“Where do your jobs go today?”

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I saw this news on Wired.com: IT Protesters Outside Looking In, with this photo: “Where Do You Want Your Job To Go Today?”.

Protester Ken Vasey from WashTech, Washington state’s union for information technology workers, is frustrated that despite having 14 years of experience as a software developer, he has only been able to find contract work. Photo: Courtesy of Manny Frishberg
作者：ilya，時間：February 29, 2004 3:18 pm 足跡 (0)

“Game Over”

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This an interesting question raised by US TV producer, and answered by Canadian and American techcompanies.

“Game Over,” which is to make its debut on March 10 on UPN, begins with a question: What happens when video-game characters are off duty?

The answer, it turns out, is that they act much as a typical TV sitcom family does. Raquel Smashenburn, the mother (with the voice of Lucy Liu), struggles to balance the responsibilities of work and home. Her husband, Rip (Patrick Warburton of the Fox sitcom “The Tick”), gets steamed over his daughter’s dates. Of course, Rip and Raquel aren’t exactly like other made-for-TV clans. She is a swashbuckling heroine à la Lara Croft, and he is a racecar driver who always falls just short of a high score.

NYTimes(free registration required), The Secret Life of Off-Duty Characters.

作者：ilya，時間：February 29, 2004 3:01 pm 足跡 (0)

句子的論述事件

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句子是由發言者針對另外的人發出的論述事件，發言人可因本身的經驗、階級、職業等具有權威或非權威性，使他（或她）的論述具有或不具有份量及有效性（validity），呈現不同程度的真實性、誠意及力量；與之對話者也因自己的知識、階層、才能而可能理解或不理解句子的論述。在具權威或不具權威的發言者之間，當然仍存在著種種的可能性，如女性作家故意以反諷的姿態，採取不具權威或假具權威的名份，去質疑權威，發出內在爆裂或革命性的論述，對這些發言人，我們勉強可稱之為反權威。其次，論述的接受者也可能故作不解，或以操縱及反支配的方式，以另一種方式，進行笛雪透（Michel de Certeau）所說的「空靈虛術」（tactics）。這種故作不解，或作其他理解的方式，在被殖民者及次文化的論述裡最容易見到，有時反而是一種利器。

第六章：『時間與敘事』：里柯的三度模仿及其問題，「里柯」，廖炳惠著。東大出版。這讓我很高興地拿起手上 de Certeau 的書來尋找空靈虛術的痕跡。

作者：ilya，時間：February 28, 2004 3:33 pm 足跡 (0)

「引誘狐狸出了洞」

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從隨機部落格的作研究像跳高回應中，看到一段關於 Nash 美麗境界的討論：

[Nash] 晚年在圖書館跟幾個年輕學子討論數學時，對他們說「別聽生物學家胡扯」… :)

mindandnature.jpg我現在就在讀一本生物學家/人類學家的亂扯 :P Gregory Bateson，Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity。（中文翻譯是「心智與自然」，商周出版，可以在這裡讀到經典的兩章）

剛才（透過視覺語言描述，解釋兩個連續奇數數列總和之差，恆等於其序數平方之差）所發生的事是—運用幾何學的隱喻系統，來幫助我們瞭解機械性的把戲如何變成一種規則或規律。更重要的是，學生藉此認識到玩把戲與瞭解把戲背後的必然真相之間的對比。比這還更重要的是，學生在無形中已經從「說算數語言」，跳躍到「談論算數語言」了。我們所談論的不是數字，而是數字的數目。用華勒士.史蒂文斯（Wallace Stevens ）的話來說，只有到了那個時候：

葡萄看來更鮮美，
引誘狐狸出了洞。

What has happened is that the use of a system of geometric metaphor has enormously facilitated understanding of how the mechanical trick comes to be a rule or regularity. More important, the student has been made aware of the contrast between applying a trick and understanding the necessity of truth behind the trick. And still more important, the student has, perhaps unwittingly, had the experience of the leap from talking arithmetic to talking about arithmetic, Not numbers but numbers of numbers.

It was then, in Wallace Steven’s words,

That the grapes seemed fatter.
The fox ran out of his hole.

這些例子（6. THE CASE OF SYNONYMOUS LANGUAGES）關於代數到幾何兩種語言的轉譯練習 — 一種啟蒙式的教學法 — 讓我想起高中時期的補習班數學老師（故徐真量老師）。他就是這樣不厭其煩地教我們從一個觀點到另外一個觀點的語言代換練習。也因為他，當我看到 Gregory Bateson 的範例時，我的腦海遂跳出了一個對話框：「原來這就是邏輯類型 logical type 啊！」

學習真是一件神奇的事情。

作者：ilya，時間：February 28, 2004 1:40 pm 足跡 (9)
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