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Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old

bbc.com

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Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old

#141

Post by itake »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #140
Danieru wrote: post #6

Do 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…

I think in the west we would argue that burning down and rebuilding a building constitutes a new building but burning down and rebuilding a named location keeps it still the same location, example: Notre Dame.

I don't think Notre Dame completely burned down though?

Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old

#143

Post by fellowniusmonk »

adrianN wrote: post #93
fapjacks wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, in 1912, jet-engine-powered aircraft and atomic energy would not seem like far-fetched ideas. Certainly not to educated research engineers at GE, anyway. People routinely underestimate how technologically advanced the world was prior to WW1. Aerospace was advancing rapidly, and chemistry was quite well understood in 1912. A jet engine requires precision manufacturing but otherwise is not a complex idea. Radiati…

Fission was discovered more than 25 years later. Nuclear power was pretty far fetched in 1912.

The World Set Free by H.G. Wells is from about 1912is, I mean scifi could be considered far fetched but he isn't exactly an obscure author, radium was already a thing.

Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old

#144

Post by natmaka »

itake wrote: post #141
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think in the west we would argue that burning down and rebuilding a building constitutes a new building but burning down and rebuilding a named location keeps it still the same location, example: Notre Dame.

I don't think Notre Dame completely burned down though?

It didn't. The roof was burned down, but otherwise the building (made of stone) remains.

Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old

#145

Post by mng2 »

netrus wrote: post #129
PinguTS wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 a new building. That is a wrong example/comparison. Even in the west rebuilding an heritage is not considered as a new building. In Europe…

Interesting examples I have seen are The Frauenkirche in Dresden ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden_Frauenkirche ) and The Bratislava Castle ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bratislava_Castle ), both complete rebuilds (and both were ruins for a long time before they were rebuild). I have an uneasy relationship with these buildings. On the one hand, I understand the appeal of old buildings, and that people want th…

I used to be bothered by reconstructions, especially ones rebuilt in the 20th century. But since then I've realized just how fragile and transient buildings can be, and how much effort it takes to maintain the ones we've got. If it takes modern rebuilding to bring back the experience of being in or near a unique piece of architecture, then that's better than the alternative.

Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old

#146

Post by imtringued »

varjag wrote: post #106
adrianN wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did not read that comment in that way. But I think you'd need to explain for a pretty long time to get engineers to believe your story of nuclear fission power plants. In 1912 we didn't even know about neutrons and protons.

We knew about radioactivity then, and Radium-powered superdevices were just entering science fiction.

Knowing radioactivity is just the first step toward discovering the internal structure of the atom. You need a measuring instrument that is much smaller than a whole atom to make any progress.

The atom nucleus was discovered by counting how many alpha particles bounced off the nucleus of a piece of gold foil and how many simply passed through it. The bounce rate was incredibly low and therefore the nucleus must have been orders of magnitude smaller than the gap between the next nucleus.

Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old

#147

Post by Kaiyou »

Danieru wrote: post #6

Do 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…

Unless Theseus sells his ship, it will stay his ship, even if he replaces every part. Still the ship of Theseus, as it is a matter of ownership, not of identity.

Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old

#148

Post by pessimizer »

kinkora wrote: post #42
bane wrote: post #18

It's interesting about growing older. I don't know if this is a function of aging or a change in how humanity recons time. When I was younger, a century seemed like forever. Now it's just 1920 and we have film, music, audio, books and so on from that time period readily available. In many ways 1920 doesn't really seem all that far away to me while 1860, 1870, 1880 (a century from when I was a child) seemed to be fore…

I can't remember where i heard this from (it was a podcast) but it was on an economic theory that, if you exclude the internet & computer revolution, humans has not progressed that much in the past 100 years and that we may have entered a period of stagnant growth that may extend a century. Again, internet & computer revolution aside, realistically saying the last "human leap" was the invention of the combustion engi…

> Again, internet & computer revolution aside

I count the last technological leap as the transistor. We could have conceptually come up with computers and the internet any time over the past couple thousand years, but the use of electricity brought possible designs down to a useful speed, and transistors finally brought them down to a useful size.

edit: tbh, I think CMOS was also a big jump. A big leap in the efficiency of power consumption would also spur a massive revolution.

Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old

#149

Post by rubidium »

nickelpro wrote: post #103
pjdemers wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Change is slowing down, at least in developed countries. A person from the US of 2020 would fit in right in 1970, and be able to adapt to 1920, but be lost in 1870. A person from 1970 would adapt a little quicker to 1920, but be almost as lost as us in 1870.

But someone from 1870 could easily adapt to any time going back through the 17th century. I don't see how that's evidence of change slowing down, it's rapidly accelerating.

I would guess the parent comment wouldn’t disagree that it had sped up til about 1950 or 1970. But then it has slowed down since. I tend to agree, and that this whole personal computers, web apps, tracking stuff that’s obsessed over here just isn’t that big of deal compared to refrigeration and easy global transportation (to pick 2 from 1850-1950).

Re: Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old

#150

Post by javiermares »

Danieru wrote: post #6

Do 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…

If the changes are small and gradual enough, identity is preserved, like in atoms in our brains, or an beloved antique car.
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