Hello everyone
>From: "Marco" <marble@inwind.it>
>Reply-To: moq_discuss@moq.org
>To: <moq_discuss@moq.org>
>Subject: Re: MD Welcome Back Dan
>Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2002 02:16:46 +0200
>
>Dear Dan, and group.
>
>I'm very very glad to see you back. I also shared the worries with Rog and
>others.
Hi Marco
Thank you and sorry about the worry. We live in strange times.
>
>The point about the president of the USA makes me think. Hope you can solve
>my doubts.
>
> > The social
> > level is the sum total of all cultural influences on the individual
>which
>no
> > scientific instrument can detect. A great example of a social pattern of
> > value that Mr. Pirsig gives in the new annotated version of Lila's Child
>is
> > the President of the United States. We all know who and what he is but
>no
> > scientific instrument can detect the President of the United States.
>
>
>Well, it's not far from my image of the social level as "culture", where
>culture is the knowledge we share and transmit and store without the need
>of
>DNA.
>
>Anyway, I have a problem with the Pirsig's formulation you offer:
>
>"The social level is the sum total of all cultural influences on the
>individual which *no scientific instrument* can detect".
>
>It is the reference to the scientific instruments that bothers me. I agree
>about the president. But let me offer another example. English Language. I
>think we all agree it is a social pattern. Well, my computer can detect
>English Language, suggests corrections to wrong terms, and tell my English
>posts from my Italian posts.
Dan:
I think the solution is in Lila where RMP talks about the novel being in the
computer but no one can find it with a voltage meter. On the computer's
level, language is purely information. In order to use language (read the
novel) we have to interpret the information within our social context. Your
computer can tell English from Italian (if it has been instructed to do so)
but it cannot interpret what is being said.
What do you think?
Dan
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