Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 36, No. 219.
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        Date: 2022-10-21 06:17:57+00:00
        From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@mccarty.org.uk>
        Subject: the sense of sophistication

Some time ago, in a discussion about cameras, an engineer whom I know
asked me what I thought about the latest version of the make of camera
we both have. I found myself saying that its technology was much
'quieter' than before. By this I didn't mean the sound of the shutter
(which is just the same as before). I was attempting to articulate the
sense I've also had about computers and phones as they become more
technologically sophisticated.

I still don't know exactly what I mean by 'quieter', but the sense
persists under examination. I see two possibilities or a combination of
these: (1) a greater degree of concealment of the engineering; (2) a
greater degree of my assimilation of it.

Speculations welcome, scholarship even more so.

Yours,
WM
--
Willard McCarty,
Professor emeritus, King's College London;
Editor, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews;  Humanist
www.mccarty.org.uk


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