Part 15 (2/2)

A car was still, in soression froe An airplane, and later a rocket, are less along a line of gradual change, but still conceptually close to our own practical experience with flying birds, or with the physics of action and reaction

Nevertheless, a nuclear reactor is well beyond such experiences

The conceptual hierarchy it ematic experience The effort here is to tame the process, to keep it within a scale that allows for our use of a new resource of energy The relation between the sizes actively involved-nuclear level of matter compared to the enormous machinery and construction-is not only beyond the power of distinction of individual minds, but also of any operators, unless assisted by devices theree of conitudes involved, and how peripheral to theement

The enormous satellite and radio-telephonic network, which physically embodies the once fashi+onable concept of ether, is another example of the scale of work under the circumstances of the new scale of human activity; and so are the telephone networks-copper, coaxial, or fiberglass The conceptual hierarchies handled by such networks of increasingly generalized coes make any comparison to Edison's telephone, to letters, or to videotapes useless The amount of information, the speed of transmission, and the synchronicity mechanisms required and achieved in the network-all participate in establishi+ng a framework for remote interaction that practically resets the time for all involved and does aith physical distances Literacy, by its intrinsic characteristics, could not achieve such levels

Finally, the computer, associated or not with networks, rasp co We have no probleer airplane is 200 times faster than a pedestrian, and carries, at its current capacity, 300-450 passengers plus cargo The computer chip itself is a conceptual acco we can conceive of The depth encountered in the functioning of the digital computer-from the whole it represents to its srated in its operation-is of a scale to which we have no intuitive or direct access Computers are not a better abacus Some computer users have even noticed that they are not even a better cash register They define an age of see processing (The word symbol points to work become semiotic praxis, but this is not what I am after here)

In addition to the complexity it embodies, the computer makes another distinction necessary It replaces the world of the continuum by a world of discrete states Probably this distinction would be seen only as qualitative, if the shi+ft from the universe of continuous functions and monotonic behavior-whatever applies to extre in betere not concretized in a different condition of human self-constitutive practical experience

In the universe of literacy-based analog expectations, accue, science, arts), have -froeneral attitude to particular forher levels)-is inherent in the underlying structure of the analog The digital is not linear in nature Within the digital, one ses the result of processing so drastically that retracing the error and fixing it becomes itself a new experience, and e

In a written sentence, a raphical error is alh literacy, we dispose of a e of the prograrauish (if at all) Such machines can manipulate more symbols, and of a broader variety, than the human mind can Free of the burden of previous practical experiences, such machines can refer to potential experiences in a frame of reference where literacy is entirely blind The behavior of an object in a multi- dimensional space (four, five, six, or ressive, or in several distinct and unrelated ti choices beyond the capability of the hunificance for the survival and developital computer

It is true, as many would hasten to object, that the computer does not formulate the problem But this is not the point

Neither does literacy formulate problems It only embodies formulations and answers pertinent to ithin a scale of e of zeros and ones (yes-no, open-closed, white- black) is more precise, and definitely h as those resulting froenerality of the coeneral-purpose ram of symbol manipulation, and the very concrete nature of the data upon which it is applied represent a powerful coe, effective procedures for solving probleh resolution capabilities Those who see the coical nificance of the new ree of necessity as it results from awareness of the limits of our minds (after the limits of the body were experienced in industrial society)

Edsger Dijkstra, affir with radical novelty, concludes that this ”ae that cannot be translated into one's ht; the conclusion is still not as radical as the new scale of human activity and the lirips with the radical change that he andthe end of literacy and the illiteracy of the nues required by our practical experience of self- constitution This conspectus of the transformation we experience may foster its own forms of fresh confusion For instance, in as called a civilized society, language acted as the currency of cultural transactions If higher level needs and expectations continue to drive the y, will they eventually becoenerated? Or, if language in one of its illiterate erowth of infor in order to becoenerate , before infors? All these questions relate to work, as the experience froether with the products bearing their n system is quite similar to the condition of tools The hand that throws a stone is a hand influenced by the stone Levers, ha machines, and computers support practical experiences, but also affect the individuals constituting theesture, a written mark, a whisper, body movements, words written or read, express us or co those constituted in thee affects the humatic framework To deal with some aspects of this extreinal syncretic condition of the hu

Innate heuristics

Conceptual tools that can be used to refer to the huree to which we identify thee In every system we know of, variety and precision are cos hunt or present personal experiences to others, they attempt to optimize their efforts Too many details affect efficiency; insufficient detail affects the outcome There seems to be a structural relation of the nature of one to many, between our what and our how This relation is scrutinized in the pragmatic context where efficiency considerations finallymany possibilities The optimum chosen indicates what, from the possibilities huoal pursued Moreover, such an opti could be perfor spears, by shooting arrows, or by setting traps

The syncretic pri primitive cultures) involved in a practical experience in its wholeness: through that being's biological endowment, relation to the environ, emotions (such as fear, joy, sorrow) The specialized individual constitutes hiressively more and more partial Nevertheless, the two have a natural condition in coy for survival and preservation that progressively departs from immediate needs and direct action to humanized needs and mediated action This means a departure frory, search for food,” for exa for the hu an innate heuristic condition This means that homo Sapiens looks for options

Hu argues that, while verbal language may be innate (as Chomsky's theory advances), the heuristic dimension characteristic of hu, for instance, the choice of et meat) and also the awareness of what is possible, as well as the effort to expand the reals the way they are, but to multiply the realm of possibilities to ensure ress

The say can be applied to the development of literacy Before the Western alphabet was established, a nulyphics, etc) were ees is reflected in the limited expressive power they had Current Chinese and japanese writing are examples of this phenomenon today In comparison to the 24-28 letters of Western alphabets, cons represents the entry level in Chinese and japanese; cons would correspond to the Western ideal of literacy Behind the letters and characters of the various language alphabets, there is a history of optimization in which work influenced expression, expression constituted new fraenerative and explanatory models of the world were established The what and the how of language were initially on an order of complexity similar to that characteristic of actions Over ties acquired the complexity of the heuristic experience

The what and the how of e, achieved even higher complexities

Such complexities were reflected in the difference in the order of nitude between huenerated Parallel to the loss of the syncretic nature of the hu at the level of the individual, we notice the composite syncretism of the community Individual, relatively stable, wholeness was replaced by a faster and faster changing coe experiences were part of this shi+ft Self-constituted in the practical use of language, the hu realized its social dimension, itself an example of the acquired multiplication of choice

Indeed, within the very se of self-ascertaine appeared), population and food supply were locked in the natural equation best reflected in the structural circularity of existence and survival It is at this juncture that the heuristic condition applies: the roup will either find survival strategies (adaptive or other kinds), or indeed cease to be available as food for others But once the hu was ascertained, evidence shows that instead of focusing on one or feays to get at its food sources, it actually diversified the practical experience of self-constitution and survival, proceeding from one, or few, to e and well into foraging, hunting, and fishi+ng during the pre-agricultural pragmatic frame What for other species became only a lirowth control (through fa life), in the hu of resources In this process, the hu, and work an identifier of the species

Language acquisition and the transition from the natural experience of self- constitution in survival to the practical experience of work are co-genetic With each new scale that became possible, sequences of work marked a further departure from the universe of action-reaction The observation to be iven in other chapters, is that froe to stabilized ed and an underlying structure of practical experiences based on sequentiality, linearity, determinism (of one kind or another), and centralismatic framework Individual syncretism was replaced by the syncretish their work

Writing was a relatively late acquisition and occurred as part of the broader process of labor division This process was itself correlated to the diversification of resources and types of practical experiences preserving syncretism at the comested necessitated ele track of assignanizational for bodies took care of Under these circu that allowed for the constitution, survival, change, and advancee to the degree such expression was necessary In other words, language is another asset orchoices and resources

Over tie and literacy beca needs with availabilities This mediation was itself a form of work: questions asked, questions answered, commitments made, equivalencies deter available resources, or finding new ones When productivity increased, and language could not keep up with the coher production, variety, and the need for planning, a new sematic level, became necessary Money, for example, introduced the next level of mediation, more abstract, that translated immediate, vital needs into a comparative scale of enerated h level coe of its own, as does each e as universal as language, the what and how of hurew evenup the er randomly matched needs and availability Their uage to further diversify the resources people needed for their lives This language was still rudimentary, direct, oral, captive to iether with the resource or choice exhausted (when no alternative was generated) This happens even in our day

In its later constitution in practical activity, language was used for records and transactions, for plans and new experiences The logic of this language was an extension and instantiation of the logic of human activity It co new choices Influenced by human interaction in the her efficiency, huly mediated A proliferation of tools allowed for increased productivity in those ree Eventually tools, and other artifacts, became the self-constitutive practical experiences of the hu element between the processor and what is processed, the tool was a oal: better tools require instructed users If they use tools properly, they increase the efficiency of activity and make the results more marketable Tools supported the effort of diversification of practical experiences, as well as the effort of expanding the subsistence base Thetools and other artifacts fostered other languages, such as the language of drawing, on which early engineering also relied

Here, an important point should beit, the user adapts to the tool, beco to some extent, the used, the tool of the tool The sa, and literacy They were developed by hu to optimize their activity But humans have adapted themselves to the constraints of their own inventions