We are natural villagers 20 Jul 2009 We are natural villagers. For most of mankind’s history we have lived in very small communities in which we knew everybody and everybody knew us. But gradually there grew to be far too many of us, and our communities became too large and disparate for us to be able to feel a part of them, and our technologies were unequal to the task of drawing us together. But that is changing. Douglas N. Adams, 1999 [Hat tip Jeb Baugh] Social evolution Technology
Evolution Explaining religion 3 – Is it adaptive? 31 Oct 2007 To summarise: so far we have three general kinds of explanations of religion. There are sociological explanations in terms of the economic, societal and political conditions under which religions develop. There are psychological explanations in terms of experiences, existential dread, need for control and so forth. And there are sociobiological… Read More
Evolution Why do scientific theories work? The inherent problem 18 Jun 2008 In an interesting post, Think Gene poses what they call “the inherent problem” of scientific theories: The inherent problem of scientific theories is that there exists an infinite equally valid explanations. Why? Because unlike in mathematics, we never have perfect information in science. … OK, so our world understanding improves… Read More
Evolution Social networking is not new 26 May 2009 John Hawks mentioned a lovely article in the New York Times, interviewing an anthropologist, Pauline Wiessner, who worked with the !Kung bushmen in the Kalahari. She notes that they maintain social relationships across many hundreds (and in her case, when they found a satellite phone, thousands!) of kilometres. This means… Read More
I was born in a village and I grew up in a village. I now live in a village, literally on the boundary of a smallish town whose main characteristic is that it is like a village, everybody knows everybody, and that is the reason that I live where I do and why I’m staying put.
Of course, I grew up in a village of some 1500 in a remote region. Where I live now is another village, but this one is not defined by physcial geography. It is more defined by a social geography enabled by mass communications and social networks. I think that was Adams’ point. The world is no longer round, you see.
“The world is no longer round, you see.” WOW! New theorem – “The shortest distance between two points on a sphere (ours) is through the keypad.
It is more defined by a social geography enabled by mass communications and social networks. I think that was Adams’ point. Didn’t Marshall McLuhan say something like that?
Perhaps we are natural villagers, – but for millenia man has tried to escape the country. As the saying from the Middle Ages goes “Stadtluft macht free” (city air make you fee)
And what do we do when we reach the city? Start up small groups of friends and neighbours. We are still villagers.
I always found London rather village like in a strange sort of way. I lived in Brixton for years, very strong sense of community and a very distinctive local identity. Its a vast city split up into little tribal groups and zones.