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Global Brain: Chapter 16 - 17 - 18 Discussion

#6: Jan. - Feb. 2003 (Non-Fiction)
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Chris OConnor

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Global Brain: Chapter 16 - 17 - 18 Discussion

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Global Brain consists of 21 chapters total, so I'm creating 7 seperate threads breaking the book into 3 chapter segments. Hopefully this format will keep the discussion somewhat organized and on track. You do not need to keep your discussions within these 7 threads. Edited by: Chris OConnor  at: 10/30/05 4:30 pm
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Introversion: Flockers & Faustians

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Bloom describes two types of introverts. Quote:Faustians cross the boundaries of the system and wrestle with forbidden mysteries. Flockers bury themselves in a bevy of others like themselves and follow the certainties preached by an authority. Faustians take off on odysseys, occasionally returning with fresh visions, Promethean flames around which to shape subcultural societies. Flockers crowd into the warmth provided by the Faustians' discoveries.I was skeptical of this, but then remembered one extremely quiet man at work who had dressed in a bizarre tribal costume at an office Halloween contest. I found out later that his costume was authentic - he frequently travels to the jungles of South America and trades with the Indians. Evidently he is quite the Faustian Introvert...
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Baboonery

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"Like apes and chimps, we copy the mannerisms of our masters, down to their speech patterns, choice of clothes, automobiles, and style of homes." (p. 170)Bloom uses the rise of Japan's economy in the 80's as an example of reactions to dominance. I remember America feeling under economic attack and businessmen using phrases like "Business is war", but I didn't realize Japan actually did top America in many categories for a time.Quote:By the mid-eighties, Japan had more money controlling more resources in more countries than any other nation in the world. Its foreign exchange reserve was the world's largest. It was the world's leading exporter and source of loans. The shares on Tokyo's stock exchange topped in value those on the Big Board in New York. Japan possessed 54 percent of all the cash in the world's banks. The top twelve global banks, in fact, were wholly Japanese. The average Japanese per capita income had surpassed that of U.S. citizens, who still spoke of themselves mistakenly as the weatlthiest in the world. (p. 171) Bloom describes the admiration and imitation of Japan by nations lower on the totem pole. He doesn't mention how the focus has returned to the U.S. after Japan's real estate and stock market bubbles burst...
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Drug profits

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Quote:Sales (of opium) were brisk - eight million pounds of the narcotic were smuggled into China during just one year (1836) - and American merchants like Warren Delano, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's grandfather, wanted in on a good thing. Many of America's elite families had made their initial fortunes shipping sea otter pelts from North America's frontier to Chinese ports. Now the Coolidge and Forbes clan followed the British lead and took up drug dealing in Canton.HHmmmmmmmm..... Edited by: LanDroid at: 2/22/03 4:19:02 pm
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Irrationality

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Chapter 18 describes how the forces of the learning machine do not always provide rational results. He uses the example of Dr. Gilbert Ling, a cell physiologist. It is still not exactly understood how cells keep potassium within the cell and keep sodium out. The prevailing theory seems to be that the cell wall has an array of pumps that force sodium out. Ling provided a lot of evidence that no cell wall pumps were necessary to maintain this potassium/sodium imbalance. These insights were hailed by a Cambridge professor as "one of the most important and advanced contributions to the understanding of the structure of living systems which I have seen". Ling was described by a Nobel prize winner as "one of the most inventive biochemists I have ever met".But then the supporters of the sodium pump theory gained power, started excluding Ling from important meetings and journals, and cut off the flow of money to that line of research. Ling was forced to close his lab and find other areas to research.It is actually rather reassuring to see that Science is not always carried out in the highest ideals, that it too is subject to the same petty forces as other human institutions...
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- Moved to another thread... - Edited by: LanDroid at: 2/24/03 12:56:53 pm
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