to go, that he does not have to incorporate WEIRD thinking into his understanding of the world, is very compatible to using base 8 math in a world where base 10 has become the assumed default.
Tribal thinking is more archaic and, in view of increasing levels of technology both in know-how and productive capacity, less relevant and reliable. I see Humanity going into a post-industrial order in which production and possession of more stuff per person will be much less reliable for creating human happiness and any perception of prosperity. As I understand it, hoarders are not happy people.
We will still need to literally consume food and fuel, but I doubt that we will buy other things except to replace obsolete, lost, or broken stuff. We will be going to more of an experience economy. It is a general assumption of conventional economics that more expenditure means that one has better. Paying more for the same thing (let us say property rent) does not suggest greater prosperity except to the person who extracts more out of the deal.
Quote:My sister the retired first grade teacher used to have occasional bussed students from the Boston inner city environment to her rich suburban school system. She spoke of a ghetto mind set. If you are going to succeed, you have to become a sports star, a drug pusher, or a mother. Intimidation, violence in attitude were an important part of gaining status. The law was optional, something to be bypassed when possible. Being a part of a gang, incorporating the gang mannerisms, was important if one is to gain status in the neighborhood.
The looters in the recent unrest might often share the ghetto mind set.
That expression of the "ghetto mindset" is already obsolete. It implies a greater disparity of winners and losers. The welfare mother with her beloved cash-cow children (I know a white woman like this in rural Michigan, and her children are white) will be a loser once she no longer has the children. Dope-dealing is a loser way of life, as it is only a matter of time before one gets killed by a rival dealer or ends up in prison. 'Sports star' and 'entertainer' are potentially lucrative, but they are at best lottery tickets.
I have taught as a substitute, and I once suggested to someone clearly of the ghetto mindset as he leafed through a sporting goods and sportswear catalogue during a junior-high math class that many people make a solid living in the sporting goods and sportswear industries. Such includes designers, wholesale sellers, and retail store managers. But they need to be good in English so that they can communicate with people and good in math so that they can keep up with what they are doing. Does that sound like good advice?
He responded "I can make more money dealing drugs!"
I did not expect that response, and I considered it an insult to everyone in the classroom. I chose to cower behind the teacher's desk... and no0 K-12 teacher can teach effectively from a teacher's desk.
Had I had the recklessness to lecture against what he said, I would have said something like this:
Everyone needs an honest line of work, and that may be at the minimum wage. If you do such work as a fast-food worker or a farm laborer you at least can develop good work habits. Sure, life will be rough on poverty pay, but poverty is better than prison. You may have to live six to a room, but you might find ways in which to get better pay as you make clear that you are doing a better job. One good thing is that you can talk about what you do for a living. So you go to four in one room.
You can attend a junior college and learn a marketable skill that will give you a near-average income... and with that comes a good life. You can own a car and some nice clothes. You can buy some electronic goodies. You can occasionally go to the movies and go out to eat. You have some money for an interesting date.
The drug dealer may make more money earlier, but he knows that one slip up puts him in jail. Or just bad luck. And when he gets caught, what happens when he leaves jail? Not many employers want him. Nobody wants an ex-jailbird operating a cash register or receiving merchandise. There goes your chance to be a retail cashier, which is a stepping stone to better... or a warehouseman. You end up with jobs other people do not want, and drug-dealing isn't exactly a transferrable skill.
American capitalism is a cruel, merciless system. If you aren't born into the right family, you have to live on your wits just to survive. But what else can you hope for?
(I waited until the next class had started before writing him up. I thought he would figure out what I was doing).
Quote:Is it really comparable to Generational Dynamics?
I see Generational Dynamics more suited to a Malthusian world in which food per person fails to keep up with population, and when people start to get hungry they get angry... government offers them victuals as a soldier which are slightly more than are available to a farm laborer or store clerk... and the government sends off its soldiers as cannon fodder until it runs out of cannon fodder or expands its territory enough to solve the food shortage.
Quote:The ghetto mind set is a way of adapting to a particular inner city environment. It is a way of understanding the world. I lists a bunch of goals to which one should strive. If one is living in the inner city and has a certain skin pigmentation, are you better off pursuing the ghetto mind set or Generational Dynamics? World views and values reflect the environment in which people grow up. If you grew up in the inner city, what good is Generational Dynamics?
Beyond any doubt the recruiters of cannon fodder will look first in the ghetto. Give a boy a uniform, send him on a mysterious trip to a place with which he is unfamiliar, have him do some marching and calisthenics to prepare him for soldiering, give him a mock AR-15 or AK-47 for training to kill the Enemy, and when the preparation is complete, give him a real AR-15 or AK-47 and direct him to point it at the Enemy.
My impression is that Generational Dynamics will kill off plenty of 'expendable' people on both sides of a war.
Quote:Now I grew up in the suburbs. I bought into the blue mindset. The ghetto pattern is abhorrent to me. Adapting the ghetto way of thinking in a reasonably well to do suburb would soon make me a social outcast and get me into trouble. That doesn’t mean if you don’t make a sincere attempt to understand it, you can have a good understanding of the urban problems.
How many of us could adjust to ghetto life? Poverty is one thing. One cuts back, cuts back more, and starts making compromises... driving on bald tires, getting slower in meeting bills, putting off maintenance, buying cheaper and less-nutritious food... make it do or do without until the electricity is cut off, at which time your old CD's and DVD's are useless. I've gone from middle-class to poor, and it is not enjoyable.
Quote:But if your computer works in base 8, you learn and default to base 8. Just remember that the bank teller will not understand. If you use the wrong tool for the environment, you are going to have a mess.
We all adjust, don't we? Some adjustments are just too complicated. I'm not good at watching my back, and I don't like getting in trouble with the police.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
