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Re: Out of Control




Thi sthread reminds me of the George Carlin post a while back who made the
wry and astute observation about our being awash in information, yet short
on knowledge...



> From: Toby Hemenway <hemenway@jeffnet.org>
> Reply-To: "permaculture" <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
> Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2001 09:57:38 -0800
> To: "permaculture" <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
> Subject: Re: Out of Control
> 
> on 11/20/01 Lawrence F. London, Jr wrote:
> 
>>> Mollison talks about similar themes in the
>>> designer's manual when he discusses pattern and
>>> tribal knowledge. If I can remember, he asks us
>>> to consider first the inability of many
>>> contemporary people to retain knowledge. And this
>> 
>> I don't know how he can say something like this.
>> 
> I think I see Sean's point: I've read a zillion books and gone to thousands
> of hours of school, but I don't remember 0.0001% of that information.
> (Quick: who said "the map is not the territory?" Did a couple of you guess
> Gregory Bateson or Stewart Brand? No, it was Alfred Korzybski; Bateson and
> Brand just made it famous, a fact I just read yesterday [literally] and will
> forget in a few days. We can't keep that stuff straight.)
> 
> But of fables, stories, and parables full of wisdom, and the tales from wise
> locals, I have retained a far, far greater percentage, and use that wisdom
> every day (a stitch in time saves nine; red sky at night, sailor's delight.
> . . King Philip Climbed Over Five Great Stones. . . and on and on) Oral,
> patterned learning is more efficiently retained by our meat computer and in
> our bodies. 
>> 
>>> often requiring specialized knowledge
>>> just to access, let alone commit to memory.
> 
>> That is a very inadequate and short-sighted view
>> of electronic information collection, management and retreival.
> 
> Again, I think the point is that electronic knowledge is available to only a
> tiny percentage of the world's (rich) people, while oral knowledge is
> available to all.
> 
> I used to read a lot about semantics. Some it it is dreadful, but much is
> very thought provoking. For now I stick with less technical works on the
> subject like David Abram's marvelous "Spell of the Sensuous."
> 
> Toby 
> _____________________________________________
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