Jay Hanson wrote:
>
> > I find Jay Hanson's position a bit contradictory. On the one hand, he
> argues
>
> We are not computers, we are animals. The genetic distance that separates
> us from pygmy or common chimps is only 1.6% (the two chimps are separated
> by 0.7%). In fact, we are the chimp's closest relative with the gorilla
> differing by 2.3%.
>
The distance that separates ice from water can be made as
small as you like, and, if you put enough pressure on the
water, you can make the distance *negative*.
It is therefore entirely possible that a "small" measurable
difference on some gradient (counting DNA snippets, e.g.),
can lead to a "discontinuity" -- like between ice and water
(on the temperature gradient) --
what Henry Adams called: a change of phase.
*I'll* tell you where this kind of counting
is useful. Shakespeare's Falstaff said it
plainly: "Food for [cannon] fodder." Where
would school teachers be without the precise
measurement of small differences in students'
"performances" on tests designed to yield
easily calculable measurements?
Measure to your heart's content, and then ask:
what relevance is what I have done? How would
I feel about being one of the persons measured but
not part of the society of measurers?
And, regarding
[mis-]measures of persons, ask: How good a job have
I done of enabling their human potential maximally to
flourish? That's something good to measure, but
first one would need to understand something about
the things persons are capable in a society
more nurturing than our own, lest we end
up concluding that dwarfs are giants ("Well,
these 'dwarfs', as you call them, are the
biggest things around!" "Yup.")
\brad mccormick
--
Mankind is not the master of all the stuff that exists, but
Everyman (woman, child) is a judge of the world.
Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua, NY 10514-3403 USA
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