Dan Minette wrote
... the shifts are analog, compared to the digital paradigm shifts
in physics.
That is for sure! As far as I can see, we have three major social
paradigms in place now. It is not like physics, where everyone agrees
that Newton's Laws are wrong for precise calculations, but right more
generally. Social circumstances are more vague and less decisive.
On a world wide basis, the largest paradigms may well be various
pre-industrial and agricultural. David Brin stated what from our
point of view is their most salient characteristic, a belief in blood
lines, an aristocracy: for those that like reading fantasy, magical
powers only for some; for those who like power, corporate inheritances
for some. For the rest of us, peonage.
This is, I think, part of the appeal of movies like Lord of the Rings
and Narnia.
Many possess a Newtonian paradigm, especially in western Europe and
the United States. That paradigm enabled technology to advance for
generations, not for the short spurts of ancient times or the
Renaissance. I also think the Newtonian paradigm led to the political
notion that people should succeed on their own and not be prevented by
others as well as to a loss in certain beliefs.
Put another way, only some geniuses from an agricultural society see
mechanical devices as non-living, although everone can use them, just
as everyone can use a cell phone. The point of the Newtonian paradigm
is that ordinary people began to see mechanical devices as non-living.
Thus, in the early 1820s, the British, using very crude river
steamboats were able to conquer the Burmese using sophisticated
galleys, after the Burmese rowers grew tired. Geniuses like Watt and
Fulton invented the first steam engines and their application to
steamboats; but London military bureaucrats sent them to the East.
As for the third paradigm, I think very few ordinary people have
adapted it. That paradigm concerns itself with probability and
feedback. I am not sure whether young children can take it on.
Certainly, the third paradigm has not entered any widespread culture
yet. In contrast, for a Newtonian paradigm in some places, a nine
year old will understand, vaguely, how a 1917 motorcycle engine works
by looking at it when it is stopped. The understanding is `in the
air' and the child picks it up. But a modern motorcycle engine is is
computer controlled. To understand it, a child needs a tool. He or
she cannot just look at it.
(I don't know about electricity, except that my nephews, whose father
was an electrician, learned to play with electric circuits when they
were four. However, that may be like playing with dolls or toy cars,
a learning about action, not understanding.)
... it isn't clear to me that the difference between nomads that
follow a herd and nomads that lead herds is more significant than
that between nomads and city dwellers.
When did cities first arise? I am not speaking of villages, such as
gatherer/hunters might settle -- incidently, over the centuries, how
do the people in such a village prevent a more populous neighbor from
conquering them, or prevent their own increase in population, thereby
reducing their resources per person?
For the pre-agricultural, pre-Aristotelian paradigms, I am speaking of
time more than twelve millenia ago. I don't think cities existed
then.
As for nomads that followed and those that led herds, I don't know
anything about them. (How do you gather that information before
writing? Do you compare archeological studies of ancient nomads with
those of nomads about whom we know through writing?)
I wonder: can a general, social paradigm succeed when you cannot see
how entities `work'? -- that a supreme being, along with help from
the sun, water, and warmth, inspires the grass to grow; or that this
rod controls that valve in a steam engine? On the other hand, you
cannot see with your own senses how a telephone works, only the result
of it working.
--
Robert J. Chassell
[EMAIL PROTECTED] GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
http://www.rattlesnake.com http://www.teak.cc
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