Erdos Had The Number First

Ok, I’m reading this (pretty much fluffy) blog entry about (mostly) Alan Kay. Kay
has done some truly astounding work in his field. He’s also closely associated with the $100 laptop project, which I have written about before.

But, in this article, the guy who wrote it goes on to say this:

There are hundreds of things that every culture anthropologists have ever studied have in common. But what they don’t all have in common are the ideas most of us consider to be the most important: reading and writing, equal rights, abstract math, perspective drawing, theory of harmony, agriculture, legal systems, and science are some examples. These are powerful ideas ant they’re rare. Formal education isn’t needed to teach the universals. Formal education is needed to teach the non-universals.

What? Equal Rights is an idea common to every culture? Harmony? Agriculture for gods sake? One of the things about this attitude that I just don’t understand is that they really think they’re right. This is the same kind of attitude that makes people smile when they see Amish because, you know, they’re quaint. Cultural imperialism really doesn’t bother me, but being WRONG does.

I don’t know if they $100 laptop will be as profound as movable type and the gutenberg press. I do, however, know that artifice is as artifice always is: simply a material part of culture. I wish people would stop romantizing this kind of stuff.