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JB Fletcher's avatar

#3. The worry I hear most is that AI 'IS' the longstream: teaching it's 'Self' - artisans and craftsmen. And that there is NO human in charge. Wouldn't that be awful?!?!?

Bruce Clark's avatar

That will be addressed in a sequel.

JB Fletcher's avatar

#2. Let's have a look at Congress (elected politicians) as a 'longstream?' There certainly is a NEED. :-)

JB Fletcher's avatar

#1. Then WHY did the Cremonese (Cremona) longstream end when Stradivari died? Loss of his genius - not loss of keepers, skills, or need?

Bruce Clark's avatar

And, essentially, the Cremona longteam did not end when Stradivari died. The Cremonese workshops continued for generations after 1737. The longteam is what got the tradition to Stradivari. His death revealed the ceiling of what any transmission chain can hold: operational knowledge fine-grained enough that even continuous practice in the same workshops, by trained inheritors, couldn't fully recover it.

JB Fletcher's avatar

Perfection kills the transmission chain? That's kinda scary. Almost as much as missionaries.... :-)

Bruce Clark's avatar

Very astute comment. I am using it to build my current work, "How Knowledge Is Lost." Thank-you.

Bruce Clark's avatar

I believe that is covered in another of the series, likely here: https://pazooter.substack.com/p/the-dying-words

JB Fletcher's avatar

I may be "jumping the gun" (again?); but I had three comments 3/4 of the way through this one, i.e., Post 8. I'll add them separately, not to be difficult - just trying to keep them separate in my system. I'd love your views on each.