RE: knowing and learning (was Sobering Stats)

[John Schinnerer <John-Schinnerer@data-dimensions.com>]

Aloha,

-----Original Message-----
From: Thilo Pfennig [mailto:vinci@linda.alternativ.net]
>So and if
>you only want to criticise the Internet I am opposing, because
>Internet is the only media which allows a kind of personal, direct
>contact besides of letters and telephone. And because of its multiple
>possibilities. 

I am critical of the assumption that putting something on the net makes it
available "worldwide," which may be true in terms of counting countries or
even bioregions where at least one person out of millions can access it but
not in terms of "most" people worldwide having access.  TV seems the most
far-reaching media at present (and it does not require literacy...).

>Ok, so this man is only useful for those who met him personally? So
>this can not interest me, because I likely will not meet him!? What
>are we talking about? Us? Him?

Some of what he knows is only applicable in his bioregion or even
microclimate; some is perhaps "universal" patterns and so will be known to
others in other bioregions anyhow, if it is really "universal."  
There are many like him, in all parts of the world; I am suggesting look
close to home first for relevant knowledge to embody and propagate.
Permaculture starts "at one's own doorstep," or so I've been told...

>There were many cultures who had that oral element. Many of those oral
>cultures lost there information, because of the changes of the modern
>world. If nobody who is living can give his knowledge to others, the
>kownledge gets lost.

Everything changes, everything gets lost and "rediscovered" (like what we
currently call "permaculture," for example...).  I am simply pointing out
that it is clearly demonstrated throughout history how oral cultures can
propagate their essential knowledge for thousands of years, including
through significant changes of climate, location, etc. (and even changes in
culture).  This is in comparison to literary cultures that so far have only
a few decades' experience with storing and transmitting knowledge by
non-biological technological means (e.g. computers).  
Hawaiians and numerous other peoples are still transmitting parts of their
oral culture, and reviving and reinventing other parts, despite centuries of
concerted efforts to destroy all traces of it.  Had they entrusted it all to
computers (if such had been available then), it would have been easily
erased beyond recovery, whether intentionally or accidentally.

Robust systems of knowledge storage and transmission, like robust ecological
systems, gain robustness from diversity.  So what I am really suggesting is
that since our cultural bias seems to be towards a very few fragile
electronic and printed media, often very centralized (consider that fire at
Alexandria... ;-), it may be wise to revive and *incorporate* (literally,
embody) other, more robust and decentralized ways of storing and
transmitting essential knowledge.

It's also a lot more fun to learn a variety of things by direct experience
in collaboration with other human beings, as far as I'm concerned!

John Schinnerer