| Are you looking for the perfect metaphor? "Stress", "strain", and "tension" were all taken from mechanical physics. Would I be burnt at the stake if I were to suggest that these concepts as we use them in psychology are more-than-just isomorphic to the way they're used in physics? That perhaps we are structures, and the stress occuring in our abstract social realm often manifests in the physical realm as creases on the forehead, and chewing of the fingernails. I mean, we're made of matter just like the living tree is. Shouldn't we go through the same physical stresses at every level of our being? We're the rube-goldberg-machines of structures, here. Really impressive skyscrapers that haven't quite yet noticed that they can be anything and everything, given the metaphor for it. And so what's so different from a steam engine "letting off steam" and a load-bearing structure "letting off tension". Well, look up the Newtonian age formulas for calculating pressure and tension and you tell me the difference. Not much of one, is there? But we're talking about electricity here, right? Tooootaly different substance! Oh wait, there is voltage, however. How does that definition go again? > One volt is the amount of pressure required to cause one ampere of current to flow against one ohm of resistance. Oh my.. back in pressure land. Or was that psychology land? I'm under a lot of voltage attempting to convey this vast homogony to you. Anyway, my point is that yes, we're not computers, but also yes, we are computers. I leave an open question for the one smarter than me: What is the "pressure" of data science? It must be a ratio between a metaphorical force applied, and a metaphorical surface area on which to act. Im excited to hear the answer. * http://www.humanstress.ca/stress/what-is-stress/history-of-s... |