There have been so many promisses of new technologies over the last years that every new anouncement I take with a grain of salt. They have promisses us IC (such as CPUs) that would run on biological matter, optical transistors, quantum-based technologies... and yet none of this is available, although some of them have been promissed over 10 years ago.
Yet, the only real advances we see here are made by Intel, reducing the size of transistors. Everybody else just follows along and uses Intel-developed Ic-manufacturing technology.
Of course I don't generalize my opinion that ppl are ignorant. Obviously I met many more interesting and incredibly intelligent folks that I did ignorant ones.
And yes... stating a conversation by saying I wasn't Hannibal Lechter would be a terrible way to make friends, but if I by chance were talking to one of those who believed in that, it surely would ease things up! ;)
What I meant to point out is that we cannot generalize that everyone is as knowledgeable as some in this discussion who took offense in the tone of the article.
I was an exchange student in the US back in 1992-1993. Part of the program was giving speaches in schools about my country, culture, etc (I am from Brazil).
It was amazing to see how much knowledge students from 11th grade and above lack about other cultures. I had a senior ask me if in Brazil we rode vines to school, if there were alligators in the streets, if I was a cannibal. About cannibals, I once was asked if there were too many cannibals around here. I answered: "no, I ate the last one before coming here!"
I had adults too ask me the dumbest questions, which really show ignorance - and I am talking about people who were in positions were they should be more knowledgeable about foreign cultures. For instance, a teacher in high school asked me if Brazil was that tiny little country near Australia, whose capital is - are you ready? - Argentina!
Since then, I never overestimated what people know about other cultures, thus I belive the article was very well written. I believe the author's intention was to leverage knowledge, because most people ARE ignorant about other cultures.
Yet, the only real advances we see here are made by Intel, reducing the size of transistors. Everybody else just follows along and uses Intel-developed Ic-manufacturing technology.
Of course I don't generalize my opinion that ppl are ignorant. Obviously I met many more interesting and incredibly intelligent folks that I did ignorant ones.
And yes... stating a conversation by saying I wasn't Hannibal Lechter would be a terrible way to make friends, but if I by chance were talking to one of those who believed in that, it surely would ease things up! ;)
What I meant to point out is that we cannot generalize that everyone is as knowledgeable as some in this discussion who took offense in the tone of the article.
I was an exchange student in the US back in 1992-1993. Part of the program was giving speaches in schools about my country, culture, etc (I am from Brazil).
It was amazing to see how much knowledge students from 11th grade and above lack about other cultures. I had a senior ask me if in Brazil we rode vines to school, if there were alligators in the streets, if I was a cannibal. About cannibals, I once was asked if there were too many cannibals around here. I answered: "no, I ate the last one before coming here!"
I had adults too ask me the dumbest questions, which really show ignorance - and I am talking about people who were in positions were they should be more knowledgeable about foreign cultures. For instance, a teacher in high school asked me if Brazil was that tiny little country near Australia, whose capital is - are you ready? - Argentina!
Since then, I never overestimated what people know about other cultures, thus I belive the article was very well written. I believe the author's intention was to leverage knowledge, because most people ARE ignorant about other cultures.