In China
It is an odd sort of thing, being connected on the internet in China, knowing that some sites are out there, but that one cannot access it. Very often, our scope of knowledge is limited by what we already know about. As in, in this connected world, it's rare that you know there's information out there, but have no way to find out more about it. (Granted, access to information is not universally available. For example, if I wanted to know what sort of people are sitting in the Borders in downtown Chicago, I would have to fly there. But in that case, I know that (a) the information is out there, and (b) what I'd need to do to access it). So the limit is what you know about. For example, I'm lying on a bed right now and I don't know what sort of machine makes the fabric of the bed-sheet, what techniques are used, etc. And since I know absolutely nothing about the fabric world, I would have great difficulty looking it up. Google-fu is an increasingly important skill, and is based on honing search terms.
I'm trying to describe the concept of schema? I read a story in History C&I last year that has been in my head ever since: When Marco Polo first saw a Rhinoceros, he wrote in his journal, "The unicorn is an ugly beast..." He did not know that there were new creatures out there, and so when he saw a rhinoceros, he could only see it in terms of the creatures that he already knows. In this case, the unicorn.
And yet, here, I know that, say, livejournal exists. I know it directly, in as much as I can directly type in the URL. And yet I cannot access it. It's like having a part of the schema on "view only", except I can't even view it. It is like Marco Polo saying that "I know what a rhino is. I know what it looks like. I know that it can run 35 miles per hour and its closest relative is the horse. I know where you can find them." And yet cannot produce any proof that it exists, because there are no boats to Africa.
That might be how he felt when attempting to describe China to Italians. It's a miracle they believed him. (Or did they believe him only because he described something miraculous? I do not understand religion, especially not the religiosity of Europeans in the 15th century, but if Marco Polo existed now, would we believe him?)
This entry has strayed in many directions, and should warrant an edit, but since this is but a thinly-disguised announcement about my inability to access Livejournal, I shall leave it as such.
I'm trying to describe the concept of schema? I read a story in History C&I last year that has been in my head ever since: When Marco Polo first saw a Rhinoceros, he wrote in his journal, "The unicorn is an ugly beast..." He did not know that there were new creatures out there, and so when he saw a rhinoceros, he could only see it in terms of the creatures that he already knows. In this case, the unicorn.
And yet, here, I know that, say, livejournal exists. I know it directly, in as much as I can directly type in the URL. And yet I cannot access it. It's like having a part of the schema on "view only", except I can't even view it. It is like Marco Polo saying that "I know what a rhino is. I know what it looks like. I know that it can run 35 miles per hour and its closest relative is the horse. I know where you can find them." And yet cannot produce any proof that it exists, because there are no boats to Africa.
That might be how he felt when attempting to describe China to Italians. It's a miracle they believed him. (Or did they believe him only because he described something miraculous? I do not understand religion, especially not the religiosity of Europeans in the 15th century, but if Marco Polo existed now, would we believe him?)
This entry has strayed in many directions, and should warrant an edit, but since this is but a thinly-disguised announcement about my inability to access Livejournal, I shall leave it as such.
Labels: Marco Polo, musing, schema
