Are any of you old enough to remember constructing fairly realistic model warplanes that came in preperforated flat sheets of light cardboard ."fold along line A - B", "insert Tab D in slot 3", etc. The most relaxing thing ever.
N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University <http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ From: Friam [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Steve Smith Sent: Friday, August 01, 2014 4:41 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group Subject: Re: [FRIAM] FRIAM Field Trip? Merle - You ask: "I am really at a loss here. Why would ANYONE like to tour a B-29? Give me one good reason." Interesting sociological (and gendered?) question! And some interesting (also gendered?) answers. [TLDR for most of you] There is definitely a strong bias in many men I know toward enjoying (wallowing in) both mega-technology and warfare. It is an interesting question as to which is the chicken and which is the egg. Are men fascinated by these things because they are indoctrinated to them early or are they fascinated with them early and simply make it more extravagant as adults? Are women who become fascinated by such things abnormal or were they simply indoctrinated differently? Do women just intrinsically "know better"? I remember two such "toys" of my own... the first being a metal airliner about twice the size of my fist (age 2-3) with the little friction motors in the wheels so that you could spin them up and let them roll under their own power across a hard surface. Trying to make it fly, I threw it over a fence where there was a big loud dog who took exception to my trying to retrieve it.) The safety-yellow road-grader about 4 times the size of my little fist (age 3-4)... and I spent hours and hours on the side of a mound of dirt making roads with it. I don't know that I had ever actually seen a real road-grader doing such a thing but somehow it was "obvious" to me. This I was enjoying so much, I failed to pack it when we moved away and it remained on that pile of dirt until another little boy came along to make rumbly diesel sounds as it skimmed dirt and made level... I WAS fascinated with both toys and had some idea of what they were about, that on one hand they were fetishes for "full-size" and uber-competent technology for doing "important stuff". On the other hand, I don't know what... what is the magic of such things? Neither was overtly military, but I suppose that was just luck of the draw... or maybe my parents had some inkling that the glory of war was a false path? I don't remember if/that my sister (2 years my senior) took any interest in such things, though we *did* compete over other "toys"... with me experimenting with her "perfume" making set whilst she made her own *bad smells* with my chemistry set. This experience made me aware of my own synesthaesia and it set her on a path to majoring in microbiology in college... go figure. My sister taught me to read by first reading Nancy Drew mysteries to me... for her own entertainment I guess...I did find them interesting enough... but one day she had no new ones and for reasons she cannot explain, she read a book to me whose cover was an illustration of a WWI Sopwith Camel Biplane and a WWII Fokker Triplane in a chase (no guns blazing, so not obviously a dogfight in the stereotypical sense). The story of these two "gallant knights of the air" caught my fancy and I set out to learn to read using that book and at some point discovered the vaguely parallel experiences of Tom Swift opposite Nancy Drew... why I found an adolescent boy schlepping all over the world solving problems with uber-technology fascinating while my sister found the adventures of a slightly older adolescent girl doing the same thing more locally with advanced social skills and powers of deduction, I can't exactly say... but that was our divergence. Is it nurture reinforcing nature or over-riding it? Would she have been better off if my parents had brought her Tom Swift collections from the library? Or would she have become bored and not become an avid reader? I wasn't bored with Nancy Drew but boy did the WWI Aces and Tom Swift trump her best moments in a hurry! Later I began to construct and draw model airplanes, becoming quite fascinated with the "rivet detail" on the WWII fighter planes... I had no significant interest in the armaments on these amazingly capable phenotype-extenders, those transportation-prostheses. I saw airplanes (and all vehicles) as elaborate prosthesis which amplified my ability to (especially) move through space rapidly, over long distances and in unfamiliar mediums such as air, water, vacuum, even boring through the ground (which Tom Swift was THAT?). My favorite antique book is one of "rivet patterns" from the 1850s which shows a thousand ways to join "boilerplate" into various *steamtight* vessels. It also has a section "ingenious mechanisms for inventors and engineers". I gave it to my nephew who is studying to be a Material Science Engineer with the idea that if Eric Drexler was right, then perhaps nano-materials will be macro-technologic mimics. Gears, levers, guides, cams, etc. Who knows, maybe even riveted boilerplate (probably not)! This early fascination with aviation lead me to take a "pilot ground school" class taught by one of the HS coaches who owned (a share in) a plane and then during the summer between my sophomore and junior year in college I had the opportunity to buy a 1947 Luscombe 2-seat taildragger for the princely sum of $2000! It was virtually all I had in the bank... but I already a good summer job near an airport without a tower and spent that summer honing my skills at sunrise for an hour or two. Me and a row of ratty cropdusters. A retired cropduster and a vietnam helicopter pilot taught me the basics and stood back... in it's own way it was less dangerous than my motorcycle riding at the time with a stall speed of 45 mph... could (crash) land it anywhere and except for a few manouvres it was well built enough to withstand any aerial nonsense All that said, I'm not that interested in a B-29... but do understand how many people (albeit mostly men?) would be for roughly the reasons Cordingly enumerates here. I'd rather ogle the MIGs at the airport for their low-tech implementation of high-tech concepts (Vacuum Tube electronics?! a jet engine that can burn just about anything from diesel to kerosene?), and for their unfamiliar performance envelope (out of the range of birds, if not out of the range of darts and arrows). But the 1914 Ingram-Foster flyer (copy of the Curtis-Wrigth Model A biplane) at the ABQ Sunport fascinates me a great deal more... a flying machine that could be repaired (even built) by craftsmen of the time with hand tools for the most part. Amazing! As for Tom's responses... yes, should a pacifist go to a war museum? I went to work at LANL at age 24 *as* a self-avowed pacifist... sadly I conflated peace with lack of active warfare... I actually believed in the doctrine of MAD and that "someone is going to have the big stick, it might as well be us, because we are such good people". Fortunately I came to understand the fallacy of all that over time... but I *was* very much (otherwise) a pacifist. > TJ wrote: > For the same reason 4-year-old boys will spend hours watching videos of bull dozers at work. This has a sad note to it. I spent hours in the dirt with that tiny fetish of a giant yellow machine rather than in front of a TV watching someone else practice the same rituals on camera. I *did* get over my mega-engineering fetish at some point in my life, but still can feel the stir in my loins when I see some giant yellow machine shoving mountains around or plucking trees up by their roots (as they scream their tree-screams) and dropping them into grinders (that is how 599 got cleared of pinon and juniper before the scraping began) to be turned to mulch on the spot... Whilst at a cognitive neuroscience conference a few years ago, the researchers were all abuzz about "media budgets" for children. This was not a part of their formal work nor presentations, but it seemed that all of these grandparents had come to realize that their grandchildren were spending excruciatingly inordinate amounts of time with electronic devices. There was much discussion of the neural coding likely coevolved with long nights around the campfire and how videos and computer games trigger the same wiring. Of course, a lot of it was grandparents disapproving of how *their* kids raised their own kids, but nevertheless, I was moved. And in this instant wondering why I am sitting staring at this screen when I could be out moving dirt around with a big yellow (1949 Ford Dump Farm truck) or orange (1970 Kubota small tractor) moving dirt around aimlessly! Meanwhile, enjoy the tour all! - Steve Hmm... * to get an appreciation of the macro and micro cultures of American militarism of the period * to marvel at the engineering accomplishments * Fifi is the last B-29 on active flying status* and that can't last forever * a fascination with warcraft but of course that's not your point. Should pacifists avoid military museums? Robert C * for a price (~$600-$1600) you can book a ride. On 8/1/14 10:00 AM, Merle Lefkoff wrote: On Thu, Jul 31, 2014 at 2:01 PM, Tom Johnson <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: Anyone want to join me in going out to tour a B-29 tomorrow (Friday, Aug. 1) late morning after usual FRIAM roundup at St. John's? $10 See http://www.airpowersquadron.org/#!santa-fe-nm/ccjb ============================================ Tom Johnson Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA 505.577.6482 <tel:505.577.6482> (c) 505.473.9646 <tel:505.473.9646> (h) Twitter: jtjohnson slideshare.net/jtjohnson/presentations <http://slideshare.net/jtjohnson/presentations> http://www.jtjohnson.com <http://www.jtjohnson.com/> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> ============================================ ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> mobile: (303) 859-5609 skype: merlelefkoff ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
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