Re: measuring systems (was: Selenites)

Nik Taylor wrote:

> Tom Wier wrote:
> > The fact is, there is no way to make a *perfectly* nonarbitrary
> > measurement system.
>
> But, to have 1000 meters in a kilometer is less arbitrary than to have
> 5000+ feet in a mile!
On the contrary, there is nothing more or less arbitrary with a decimalsystem than with
using  any other system, however contorted it may
seem.  The decimal system relies on the internal cohesivity to be able
to derive one form from another; the American Customary system relies
on the similarity of certain units with certain historical facts, like the
average foot size, or the amount of land a cow can plow in a day (the
acre), and so forth.  For a modern industrial people, which relies on
mathematics and scientific rigor, it is much simpler to use something
which has, so to speak, a derivational morphology built in.  But for
your average medieval peasant working the fields, the ability to derive
many other units from a system was not really important; all he needed
was  few which he could use for that purpose, and as different
professions had different purposes, different methods of constructing
units developed, and thus it has in the modern age become unwieldy for
_us_, but it certainly wasn't hard for the peasant who needs but a few
units.  In fact, it might be far _less_ arbitrary for that peasant, because
he can point to his foot and know exactly how long it was (and there was
at that time certainly a large variation in measurement, the standardization
of measurment being a product of the same people who standardized
language).

So, you can see, it's really all relative.  The metric system was a result
of the European Englightenment, the same source as the system of Checks
and Balances built into American Democracy.  That society forsaw certain
needs for itself and the future, but different societies have different needs;
to claim that one thing like this is the One and Only (whatever you may be
talking about) is to have cultural and historical shortsightedness.





> But, one problem I see with switching to the metric system is highway
> exits.  Some states number them by miles, so that exit 37 is on mile 37
> of the highway.  In those states, you'd either have to change all the
> exit numbers, or admit a numbering system that seems totally arbitrary.
>
> --
> "Public media should not contain explicit or implied descriptions of sex
> acts.  Our society should be purged of the perverts who provide the
> media with pornographic material while pretending it has some redeeming
> social value under the public's 'right to know.'" - Kenneth Star, 1987
> ICQ: 18656696
> AOL IM: Nik Tailor


--
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Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
ICQ#: 4315704   AIM: Deuterotom
Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

We look at [the Tao], and do not see it;
  Its name is the Invisible.
                 - Lao Tsu, _Tao Te Ching_

Nature is wont to hide herself.
                 - Herakleitos
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