61–70 of 108 posts
This is really missing the point, IMO. The difference between paper print vs digital "print" is not the issue. The problem is more that TV, movies, social media and YT have created a post-literate culture where the primary model of communication is visual and emotional, not textual and abstracted. That culture is extroverted rather than introverted, geared towards triggering simplistic emotional responses rather than…
This is really missing the point, IMO. The difference between paper print vs digital "print" is not the issue. The problem is more that TV, movies, social media and YT have created a post-literate culture where the primary model of communication is visual and emotional, not textual and abstracted. That culture is extroverted rather than introverted, geared towards triggering simplistic emotional responses rather than…
This is really missing the point, IMO. The difference between paper print vs digital "print" is not the issue. The problem is more that TV, movies, social media and YT have created a post-literate culture where the primary model of communication is visual and emotional, not textual and abstracted. That culture is extroverted rather than introverted, geared towards triggering simplistic emotional responses rather than…
This is really missing the point, IMO. The difference between paper print vs digital "print" is not the issue. The problem is more that TV, movies, social media and YT have created a post-literate culture where the primary model of communication is visual and emotional, not textual and abstracted. That culture is extroverted rather than introverted, geared towards triggering simplistic emotional responses rather than…
> The problem is more that TV, movies, social media and YT have created a post-literate culture where the primary model of communication is visual and emotional, not textual and abstracted. Simply not true. There is more writing in the last year ( digital and print ) than there was in all human history prior the 2019. Each movie now creates countless textual/abstract comments, posts, essays, analysis, etc. > That cul…
Compare an issue of (say) New Scientist from the 1970s with a contemporary issue. Or an issue of Byte from the early 80s with a modern equivalent, if you can think of one.
See also:
Eh, cry me a river. To put things in contrast: the Russian Empire, home of many great writers, such as Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Checkhov just to name a few, had a literacy rate of about 24% overall; and at that, less than 13% of women were literate[1]. The truth is, reading has never really been the pastime of the masses, save, possibly, for a brief period in the 20th century. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Likbe…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google China's "century of humiliation". China was the world's biggest economy until the 1870s. Here's just one chart showing it. This is well known to everyone who has studied economic history. http://urbanlogics.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/share-of-gd... You could have asked your question with more humility and less abrasion. Just because you don't know about a topic doesn't mean there isn't reams of research abo…
The questioner asked about sophistication, not size of economy. Chinese technological leadership petered out after the Four Great Inventions ( so around 800AD ) and the economy grew on the back of trade. The Century of Humiliation took place because China was already well behind the technological edge by that time.
They achieved all kinds of marvelous inventions in this era. And while they didn’t quite achieve the abstract notions of calculus, they did master systems of equations, which is the precursor to linear algebra. And we know today, that linear algebra is the fundamental foundation of computer science.
But, they had a fertile valley in the south, and became the breadbasket of Asia. This was probably what Genghis Khan envied, and why the ancient Chinese spent so much sweat and fortune to build their Great Wall fortifications in the north, to defend themselves.
But alas, Khan succeeded, and decimated the Chinese, and set them back a few hundred years. It took a hundred years, until the Ming Dynasty were able to overthrow them. But the Chinese were never quite the same again. The Ming did build the fabled fleet ships of Zheng He, and traded with Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
Then the Ming faded, and were replaced with the Qing Dynasty. And this dynasty was some combination of the Mongols, so the Mongols eventually ruled China again, by decree. So thus, at this point, they had no need for any more Great Wall fortifications. The enemy was now inside the gates.
At this point, the Qing had dominated the local lands, and thus had no further military competition. Until the Europeans and Americans came, and handed their ass to them, and murdered, and drugged, and enslaved them along the way.
Thus, their complacency was the downfall of them.
Of course, the Qing were also incompetent and did stupid things, like empower a woman as their leader, while the world was undergoing massive shifts in power. And she spent their money on rebuilding the gardens, instead of investing in military armature. But, the Europeans were also to blame for this, because they stole all of China’s money through forced reparations. It’s kinda hard to save money, when the thieves are stealing your gold at forced gunpoint.
And the rest is history.
This is really missing the point, IMO. The difference between paper print vs digital "print" is not the issue. The problem is more that TV, movies, social media and YT have created a post-literate culture where the primary model of communication is visual and emotional, not textual and abstracted. That culture is extroverted rather than introverted, geared towards triggering simplistic emotional responses rather than…
>In these later letters, Wolf sounds like the kind of alarmist digital enthusiasts often deride. After all, they say, reading is not dying; it’s thriving. Wolf herself quotes a study from the University of California, San Diego, showing that an average user consumes 34 gigabytes of data per day—the equivalent of nearly 100,000 words. How is that the equivalent of nearly 100,000 words? I appreciate people read a lot o…
This is especially funny in a Japanese class where the Chinese students end up correcting the teacher's kanji mistakes. Though, now that computers and smartphones are as common in China as Japan I suspect the same thing will happen in China.
Maybe it's the same thing as forgetting out to spell because we know the device will spell check and correct for us.
This is really missing the point, IMO. The difference between paper print vs digital "print" is not the issue. The problem is more that TV, movies, social media and YT have created a post-literate culture where the primary model of communication is visual and emotional, not textual and abstracted. That culture is extroverted rather than introverted, geared towards triggering simplistic emotional responses rather than…
TV series might not be as long as books but all the multi-year long series people put however many hours into them as the series was long. Breaking Bad had 62 episodes, average 45 mins each = 46hrs of watching that show. That feels like more time than most novels.
This is really missing the point, IMO. The difference between paper print vs digital "print" is not the issue. The problem is more that TV, movies, social media and YT have created a post-literate culture where the primary model of communication is visual and emotional, not textual and abstracted. That culture is extroverted rather than introverted, geared towards triggering simplistic emotional responses rather than…
Long form is still very much there. People just seem to be going for it less