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   teledyn 𓂀 (teledyn@mstdn.ca)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Apr-2023 23:27:45 JST teledyn 𓂀

   > "This invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it because they will not practise their memory … You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding. And you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction."
   #medialiteracy

   https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-23/the-history-of-writing-from-ancient-mesopotamia-to-today/102112604

   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Apr-2023 23:27:43 JST clacke

     in reply to

     @teledyn The quote is not wrong. And yet writing enables the creation and spread of fantastic knowledge otherwise not possible.

     Same with the printing press, radio, TV, computers, the web, online social networks.

     We can all benefit from balancing it all, retaining oral tradition, handwriting, theater, mental algebra, books, face-to-face interaction.

     (haven't clicked the link yet, will now)

   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Apr-2023 23:50:49 JST clacke

     in reply to

     Oh. The text wasn't very long, and this quote was basically the core and climax.

     It made the interesting claim that all modern alphabets are thought to have developed from the Phoenician one.

     "Bull", I thought and went on a Wikipedia spree, but it seems to be potentially true. Even Devanāgarī is tentatively thought to have come from Phoenician via Aramaic via Brāhmī, but this is still a point of controversy.

     Mesoamerican scripts, East Asian scripts and African scripts that do not come from Phoenician are not alphabets, they're idiographic, syllabaries or alphasyllabaries.

   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Thursday, 06-Apr-2023 02:32:49 JST clacke

     in reply to

     @teledyn Our world of today wouldn't exist if we had to rely on oral tradition to convey all the details of science and engineering.

     Building on the shoulders of 400 years dead giants is made possible by written documents.

   • Embed this notice
     teledyn 𓂀 (teledyn@mstdn.ca)'s status on Thursday, 06-Apr-2023 02:32:59 JST teledyn 𓂀

     in reply to

     • clacke

     @clacke

     You say potato and I say potato
     You say tomato and I say tomato…

     I'm not so certain 'knowledge' is the correct term for what literacy conveys. Indeed, if it did, we wouldn't need lawyers! ?

   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Friday, 07-Apr-2023 03:28:03 JST clacke

     in reply to
     @teledyn Because we need both.
   • Embed this notice
     teledyn 𓂀 (teledyn@mstdn.ca)'s status on Friday, 07-Apr-2023 03:28:05 JST teledyn 𓂀

     in reply to

     • clacke

     @clacke

     If what you say is true, why are there universities?

   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Friday, 07-Apr-2023 03:28:14 JST clacke

     in reply to

     @teledyn Indeed, but most of my university studies started from the texts, then lectures for clarification, then more texts for detailed studies, and tests.

     We didn't learn every formula by heart through songs and stories, we just kept a reference table and moved on.

     I learned more of my software engineering from texts on the internet than from lecturers and TAs.

   • Embed this notice
     teledyn 𓂀 (teledyn@mstdn.ca)'s status on Friday, 07-Apr-2023 03:28:15 JST teledyn 𓂀

     in reply to

     • clacke

     @clacke

     Or do we try to preserve what the texts actually meant by training interpreters dating back, if we're lucky, to the associates of the original authors. Many texts we are only now realizing we'd misread them, and copy pasted that take paper after paper.

   • Embed this notice
     teledyn 𓂀 (teledyn@mstdn.ca)'s status on Friday, 07-Apr-2023 03:28:15 JST teledyn 𓂀

     in reply to

     • clacke

     @clacke

     Print is at best a mnenomic device for the aural/oral tradition. Master to student is rife through academia and the arts.

   • Embed this notice
     teledyn 𓂀 (teledyn@mstdn.ca)'s status on Friday, 07-Apr-2023 03:28:46 JST teledyn 𓂀

     in reply to

     • clacke

     @clacke

     There were no texts when I started, just "This page intentionally left blank" updateable binders. We put together user groups, then others put together this thing they called the Internet and we'd use decwrl to get the source, and email to share understanding. Mostly we just built stuff and met maybe at conferences, but shared everything we found or did.

     Some went on to write textbooks. I ghostwrote two chapters of Linux Unleashed and started a kernel book so there'd be SOMETHING. ?

     clacke likes this.