A very insightful and humane comment, David. On Wed, May 12, 2021 at 8:50 AM Prof David West <profw...@fastmail.fm> wrote:
> I find anthropology to be fascinating because it is complex, > interpretative, dynamic, highly contextual, and, ultimately anecdotal. "The > ways of humans" are not reducible to formulae, rules, laws, or algorithms. > There are 'patterns' and it is possible to establish cultural 'norms' to > which — always with exceptions — individual behavior conforms. > > "Thinking Anthropologically" means constantly juggling hundreds of > variables, trying to find the "familiar in the strange" and the "strange in > the familiar" and, at best, discovering that your "understanding" is just a > "thick description." > > In contrast, from my point of view, science cherry picks the easy shit; > that which is reducible to answers, laws, principles, and algorithms. Make > no mistake, I love science, but only at the fringes where it remains > "metaphor and story and philosophy." > > It is difficult to introduce anthropological ideas, like the three > categories of reciprocity, into discussions on this list. Readers come up > with questions, framed with too much specificity to be easily answered — > like glen's question of transitivity in balanced reciprocity. > > The answers to such questions are almost always: yes ....but .... > > When Jesus (supposedly) said, "if you do it to the least among you you > have done it to me," that is transitive as I understand glen was asking. > > "Balanced" is highly contextualized. For example the group of workers that > had lunch together every Friday. Restaurants varied in price, everyone > ordered what they wished, and the check was always evenly split. At the end > of a year of study, the anthropologist observing the group added up the > numbers. The total spent by the group and the amounts spent by each > individual. Individual expenditures were within ten-cents of the amount > calculated by dividing total expenditure by number of people in the group. > > A Bill Mauldin cartoon: two GIs in WWII are talking and one says to the > other, "I want to thank you for saving my life today, here's my last pair > of dry socks." > > Both cases exhibit balanced reciprocity. > > Most examples of general reciprocity are situated in small, tight, groups > like a family and few point a path to a "scaled application." Bot others, > like Pieters, "pay it forward" or numerous instances of altruism benefiting > large, "anonymous," groups contain no obvious constraints on scale. > > Anyway - just something I wanted to share. > > davew > > > On Wed, May 12, 2021, at 1:46 AM, Pieter Steenekamp wrote: > > I just want to share two stories with you regarding reciprocity. > > 1 Years ago I had to be in Miami for a couple of months for business and > my family joined me. My one son was ill and got treatment at the Jackson > Memorial Hospital. There was one nurse in particular that went not the > extra mile but million miles to help us with everything that she possibly > could. When it was time for us to return home we obviously wanted to > express our gratitude. Her reply was to request us to do to others what she > has done to us. > > 2 The deputy chief justice of South Africa Raymond Zondo had a similar > experience in his life. His family was very poor and a local businessman > helped so that he could study law. After completed his studies he wanted to > repay the businessman, but in Zondo's own words: > “When I asked him what arrangements we could make so I repay him, he said > don’t worry. Do to others what I have done to you. I thought that was very > important and in my own small way I try to do that,” said the judge. > Taken from https://www.goodthingsguy.com/people/judge-raymond-zondo/ > > On Tue, 11 May 2021 at 23:56, Steve Smith <sasm...@swcp.com> wrote: > > Lazily composing at least two upshots of this conversation (and the > smart-contract parallel one): > > 1) I think Russ brought up what *I* thought was implicit in Reciprocity > (though I understand why it is not since I borrowed my use of the term > from gift economies, not adhering to the (obvious) mathematical meaning > that most here would jump to): My intended connotation of Reciprocity > included both "spirit of generosity and gratitude", so it is excellent that > those were called out as possibly essential (or at least efficient?) in > improving the state of our relations. > > 2) Glen opened the question of "transitivity" which I think you (Jon) are > addressing here with good motivation. In my smart-contract > considerations, the point would be that the values one attached to "raw > value" (money/crypto¢) in their transactions would propogate through. For > example, food stamps cannot (directly) be redeemed for non-food items > (specifically alcohol, tobacco, pet food, sunglasses) and if I paid a 500% > surcharge on the few gallons of petrol I run through my Extended Range EV > as a way to decline to participate in A) blood for oil wars and B) clubbing > baby seals in the arctic, those crypto¢ would *avoid* the pockets of the > warmongers and seal-clubbers and settle in the pockets of those who went to > the effort to get their oil without that. Of course, just like there can > be black/grey markets in food stamps "hey buddy, I'll give ya $.50 on the > dollar for those food stamps!", there would surely appear > money-changers/launderers who would *try* to cross-connect the drinking > water with the black water for their own profits. In principle, pervasive > use of smart contracts *could* make that vanishingly harder and harder with > adoption. > > 3) I knew "at least" would come in handy. My intuitive conception of > Reciprocity is that it is as much about back as forward propogation. > SteveG will love the opportunity for a Dual Field encoding I think. By > taking Renee to dinner for Mother's Day, he not only acts as a proxy for > her own children in some sense, I would like to believe he did it *because* > Renee's motherhood has already been her gift to him... whatever benefits he > gets from a step-role, from Renee being a better partner having raised > children, etc. and that dinner is to honor and reciprocate for something he > has *already received* from her (see 1 above, "gratitude"). > > The spectral graph and circuit analysis Jon points to may well be > useful/important for measurement/analysis of how well a system is working. > Ideally the implementation is entirely local in the sense of agents on > networks of transactions. > > Smart contracts are an implementation of distributed computation where > computation (complex decision making) is deferred to the last (or most > appropriate) place in the network. For example, the fueling depot that > accepts my anti-war/anti-ANWR crypto¢ for petrol passes it to his wholesale > source which passes it through the "circuit".... the gas pump owner doesn't > need to know (or share or even have an opinion on) what "values" are > embedded in my crypto¢, he simply takes his "service cut" on the > transaction as does each other middleman right up to the guy gently > scooping teaspoons of bubbling crude out of an artesian well to run through > his handmade still. His still produces no better (maybe worse) > heptane/octane than BP or ARCO but he *still* gets paid (ultimately by me) > for so gently milking the dino juice from the earth for me. > > - Steve > On 5/11/21 3:21 PM, jon zingale wrote: > > I have failed to follow this discussion very closely. That said, to what > extent could frameworks like those that underlie spring rank > <https://github.com/cdebacco/SpringRank> or gauge-theoretic price as > curvature <https://arxiv.org/pdf/0908.3043.pdf> give reasonable > characterizations of reciprocity over circuits? To what extent does > Levine's > <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/002251938090288X> > (painfully straightforward) solving for eigenstates? > > * Apologies for any paywalls, I am often stymied to find better access. > ------------------------------ > Sent from the Friam mailing list archive > <http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/> at Nabble.com. > > > - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam > un/subscribe <http://bit.ly/virtualfriamun/subscribe> > http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > > - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam > un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > > - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam > un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > > > - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam > un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >
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