You're not seriously proposing acupuncture are you? Even the Chinese
scarcely use it as a practical system!
Acupuncture was a great discovery in that it indicated that there are
neuronal "gates" in our bodies which, if over-stimulated, can block pain.
(Scratching ourselves when we feel an itch is an instinctive -- and
effective -- use of this phenomenon.) It can work, too, for some quite awe
inspiring surgical operations in the case of patients who believe deeply in
it very deeply -- virtual hypnosis. But if it's the "arrogance of our [the
West's] scientific society and the need for the present
medical/pharmaceutical businesses to maintain their grip on the lucrative
resource at hand" why didn't the Chinese use acupuncture more widely long ago?
They didn't because acupuncture has only very limited uses. Instead, the
Chinese long ago used various natural products to bring about anaesthesia
for serious operations, just as monastic hospitals did in Medieval Europe.
Keith
At 11:27 09/01/2011 -0800, Darryl wrote:
Add to the list below the study of the energy flows of the body and
acupuncture to treat dis-eases of the body (over 3500 years of use). This
style of medical intervention is still little understood by the western
world partly due to the arrogance of our scientific society and the need
for the present medical/pharmaceutical businesses to maintain their grip
on the lucrative resource at hand. Let's mention as well the vast
knowledge of the ancient Chinese of the medicinals of the natural world
and the Chinese achievements in astronomy.
The struggle to 'achieve' in anything (sports, technocracy,
business/economics, government, etc.) can lead to a blind arrogance toward
other aspects within a field or society or toward other cultures. It is
this unacceptance of 'differing ways and values' that can lead to
misunderstandings, conflict and disaster in the long run.
Darryl
On 1/8/2011 11:50 PM, Keith Hudson wrote:
Ed,
Yes . . . well I mentioned this in my piece. Over the centuries the
Chinese amassed a large number of inventions here and there in a vast
country which then drifted into Europe in the Middle Ages. The real
problem for China began at the time of the Ming dynasty (early 1400s)
when multi-masted ships (that is, international trade) was outlawed. From
then onwards they were no longer receptive to catalytic ideas from the
outside world. It's economy was large enough (and its internal freight
routes were adequate enough -- principally its grand canal linking the
'export markets' of the north and south) for it to remain viable, but it
never made any great strides from then on. Its culture and economy was
largely locked and introverted.
The original problem (that the abstract scientific ideas of the West from
about 1700 onwards couldn't be immediately written down in ideographic
Chinese) doesn't apply any longer. (Now that they've absorbed the ideas
they can be written down in Chinese -- albeit in railway length words!)
The problem today (which, as I said, the government is seriously worried
about) is that their children and young people are not curious or
creative enough -- and they (not I) put it down to the many years of
intensive rote learning necessary to acquire reading and writing.
Keith
At 12:28 08/01/2011 -0500, you wrote:
Interesting Keith, but despite the problem of their written language,
the Chinese do seem to have been able to come up with inventions in the
past. I recalled reading something about them having invented
gunpowder, so I looked that up on Wikipedia and to my surprise found
that they had not only invented gunpowder, but a host of other
things:<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China>China has been the source of many
significant <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention>inventions,
including the
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Great_Inventions_of_ancient_China>Four
Great Inventions of ancient China:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papermaking>papermaking, the
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compass>compass,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder>gunpowder, and
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_typography_in_East_Asia>printing
(both <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodblock_printing>woodblock and
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movable_type>movable type). The list below
contains these and other inventions.
The <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_people>Chinese invented
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology_in_China>technologies
involving <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanics>mechanics,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulics>hydraulics, and
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics>mathematics applied to
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horology>horology,<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallurgy>metallurgy,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomy>astronomy,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture>agriculture,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering>engineering,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_theory>music theory,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craftsmanship>craftsmanship,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maritime_history>nautics, and
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warfare>warfare. By the
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warring_States_Period>Warring States
Period (403221 BC), they had advanced metallurgic technology, including
the <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blast_furnace>blast furnace and
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupola_furnace>cupola furnace, while the
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finery_forge>finery forge and
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puddling_%28metallurgy%29>puddling process
were known by the <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Dynasty>Han
Dynasty(202 BC AD 220). A sophisticated economic system in
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><?xml:namespace prefix =
u1 />China gave birth to inventions such as
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknote>paper money during the
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_Dynasty>Song Dynasty (9601279). The
invention of gunpowder by the 10th century led to an array of inventions
such as the <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_lance>fire lance, land
mine, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_mine>naval mine,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_cannon>hand cannon, exploding
cannonballs, multistage <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket>rocket, and
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huolongjing#Fire_arrows_and_rockets>rocket
bombs with aerodynamic wings and explosive payloads. With the
navigational aid of the 11th-century compass and ability to steer at
high sea with the 1st-century sternpost
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudder>rudder, premodern Chinese sailors
sailed as far as <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Africa>East Africa
and
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt>Egypt.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_inventions#cite_note-0>[1]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_inventions#cite_note-1>[2]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_inventions#cite_note-2>[3]
In water-powered clockworks, the premodern Chinese had used the
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escapement>escapement mechanism since the
8th century and the endless power-transmitting
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_drive>chain drive in the 11th
century. They also made large mechanical puppet theaters driven by
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterwheel>waterwheels and
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoke>carriage wheels and
wine-serving<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automaton>automatons driven by
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddle_steamer>paddle wheel boats.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_inventions)
The quote mentions agriculture, but not the intensive agriculture of the
rice paddie. I recall reading somewhere that rice paddies were partly a
response to the need to feed vast armies.
Despite the problems raised by their written language, the Chinese must
have had some way of encapsulating their inventions because they were
quite widely used. And in the case of Europe, it wasn't so much language
that was essential to the spread of ideas. Rather it was the invention
of the printing press and the movement away from Latin to the vernacular
that swept ideas across the continent.
If their written language presents a problem currently, there is good
reason to believe that the Chinese will have no problem in adapting. A
few days ago, I saw a TV interveiw with Justin Yinfu Lin, Chief
Economist of the World Bank. The interview was in English, and Yinfu
Lin's responses were in English, but in an English so thick that I had a
lot of trouble understanding what he was saying. However, he knew
exactly what he was saying.
My point is that if there is a problem, I'm sure that the Chinese will
find a way around it.
Ed
----- Original Message -----
From: <mailto:[email protected]>Keith Hudson
To: <mailto:[email protected]>RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME
DISTRIBUTION, ,EDUCATION
Sent: Saturday, January 08, 2011 5:44 AM
Subject: [Futurework] Why China won't win in this century
The reason why China will never win hands-down in its current economic
war with America is the same as why Japan didn't succeed in the 1980s
when all were expecting that its corporations and banks would eat
America up (Americans included). The reason is that both countries are
good at copying ideas and technologies; neither is good at inventing new ones.
It's their written language that's the main part of their problem. It's
non-phonetic. It means that in order to acquire a basic vocabulary --
of, say, 2,000 or 3,000 words (the content of their average newspapers)
-- children have to learn uniquely-shaped characters (whole words)
which have no, or very little, relationship with their utterance. A
Chinese or Japanese child can learn to speak his language quite as
readily as children do the world over, but learning how to read or
write each individual word takes many years. And there's only one way,
unfortunately for children, and that's by rote learning. And thousands
of hours of rote learning over many years under the strict discipline
of slave-masters in the schoolroom doesn't do anything for the
creativity of young minds -- or for older minds for that matter because
the basic mental skills are aptitudes are thoroughly laid down before puberty.
The Chinese and Japanese governments are well aware of the damage that
rote learning is doing to them -- and say so quite frequently. Although
both countries can churn out ten of thousands of science and
engineering graduates every year, there's scarcely an independent mind
among them. Independent 'garage inventors', as we have in the West, are
as rare as hen's teeth in China and Japan. For example, Japan has been
industrialized for over a century -- only a decade or two less than
other Western countries -- yet it has only won 15 Nobel prizes in the
science subjects. Compare this figure with those of America (261), the
UK (91) and Germany (88). China has only won 10! However, this
comparison is unfair because China's have only been won since it woke
up in the 1970s. America's number also needs to be modified because
about a third of its prizes have been won by foreign-born scientists
who became American citizens after migrating there.
It's all Emperor Qin Shi Huang's fault (yes, the same as is famed for
his terracotta army). Once Qin had conquered several countries and
unified China in 221BC, he standardized as many things as possible from
weights and measures and currency through to the written language. All
the various scholars throughout his empire, speaking scores of
different languages (some with and some without a written form) were
forced -- on pain of death -- to produce a composite, but common,
written language. And this could only be non-phonetic, of course. Even
the mighty power of Emperor Qin couldn't force millions of his subjects
to learn a new common spoken language but he could certainly force his
relatively few scholars to produce a new common written one. One
popular penalty in those days was to cut someone through his midriff,
mount him on a platter of hot tar and take him around the town,
gesticulating and shouting before he expired.
And herein lies a paradox, because the industrial revolution in Europe
would never have happened without starting from a basic stock of scores
of innovations -- such as canal locks, differential gears, sowing grain
in rows and so forth -- that had drifted in from China along the Great
Silk Road over a period of centuries. However, this doesn't signify
that the Chinese had been more inventive than Europeans. But its common
written language had meant that when one innovation -- say a
wheelbarrow (very important indeed for both China and Europe) -- had
been invented by a genius in one tucked-away corner of China, then the
local mandarin could write and tell hundreds more all about this
wonderful new device.
But what once had been an accelerator for both Chinese and European
civilizations actually became a retardant for China when the Western
Enlightenment and scientific revolution stirred into life in the 1600s
and 1700s. The Chinese had no way of encapsulating these new ideas. A
Chinese mandarin visiting Europe in, say, the 1700s or 1800s, and
learning about the new exciting scientific ideas (if he'd learned Latin
or another European language of course) had no way of disseminating
them widely in China because there he had no method of writing them
down in Chinese words that would have been instantly recognizable by
fellow Chinese scholars or engineers. He could only convey the new
ideas vaguely by speaking of them face-to-face when he returned home.
Thus Japan (which had inherited thousands of Chinese words) and China
were left behind by the industrial revolution in England, Germany and
America. They didn't begin to catch up in earnest until the the 1870s
(the Meiji Revolution) and the 1970s (the Deng Xiaoping Revolution)
respectively. And this is still -- largely -- where they are today.
Both the Chinese and Japanese governments are trying to phoneticize
their written languages but only very slowly, such is the cultural
conservatism of two thousands years to contend with.
What might be significant in China (though not yet happening in Japan),
is that all their college and university entrants have to learn spoken
and written English these days. All their top government officials
speak English and most business and science faculties in their
universities use English widely in their seminars. Also, thousands of
their brightest young post-grad scientists go to America or England for
research experience and qualifications. Indeed, once they are here for
a few years they become quite as inventive as Western scientists (if
not more so when you look at the authorship of many papers in
heavyweight subject, say genetics or particle physics). Unfortunately
for the Chinese and Japanese governments many, if not most, of the most
innovative scientific minds elect to stay in their adoptive countries
rather than to return.
But the problem is even more serious for China and Japan. Almost as
important as are the original ideas of innovative individuals is the
necessity of other individuals who will give a welcome to new ideas and
help to develop them. And it's this open-minded hinterland which is
still limited because of their deep, conservative, authoritative
cultures. Goodness knows, new ideas often have a hard time being
accepted in the West. Even here, the crazy ideas of yesteryear
sometimes have to wait until its die-hard opponents are dead and buried
and a brand new generation appears. Only then are the ideas seen to be
not so crazy after all.
There we are then. Japan came close to hollowing out America and
Western Europe 30 years ago with its superbly made (Western-invented)
products. China is threatening to do the same in the coming years. But
the innovative momentum is still with the West and this sort of
cultural momentum takes a century or two to die down -- if it ever does
-- or a century to acquire -- if it ever does in China and Japan.
Keith
Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2011/01/
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