Essays

A Timeline of Communication Patterns – Recurring Themes (part 2)

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As described in the previous article, communication technologies compressed time and space, creating shared experiences across vast geographic and historical dimensions. Innovation through Constraints Throughout history, we observe a pattern where new communication methods emerge precisely to overcome the constraints of their predecessors. Consider how clay tokens addressed the fundamental limitations of memory in oral accounting. Early Mesopotamian merchants couldn’t rely solely on memory for complex transactions, so they developed physical tokens to represent goods and quantities, creating the first external accounting system. The …

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A Timeline of Communication Patterns (part 1)

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Smiling, touching, watching, copying, talking, listening, singing, dancing, painting, writing, and making – these are the ways we have always connected with one another. From cave paintings to the latest AI models, our methods of communication have been shaped by the culture in which we are born, power hierarchies, and the technologies of our time. But how did early societies manage to encode meaning that could be understood? How did we transition from simple gestures and sounds to complex forms of expression? Early Systems …

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The Historical Method – You Learn Something Old Every Day

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“You learn something old every day.” X the Owl, a character in Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood This article is inspired by a comment on the askHistorians subreddit. It highlights a fundamental difference in how historians approach facts compared to those from fields like science or engineering (my own background). Many assume historians can offer definitive truths about past events, but the reality is more nuanced. And one thing that I, and I suspect others around here who’ve been trained as historians, learn is that the …

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Insights from Bjarne Stroustrup, Creator of C++

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Bjarne Stroustrup is a renowned Danish computer scientist and the creator of the C++ programming language. Stroustrup’s work has profoundly impacted software development, making C++ one of the most widely used programming languages for system/software development, game programming, and real-time simulations. This article will showcase some relevant quotes from Stroustrup, providing insights into his philosophy and the far-reaching impact of his contributions. About Bjarne Stroustrup You’ve created one of the most efficient and fastest programming languages. No doubt, that has changed our world. Have …

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Balancing Innovation and Familiarity with the MAYA Design Principle

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The MAYA (Most Advanced Yet Acceptable) design principle suggests that the best design falls between entirely new solutions and those that are familiar. The goal is to create something advanced enough to capture interest yet familiar enough to be accessible to users. Industrial designer Raymond Loewy developed this concept through his experience designing iconic products such as the Coca-Cola bottle, the US Postal Service logo, the NASA spacecraft, and the Air Force One plane for U.S. presidents. Loewy advocated for a gradual design evolution, …

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Exploring the Dynamics of Soft Power

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Before each of his military campaigns, Napoleon always made a point of passing through Épernay, stopping at the cellars of his friend Jean-Rémy Moët [a French vintner who brought the champagne producers Moët & Chandon to fame] to pick up a supply of champagne.  “In victory you deserve it, in defeat you need it,” he said. [… After Napoleon abdicated and Paris fell during the “War of the Sixth Coalition”] Cellars throughout Champagne were plundered, the worst being those of Moët, which saw six hundred thousand bottles emptied …

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Adapting Traditional Education to Meet Future Challenges

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In the 20th century, the school as a factory metaphor appeared. Our schools are, in a sense, factories, in which the raw products (children) are to be shaped and fashioned into products to meet the various demands of life. The specifications for manufacturing come from the demands of twentieth-century civilization, and it is the business of the school to build its pupils according to the specifications laid down. Ellwood Patterson Cubberley The school as a factory metaphor worked for the past century, as education mainly was linear: …

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A Small Collection of Feminist Perspectives

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This article is a curated collection of quotes from various perspectives regarding women’s discrimination and the resilience of those who have tried to dismantle systemic biases. This compilation is highly personal, and I hope the following voices will resonate with you, too. Historical Underrepresentation The French philosopher Gilles Ménage, from the XVII-th century, found references to sixty-five women philosophers in ancient texts and works by the fathers of the Church. However, modern philosophy encyclopedias, apart from Hypatia (a renowned mathematician, philosopher, and astronomer who lived in Alexandria, …

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