21 Dec
1998
21 Dec
'98
7:32 a.m.
> Clarke's law says that "Any sufficiently
advanced technology is
> indistinguishable from magic", but as far as I'm concerned light
> bulbs, batteries, and wires still have an element of magic. The
> concept that by connecting these two pieces of copper, I can make
> a bulb elsewhere glow, is magic in itself. (Even more magical is
> what happens when you short out the turns of a hand-cranked magneto
> and try turning it...) One has to understand these basic elements
> of technological magic if anything worthwhile is going to be done!
I agree totally.
Or just, think about the magic - I close a windoe and I can
still see the outside :)
I wonder how many people here have made a light bulb,
or a cell/battery
from scratch. OK, on this list, quite a few I would guess. Elsewhere,
close to 0?
Hmm, I don't know, I think quite a lot. Back, when I was young
(Hi, yougsters :), I had a close friend (both around 12) and we
did anything that gives fun - like building explosives, fire
igniting devices, etc. Fro exaple we used ball penn springs
as heating wires to have electric controlled detonations (or
rocket ignitions). So we did some serious tests to have reliable
results (and we selectet the brand names of ball pens to 'aquire'
carfuly to get the best result:). Nuw, what I want to tell is,
he is now an account man - shifting numbers and managing senseless
stuff. So we can't assume that behinde (some) suit carrying face
is only a dump guy without any idea how the world is turning.
I heard that a number of physics graduates from, I
think US, but it
might have been UK, universities were given a battery, some wire, and a
bulb of the same voltage as the battery. The task was to light the bulb.
An amazing percentage (something like 80%) couldn't do it (and no, there
were no tricks).
Could be Germany too - or at least we are on the same way -
maybe slow, but in a few years all breaking people will have
retired - brave new word. :(
Von den USA lernen heist siegen lernen! OOps - wrong context :)
I ad this kind of discusion with some politicians two month
ago - the idea was that our school system has to be changed
to tell the studends more about the 'real' word - and they
belived that 'multimedia', 'pc-knowledge', etc. will do it.
So engeneers had to learn how to handle word ... Shure, on
the short run you will get better prepared people right from
the university, but on the long run none of them will be
able to do anything new - the basics are just missing - and
managing Word is no basic !
Gruss
H.
--
Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK