Saturday, February 18, 2006

Sweet, Sweet Academic Writings

All right, first of all I have to have someone to brag to about my genius - my artistic flow. In my history class I was given the assignment of writing a paper comparing two numeration systems, (Inuit, some shit tribe in Alaska, and binary) and lo and behold I have done just that - creating a paper that is a masterpiece of English Literature...

.... well not really, though it does have its sweet points!

Take for instance the title:

Running from the numeration systems of man to the magnanimous language of the gods

A brief look at the contrasts between a numeration system that inhibits its inhabitants, and one that sets them free.

I don’t know if I have the 'guts' to actually use that though, but hold on because it gets better:

Introduction

"...Though, these two systems will lie in bitter contrast: one being a system
that enables its participants to reach into the farthest possible depths of the
abstract, and the second limiting its inhabitants from ever taking that first
step into the theoretical sea and thus forever holding them on the shore of pure
physical observations."

Body

"...The overbearing conclusion of the story highlights the complete ignorance of a system that refused to go beyond the boundary of physical phenomenon. Intertwined in the story itself is a story of the stifling of progress, as two hunters question which hide has more hairs and in turn subconscious question a primitive numeration system relying on nothing more than the physical sum of hands and feet. It is through the disappointing conclusion of a discouragement towards theoretical thought that the Inuit system forever finds itself bound into the realm of that which can be counted on hands and feet."

My Thomas Friedman Impression:

"Take for instance a popular IBM Business Consulting Commercial in which a group
of inventors try desperately get their invention from the blueprint stages to
the physical world. They stand before the austere Help Desk
of IBM where an IBM computer scientist informs them that concrete experiments
have thus been replaced by powerful supercomputers in which all physical
variables are calculated within the tiny world of microprocessors through the
deceivingly simple process of adding 1’s and 0’s. No longer
is it practical to create physical models of potential prototypes, but rather
the computational power of the gods is now within the grasp of man so that any,
and all, physical phenomenon can be taken into consideration thanks to the
profound power of binary. Through this process binary has
done so much more than merely pave a road into the abstract, it has brought the
abstract to the door of man and merged the abstract world with the physical
world so that man stands shoulder to shoulder with his dreams, employing them at
his will."

And finally, comes the conclusion, where I tied it all together with the oneness of humanity:

"At first glance it seems as if a system that brings the world of the abstract
to the door of the user, and a system that is so primitive it failed to even
take the most minuet steps into that abstract would have absolutely nothing in
common. Though, if one were to look deeper into the matter
it would become apparent that they are surprisingly similar in the way they both
met the needs of their time. In the Inuit world of
hunting/gathering, the numeration system of counting on hands and feet did
everything that the tribe required of it; and just as the Inuit system served
the needs of the tribe, so too does the binary system serve the needs of a
similar tribe – the tribe of humanity. In a global
economy/world the key to survivability in any economic field is creativity and
innovation – two ideas that are driven by the most complex of technologies that
find themselves going farther and farther into the world of the abstract, but
are always constantly grounded on the simple process of adding ones and zeros."

I can't read that 'tribe of humanity' crap with a straight face, I mean I just cant! You know what this reminds me of? This reminds me of a sweet, sweet paper I did on the masculinity in the twenty first century (another bullshit paper) though I did pull off the sweetest quote of my life in that paper:

"Although there is a vast market for “chick flick” movies, in which masculinity
is depicted as loving, caring, and affectionate; the vast majority of movies do
stick with the stereotype of masculinity as male aggression, filled with random
and sporadic bursts of violence entailed in a bittersweet symphony of blood and
gore."

Oh, how I love it!

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home