Re: [Pan-users] GNKSA

[Duncan]

Steven D'Aprano posted on Sat, 09 Jul 2011 10:19:36 +1000 as excerpted:

> Beartooth wrote:
> 
>>      But I do claim the blind hen's occasional grain of corn : we need
>> to optimize against the likely abuses of the twenty-teens, whatever we
>> can guess of those.
> 
> I don't know what this means.

Twenty-teens... roughly translates as 201x... which should give you a 
clue on that (if you need another, the current year is... 2011).

The hen/chicken imagery really needs a bit of familiarity with the 
behavior of same.  Perhaps you can find a youtube video or the like if 
necessary.  However, in words, they walk around, looking at the ground, 
until they find something interesting to peck at.  Interesting, to a 
chicken, means something that looks like food.  Obviously, a blind hen is 
going to have some problems with this and a totally blind hen would 
likely die, without care.  However, "blind" can also mean simply 
incredibly near/far/whatever sighted, as I am without correction.  But I 
can still sort of see and so could a hen with a similar problem, perhaps 
enough to get the occasional grain to eat, and to survive.

So the image is one of rather uninformed stumbling around, randomly 
"pecking" at stuff one really can't understand, occasionally finding 
something of value, none-the-less.

And the time-frame is one of out to a few years, either now thru 2019 or 
2013-2019, depending on how one interprets "teen" (does it include 10-12 
or not).

He's saying he doesn't really understand the technical debate, but is 
none-the-less still worried about pan and how it will rise to the 
challenges of and continue interacting with the rest of (special parts 
of) the news community over... the next few years.

The rest of the post confirms that interpretation, filling out his 
assertion and putting it in the context of various specific worries.

I already replied with my own opinion on the issues he raises, so no need 
to repeat it here.

But, as is probably evident from my replies, I do really enjoy his quotes 
and analogies, as they represent a type of learning many of us more 
technical types don't get so much of, a much broader but often not as 
deep a grasp of society, including historic and foreign, than the highly 
specialized expert, technical or otherwise, often has a chance to achieve 
in today's society.  I'm probably more experienced than many, with a 
background that includes time in Kenya as a kid, travel thru Europe there 
and back, experience with a number of cultures including a very tiny bit 
of Eastern culture experience, and years of residency in various parts of 
the US northwest, southwest, plains and mountain states (unfortunately 
not much east and south US, and no journeys to Asia beyond the mid-east, 
either), so I /do/ generally get his references, but they're often a 
stretch and a challenge, tho a very enjoyable one. =:^)  but I understand 
how the allusions could be well beyond the experiences of many, so that 
they sail well over their heads.  Thus the time to try to explain them, 
when asked.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman