Funny, just the other day I bought a hand warmer here in Japan and it distinctly had 1923 as the age of the company on the box. I was struck by how that's almost 100 years now. Highly recommend the pocket warmer by the way.
Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old
81–90 of 272 posts
Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old
#82Do you remember Ship of Theseus? The thought experiment about if a ship which has been fully rebuilt bit by bit is it still the same thing? Japan appears consistent in saying, yes, rebuilding or swapping out components keeps the identity. You see this attitude in "Japan's oldest temple, burned to the ground and rebuilt every 20 years". In the west we might argue that burning a building and rebuilding, would count as…
One of my favorite YouTube channels, Sampson Boat Co, is doing just that: a young shipwright is rebuilding the classic sailing yacht Tally Ho piece by piece, in a modest workshop by the sea up in Oregon. It will be all new by the time he’s done, minus some hardware, but he has never lost continuity with the original hull.
This is just how wooden boats are, whether you do it bit by bit, or as a big project, eventually you replace just about all of it every 100 years or so.
Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16495940?access_num=1649... Adult neurogenesis or brain plasticity is a fact. Skin cells, blood cells and all types of cells have a finite lifespan - a few days to a few months.
Just because neurogenesis exists, it most definitely does not follow that "every single cell in the body of a plant or animal is replaced every few months", which is what you said. Osteocytes in human bone can live up to 50 years.
Can live up to 50 years. OK. What happens when they do not? Does the body not regenerate them? Various kinds of stress can cause them to not live that long. It is not as black and white.
Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
What you're really describing is the stasis of the last 60 years.
You could argue that the world has gotten into some sort of "stagnant" period, despite the technological advances. E.g. We're no where closer to having a utopian-level of control over our government. Something that the rise of ubiquitous tech should have solved. On some level, we're all very averse to the notion as well, almost as if our attitudes to it have not changed and we have not worked on making tech good enou…
> Something that the rise of ubiquitous tech should have solved.
Why do you think it should have happened already? We’ve only had good lithium ion batteries for a decade or two. Same for the internet, maybe 20 years of widespread use. Solar cells are only just starting to compete with coal. There is much work to do, and we’re doing it but it takes time.
Information can travel instantly, that’s an important change, but the process of actually building the semantic router is not trivial. And the tech for affordable off-grid civilization is really juuust maturing right now.
Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old
#85Traditional Japanese companies (I worked for one for a quarter century) tend to be quite risk-averse.
This does mean that they may not have massive spurts of growth, like Apple or Microsoft, but it also means they can weather storms fairly well.
Remember that many Japanese companies had their assets turned to kindling in WWII, and survived.
Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
This thought experiment is neither just a thought nor an experiment. This is the reality of life - every single cell in the body of a plant or animal is replaced every few months. Essentially, talking about the physical body, we are not what we were a few months ago. EDIT: Agreed, a few types of brain cells do not get replaced, but everything else does. My point still stands. Physically, we are not what we were a few…
I think this applies to most atoms in the body over time: https://stevegrand.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/where-do-those-d... But while it applies to many cells over varied lengths of time (up to many years), it doesn't apply to all cells. https://www.livescience.com/33179-does-human-body-replace-ce... https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/does-body-replace-itself-s... So the idea does apply but not exactly as you claim and…
I am not a biologist. One way or the other the body is in a constant state of flux. Even if 90% of body is regenerated over a period of time, it is still a great wonder.
Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old
#87Do you remember Ship of Theseus? The thought experiment about if a ship which has been fully rebuilt bit by bit is it still the same thing? Japan appears consistent in saying, yes, rebuilding or swapping out components keeps the identity. You see this attitude in "Japan's oldest temple, burned to the ground and rebuilt every 20 years". In the west we might argue that burning a building and rebuilding, would count as…
One of my favorite YouTube channels, Sampson Boat Co, is doing just that: a young shipwright is rebuilding the classic sailing yacht Tally Ho piece by piece, in a modest workshop by the sea up in Oregon. It will be all new by the time he’s done, minus some hardware, but he has never lost continuity with the original hull. This is just how wooden boats are, whether you do it bit by bit, or as a big project, eventually…
Thank you for this. Occasionally you find gems like this on YouTube. One of my favourite channels is Nik Rijavec's, who is building a house from scratch (so not a rebuild). There is something really pure and real about the way he makes his video, and is not only about the woodworking: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMjAl_0yeKwUAQ2A3tQFcnA
Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old
#88Do you remember Ship of Theseus? The thought experiment about if a ship which has been fully rebuilt bit by bit is it still the same thing? Japan appears consistent in saying, yes, rebuilding or swapping out components keeps the identity. You see this attitude in "Japan's oldest temple, burned to the ground and rebuilt every 20 years". In the west we might argue that burning a building and rebuilding, would count as…
> Japan's oldest temple, burned to the ground and rebuilt every 20 years
I suspect that there is a degree of translation loss in those quotes.
In general if you ask someone about this they'll indeed reply that their temple is 1,000 years old (example). Then if you ask whether this means that this building right here is 1,000 years old they'll may very naturally reply that no, they rebuild it every so often.
I'm thinking that the concept of e.g. 'temple' might be different than the actual buildings the temple is made of.
Now, sometimes the buildings really are hundreds of years old.
Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, excluding two of the biggest revolutions in the entire history of humanity, really makes it seem like we've been doing absolutely nothing. The impact of the semiconductor / integrated circuit can not be overstated. I don't know about the rest of you, but the Internet still seems to be completely magical to me.
Born in 1981, computers and the internet seem mundane to me. But I thoroughly agree that they are the two (one?) biggest revolution in history.
Born the same year. You clearly haven’t imagined what’s possible. The internet hasn’t happened yet. We are a couple of experiments in. Maybe two of the ten core softwares have been written. The other 8 are just gleams in wild eyes.
The UI layer is all still prototypes. The economic layer, very early prototypes. The programming languages are prototypes. You can tell because <1% of the population can even use them. Imagine what cars or T.V.’s were like at that penetration. We have barely begun.
Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You see this attitude in "Japan's oldest temple, burned to the ground and rebuilt every 20 years". Thats only in Ise. Dont make generalizations. For about every other old building in Japan something burning down is a tragedy, even if they try to rebuild it afterwards. For example Osaka castle is technically standing now but nobody is fooled by the fact that its an empty shell compared to the original building. That…
What generalization? There is no other "japan's oldest temple" which is being raized every 20 years.
> Japan appears consistent in saying, yes, rebuilding or swapping out components keeps the identity.
That generalization.