Re: TI-89 virtue email needed

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Re: TI-89 virtue email needed

>Does anyone do square roots with pencil and paper anymore?  Does anyone
even remember how?

I learned in 1968 and still use it from time to time when I am in the field
without a calc.  It is slow and cumbersome to be sure, but how else can a
square root be found without a calc when it has to be done.  I was very
suprised when I discovered that my son wasn't even taught how to do square
roots by hand.

>Some skills, such as whaling, calculating square roots or making soap are
being lost but does it really matter?
>These things were once vital to survival for many people but today they're
irrelevant skills.

That really is the question isn't it.  Personally, I don't ever want to be
*to" dependant on my machines.  They will surely fail me at some point and
in order to get a job done I must have alternative methods available.  Any
skill I aquire makes me more self-reliant.  Aquired skills are like any set
of tools; certain tools just sit unused because there are either the ones we
favor (mine is the Cresent wrench) or are more effecient.  But when the job
requires that seldom used tool you are always glad you kept around because
suddenly it makes your life easier.

Are arcane skills irrelavent?  I don't think so.  It is true that as long as
there is better technology to do the work then yes they are of little use,
but I think is would be a mistake to term them irrelevant and discard them.

>There will always be people like the Luddites who couldn't accept
technological change but they will only slow down change >by a small
fraction.  The change will happen.  It's up to us to be ready.

I am not in favor of resisting change, but we should understand that the
change we see as good now is founded and made possible by the tools we
already posess and therefore they are beneficial and have value in
themselves.  Our technology is simply the reflection of who and what we are,
and to discard the fundamentals skills that train us to think abrigates our
responsiblities to those bodies that have no ability apart from us.  This I
think may be a threat to our survival or at least our vitality.  I do not
refer to making soap :-)

>Tom Lake
>
>
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