29 MAY 2014 by ideonexus
Scientific Worldview Arises from Specialization
... an explicit scientific world view may arise by a higher specialization of the same basic grammatical patterns that fathered the naive and implicit view. Thus the world view of modern science arises by higher specialization of the basic. 1 
notes
notesIt grows more refined.
02 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Everyone Can be Arrogant
Many things may become baggage, may become encumbrances if we cling to them blindly and uncriticaliy. Let us take some illustrations. Having made mistakes, you may feel that, come what may, you are saddled with them and so become dispirited; if you have not made mistakes, you may feel that you are free from error and so become conceited. Lack of achievement in work may breed pessimism and depression, while achievement may breed pride and arrogance. A comrade with a short record of struggle ma... 1 notes
notesAll people have some specialization that allows them to look down on others.
20 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
The Explosion of Sub-Cults
The techno-societies, far from being drab and homogenized, are honeycombed with just
such colorful groupings—hippies and hot rodders, theosophists and flying saucer fans, skindivers
and skydivers, homosexuals, computerniks, vegetarians, bodybuilders and Black
Muslims.
Today the hammerblows of the super-industrial revolution are literally splintering the
society. We are multiplying these social enclaves, tribes and minicults among us almost as
fast as we are multiplying automotive options. ... 1 notes
notesWe can see this phenomenon in online cultures, but I like how this passage ties it into the issue of personal identity. The cults/fandoms we choose are also a choice about how we are defining ourselves.
20 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
It is Impossible to Keep Up with New Knowledge
No man's model of reality is a purely personal product. While some of his images are
based on firsthand observation, an increasing proportion of them today are based on
messages beamed to us by the mass media and the people around us. Thus the degree of
accuracy in his model to some extent reflects the general level of knowledge in society. And
as experience and scientific research pump more refined and accurate knowledge into society,
new concepts, new ways of thinking, supersede, contradict... 1 notes
notesThe growth of knowledge is too fast for anyone to keep on top of it, even in specialized fields. Is the solution for everyone to become generalists?
19 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Specialization is Differentiation
The proliferation of subcults is most evident in the world of work. Many subcults spring up
around occupational specialties. Thus, as the society moves toward greater specialization, it
generates more and more subcultural variety.
The scientific community, for example, is splitting into finer and finer fragments. It is
criss-crossed with formal organizations and associations whose specialized journals,
conferences and meetings are rapidly multiplying in number. But these "open" distinctions
... 1 notes
notesToffler explores the phenomenon of specialization in the sciences, producing subcults and subsubcults.
03 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
The Computer is the Solutions to Over-Specialization
Getting ready for the assumed inexorable Armageddon, each
applied science and all of the great scientific specialization
capabilities only toward weaponry, thus developing the ability to
destroy themselves totally with no comprehensively organized
oppositional thinking capability and initiative powerful enough to
co-ordinate and prevent it. Thus by 1946, we were on the swift way
to extinction despite the inauguration of the United Nations, to
which none of the exclusive sovereign prerogatives... 1 notes
notesWith computers taking over the responsibility of specializing in computational and processing tasks, human minds are freed to resume our plasticity or "comprehensivlty" as Buckminster puts it.
03 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
Specialization is the Way to Extinction
Now let us examine more closely what we know scientifically about
extinction. At the annual Congress of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, as held approximately ten years ago in
Philadelphia, two papers were presented in widely-separated parts
of the Congress. One was presented in anthropology and the other
in biology, and though the two author-scientists knew nothing of
each other's efforts they were closely related. The one in
anthropology examined the case histories o... 1 notes
notesSpecialization comes at the cost of general adaptability. So when the environment changes, the highly-specialized go extinct.
03 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
Specialization is Unnatural
All universities have been progressively organized for ever finer
specialization. Society assumes that specialization is natural,
inevitable, and desirable. Yet in observing a little child, we find it is
interested in everything and spontaneously apprehends,
comprehends, and co-ordinates an ever expending inventory of
experiences. Children are enthusiastic planetarium audiences.
Nothing seems to be more prominent about human life than its
wanting to understand all and put everything together.... 1 notes
notesHomo sapiens most prominent adaptation is our adaptability.
08 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
It Takes Numerous Experts to Explore a One-Mile Path
Of course, no one person has the time, knowledge, or skill to learn everything about a landscape, so in my walks 1 have relied upon the labors of generations of botanists, ornithologists, zoologists, geologists, ecologists, meteorologists, astronomers. cultural historians, and a host of other specialists who have studied with particular care some feature of the natural world. Whenever possible, I queried people I met along the way: the old people who grew up in the landscape, who knew it in i...Folksonomies: expertise specialization
Folksonomies: expertise specialization
1 notes
notesChet Raymo lists all the individuals he needed to consult to fully understand the path he walks each day.
