Help me - I'm confused by racial labels
POSTED BY: pizmobeach
UPDATED: Wednesday, August 9, 2023 16:59
VIEWED: 9570
PAGE 13 of 15
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Given that bigger systems tend to be more efficient
Sig, you gotta give me the coordinates of your planet sometime, I'd like to visit ;)
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I was baffled by this comment
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Obama...once (still?) persecuted minority
Until I read this one.
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Thatcher
My actual thought was "wait we persecuted Kenyans? When? I thought that was Britain." but then you made a decidedly british comment.
I like Thatcher btw, soft ice cream.
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Quote:[snark] I'm here on this planet, DT. Where are YOU?
Given that bigger systems tend to be more efficient-SIGNY
Sig, you gotta give me the coordinates of your planet sometime, I'd like to visit ;)-DT
[/snark]Larger systems...
Population size_ Larger population allows division of labor, greater technical advances, and a higher standard of living. Many papers on the topic. Technological level reversibly depends on population size; once population falls below a certain threshold the technology can no longer be sustained.
Geographic area_ Larger geographic area means higher likelihood of obtaining specific resources or being resilient to local disaster. Examples: tantalum, the floods in Georgia. Yes, you can get this by trade, but that means disparate groups have to have safe trade routes and common currency or common trading practices, common language and clock or calendar. Look at how far the 24-hour day has spread, and the seven-day week! In effect, they ARE tied together in a larger system, which rewards greater internal efficiencies.
Bulk handling_ Producing and handling items in bulk is much more efficient than producing and handling piecemeal. It doesn't make much sense to set up a production unit, make one or two items, and then retool for something else. Far more efficient to run the unit 24-7 until it wears down ... this is simply a ratio of the investment you made in your production capacity versus the output.
I could go on with several other factors, but... you get the point?
So, YES, larger systems ARE more efficient. Less labor is used to produce more goods. It is an obvious economic and historic fact.
You might be confusing that with being more resilient. Larger units are NOT more resilient, particularly if they have been tweaked to maximum efficiency. A maximally-efficient system is highly interdependent, with no internal redundancy, "spare parts", or resources laying idle. In that case, the system is subject to the slightest disruption in trade, power sources, internal dissent etc.
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Sig, NONE of those necessarily imply an overarching organizational system... Or a requirement for one.
Remember my linux example? It's a bunch of small groups but well connected, each of them contributing to an end product, and that's actually highly efficient and streamlined. There's more than one way to do things. Some of us don't like bureaucracy.
Heck, you yourself once posted an equation in regards to energy for success/production where the organization factor seems to have a component of exponential decay associated with it. Either that or I'm still confused whether the energy represented the AMOUNT of energy to accomplish a task, or whether it was the amount of energy AVAILABLE from the factors together.
The current system is the spawn of industrialization, which took over from the old form of the artisan system. The industrialization won out because AT THE TIME, it was more productive to get many less skilled workers doing small parts of a greater task than it was for someone to do the entire task from start to finish. The reason for this is first the technology, greater numbers, as you said, and a better means of connection for each step of the progress (inter-exchangeable parts: the hallmark of mass production).
With the advent of the internet, the groups don't even have to be in the same factory working on the parts of the process. But because of the separation, it's becoming necessary for workers to be skilled in ALL the parts of the process again. One thousand workers or groups of workers all able to perform a task from start to finish WILL be ultimately more efficient and produce more than one thousand workers only able to do a section of the process before passing it along to the next person in the chain.
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BYTE: I like Linux. I use Linux. I like the way Linux is developed. But I'm not sure how far the Linux paradigm can be extended to the production of physical goods, like cars or electricity. And even if it could, I'm not talking about "bureaucracy", I'm talking about systems. Even the Linux paradigm requires such a system: It requires a centralized yeah-sayer (what parts get incorporated into the kernel and what don't make the cut), version control, it requires a common language, and it requires a robust physical connection... which requires telcoms of some sort!
AFA that equation- what I intended to show was that an organized system is more efficient than a disorganized one.
DT, BYTE_We might look to ecology for our paradigms. A monoculture is efficient but fragile.
ETA: I'm gonna hive this thread off.
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Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
The answer is pretty simple: severe, unrelenting back pain which has escalated over the last few months into stratospheric levels.
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Silence is consent.
Have a go at a chiropracter. I tried traditional "medicine", which did no good whatsoever, and out of desperation I went to a "chiroquacker" as I called him. He did a few simple things, cracked by back just so, and it was not just like the pain wasn't there any more - it was like it NEVER HAD BEEN THERE. Simply amazing.
My problem is a subpluxation of one of the vertebrae in my lower back, just above the pelvic cage. It slips out to the side a bit, and then forward, which pinches off the nerves that run down my leg. I've actually had it happen in mid-stride, and just gone down like a sack of hammers, because my legs just don't respond the way they should when it happens. What finally got me to the chiropracter was when I was essentialy bed-ridden for three months with it, and traditional docs couldn't do shit for it, except offer to fuse that vertebrae, which only moves the problem exactly one vertebrae up the chain, and so they have to fuse that one next, etc.
And yes, there WAS a time when I seriously wondered if I'd ever have just one more "good day" left to me. That's where unending pain can take you, and it's not a pretty place.
Now, while I may not be as good as I once was, I'm as good once as I ever was. :)
Seriously, there's still pain, but it's manageable with nothing more than aspirin or ibuprofin. I'm stiff when I get up in the morning, so I do stretches, and repetitive motion brings it on quick, so I have to be careful about that. I lift things for a living, which most people would think WOULD be a concern, but I've had worse things happen just twisting to put a 15-pound box on a cart than I ever have lifting a 120-pound carton. It ain't the weight, it's the motion.
Try chiropractic. It's not for everyone, and I'm still not sure I even believe in it, but damned if it didn't do wonders for me.
Mike
Old friend charity
Cruel twisted smile
And the smile signals emptiness
For me
Starless and Bible black
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Scary scary scary. I'm glad it worked for you.
I didn't go to a chiropractor, I just let my herniated disk heal for six months. Yeah it hurt, and it kept me bedridden for that long. People thought I was crazy, thought I should get medicine and get surgery. I'm a big believer in people's natural ability to heal, and the popping my spine thing scared me off from a chiropractic solution.
I probably have an underlying back problem that caused the herniated disk, but right now, if it's not broken, I'm not going to try to fix it.
But, I wouldn't recommend that for everyone. Mostly because I was and probably am taking a pretty substantial risk in my back eventually getting worse. But if it's pain versus even the slightest possibility of paralysis, I'm going to go with pain.
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FWIW - of five discs, two are bulging and two are badly ruptured - and those are just the ones they looked at. I also have scoliosis. And I'm old, not producing as much HGH as before, which normally helps with inflamation and recovery. I would really like to have a healthy, straight spine ! Or to be young again, or ... both ! 
I don't use pain meds or anti-inflamatories because they mostly don't work, and they have negatives of their own.
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ETA: Mike
I think you have to find a good chiropractor. I had a neighbor who went to one and the chiropractor actually ruptured two discs by aggressively manipulating the spine ! He (the neighbor, whose name is also Mike) ended up needing a back fusion just below his shoulder blades b/c of it in his early 30's. That high up - it's scary ! Perhaps word of mouth is the best advertising. I'll ask around to see who I might find.
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Eeek. What treatment options are you exploring?
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I've been taking vitamins and anti-oxidants to help with the inflammation. I've had spinal decompreSSion. It worked well. Then I lost a lot of weight to help even more.
But we got a project going at work that required me to work on and haul around a lot of equipment in awkward positions. That's why it got as bad lately as it got. And then I was working irregular and long hours and not getting enough good rest just to keep my end of the project on track. The project ends next week, I'm hoping a few weeks without the physical stresses will help heal. If that doesn't work ... I'm going to need to do some thinking ... perhaps, see above ...
I'm open to suggestions ! 
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Silence is consent.
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