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by tetris11
873 days ago
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Again, "redundant" assumes that they are of no use to us with what we know now, but makes no promises for the future. Parenting, for example, is a topic that constantly waxes and wanes with paradigms every few years as the prevailing western model is constantly brought under question. One article mentions Inuit parenting[1], a dying language and culture of no use to 99% of people in their daily lives right now, but whose ways of parenting are insightful enough that they could impact future parenting techniques in the western world. 1: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/03/13/6855333... |
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I'm looking at this event and pointing out that the expected value of this bet is negative[1]. It is, in fact, so negative that there's a better chance of winning a 'let it ride' bet on roulette.
You're looking at this event and pointing out that the odds are non-zero.
I agree - the odds of a dying language making a positive contribution is indeed non-zero. I just don't think that non-zero is a good bar to base expensive decisions on.
> Again, "redundant" assumes that they are of no use to us with what we know now, but makes no promises for the future.
No, "redundant" is being used loosely - the odds of getting something of value from a dying language is nearly insignificant.
> Parenting, for example, is a topic that constantly waxes and wanes with paradigms every few years as the prevailing western model is constantly brought under question. One article mentions Inuit parenting[1],
And nothing[2] that you discover from the Inuit anger-prevention would make humanity more successful than it is right now; the majority of cultures aren't going to switch parenting styles, which, as the article points out, is cultural itself.
Cultures are resistant to change, and child-rearing is deep in every culture. In order for the Inuit method to be widespread, some other cultures have to lose some of their identity.
And, that's even assuming that the Inuit tradition of child-rearing is more successful, and many would argue that if it was, the resulting population of adults would have successfully competed with other cultures over centuries and yet this did not happen.[2]
[1] Because the effort needed to prevent a dying language from dying is high - see the Hebrew example.
[2] Once again, using "nothing" as "the odds of it happening are so low we may as well ignore it"
[3] Maybe there are confounding factors, but I don't care - I'm anticipating what arguments may come, not making them.