From: Case (Case@iSpots.com)
Date: Wed Oct 26 2005 - 14:13:26 BST
[Rebecca]
Significantly, you're evolving towards something right?... the further an
end point you want to get to, the more dynamic your solution is going to
have to be.
[Case]
Exactly, the future is dynamic, read chaotic, because it is in principle
unknown. There are a million butterflies flapping their wing and each
glossimer flutter contributes to what you will have for lunch next Thursday.
The future is indeed determined, as Laplace and other determinists thought,
but the equation to compute it is so complex that it's easier to wait and
see than to break out the calculator. Frankly I think the past is just as
indeterminate for the same reason.
[Rebecca]
Let's say you ... [grappling with my absurdly limited knowledge of
motorcycles] not only replace, but change a major part of the bike so that
it runs differently; so it runs 'better'. Is that dynamic quality at work?
Going above and beyond what the bike would have been able to do without that
new part? Maybe the new bike goes faster, maybe it's louder, maybe it's
quieter - depends on what you want to do.
[Case]
My lack of knowledge of motorcycles is exceeded only by my lack of knowledge
of snow skiing but I was struck by how Pirsig spent all that time in ZMM,
oiling the chain, fixing the chain guard, adjusting the valves and replacing
the points. Obviously he had in mind a well tuned machine with all of the
parts moving in Harmony. In order to achieve this he recommended finding the
right state of mind. I saw this as yet another dualism. The motorcycle
either runs right or it doesn't. This dualism like so many others is over
come by finding balance and bringing yourself and the cycle into harmony.
That is: finding The Way.
[Rebecca]
Eventually you could change all the parts so that your motorcycle runs
'better' (however you want to define that) than the original combination of
parts (questions of whether it's still the same cycle aside).
Dynamic quality just breaks down static patterns right (yes this is a real
question, not rhetorical)? It doesn't necessarily have to leave 'better'
static patterns in its wake - just different patterns, a reorganization.
[Case]
My own view is that static patterns evolve in response to dynamic forces.
They change it find balance with the new cutting edge of reality or they are
swept away. In that sense the new static patterns are 'better', in that they
are more suited to the new environment. But generally speaking having your
static patterns break down is not a good thing at all. Order, having things
fit and make sense, is highly desirable for most folks I suspect.
[Rebacca]
((Aside: Really I never liked Pirsig's emphasis on dynamic over static
quality, myself... I'm more of a 'balance' girl, myself.))
[Case]
Me either. He rants against the "system" an aweful lot but often you have to
wonder what all the fuss is about. I hate to agree with Platt but while
commercialism is crass it is hard to imagine what could replace it. Or take
Lila's head boat sure it is gaudy but who wants to have diner in a dingy? By
making DQ into some mystical transcendental phenomona, a second undefined
term in a vocabulary of three words, many MoQers fail to see, as the Chinese
did, what a curse it is to live in interesting times.
[Rebecca]
I think it would be really dynamic if you could just rearrange the whole
bike into a machine that could teleport you instantly from one place to
another. :) [ recognizing that this would totally eliminate the purpose of
the bike for some... ]
[Case]
Ahh sooo, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single... Screw it!
Beam me up Scotty.
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