Dear Organlearners,
Barry Mallis <bmallis@markem.com> writes
>Journeys were planned, excursions completed, colonies
>constructed in time and space. The realm of the dots became
>a certain music of spheres. And then, one day, a sphere
>appeared excited in the midst of the others with news of a
>deep, strange and expansive experience....
Greetings Barry,
What you have written, reminds me very much of the discoveries of new
continents by Europeans (Columbus, America, Diaz, Da Gama , Cook, etc.)
since the late 15th century. Reading historical accounts written during
those times and stories based on them has the same atmosphere as that
which you have described.
An intersting fact about these European explorers were that they believed
that the earh was a sphere, whereas their crew, sponsors and fellow
citizins did not believe so. By assuming a spherical shape for the earth,
they were able to make calculations (learned from the Arabs) how far they
will have to travel before reaching the wealthy kingdom of China.
It seems as if three persons influenced their thinking:
* The person who gave accounts about China
-- Marco Polo.
* The person who gave them decimal arithmatic and fractions
-- Fibonacci
* The person who reasoned that the earth is spherical
-- ???
It cannot be Nicolas Copernicus because his book appeared in 1543, almost
half a century after Columbus made his epic voyage. Can it be Leonardo da
Vinci?
But there is also a fourth factor to bear into account. How did they
manage to convince their rich sponsors that they will not throw their
money into the drain despite all the controversies on these voyages? I
suspect that the answer lies in the HANZE league (13th-15th) century --
people showing that a profitable business can result from ORGANISED sea
fearing. The Hanze turned a very poor region of Europe (Low Lands) in less
than half a century into richdom.
The first Hanze-league was between Hamburg and Lubeck (1241). By the end
of the thirteenth century the commerce was extended to England, the
Netherlands and Scandinavia while several lowlands cities participated in
the League. One of the major goals of the Hanze league was to curtail
robbery on the open seas (piracy) to a minimum -- decrease destructive
actions. Another major goal was to provide the ships with fresh food and
water -- increase constructive actions.
Unfortunately, the Hanze league did not last. But that is another story.
Best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>