"algorithm" originally referred to the number system Europeans learmned from the Arabs, but the contemporary meaning of "algorithm" is quite different.
Over-heard yesterday two management types walking past my desk with the highly-multilingual one explaining how in modern Spanish most of the words in the sphere of luxury and the arts have Arabic derivations, whereas those referring to warfare are from Germanic languages....
Well, yeah — historically the Arabs have been prolific in the arts and sciences, at least the match of their Western counterparts.
It all started to go wrong, of course, when the Industrial Revolution allowed us to leap ahead. The Ottoman Empire, in particular, was very slow to jump on the bandwagon.
Maybe some day soon a boffin in Qatar will invent the Next Big Thing, and the tables will be turned for the next two centuries; maybe not.
As for his claims that Arabs are socially and morally backward — his references to repression of women and cutting off the hands of thieves, etc. — maybe he should visit Alabama some day, and then work out how to explain to a Moslem in Kuwait that just because he's also racially caucasian and ethically Christian, he shouldn't be tarred with the same brush.
I think the near future of Iraq is probably going to be a key period for the development of the Arab world. Will it become a modern state (or several modern states), or a disaster area? The first two options could - at best - spread modern thinking to the rest of the region; the last could - at worst - make the last 50 years there look stable.
Improvements in Iran and Egypt could have wider benefits too but I don't think they currently have the same potential for disaster.
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ewx
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-08 03:31 am (UTC)He's not a patch on Trisha either.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-08 03:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-08 03:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-08 04:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-08 04:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-08 04:52 am (UTC)"algorithm" originally referred to the number system Europeans learmned from the Arabs, but the contemporary meaning of "algorithm" is quite different.
alcohol - strictly, distilling.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-08 04:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-08 04:57 am (UTC)RoArabs ever done for us?(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-08 10:49 am (UTC)It all started to go wrong, of course, when the Industrial Revolution allowed us to leap ahead. The Ottoman Empire, in particular, was very slow to jump on the bandwagon.
Maybe some day soon a boffin in Qatar will invent the Next Big Thing, and the tables will be turned for the next two centuries; maybe not.
As for his claims that Arabs are socially and morally backward — his references to repression of women and cutting off the hands of thieves, etc. — maybe he should visit Alabama some day, and then work out how to explain to a Moslem in Kuwait that just because he's also racially caucasian and ethically Christian, he shouldn't be tarred with the same brush.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-08 04:26 pm (UTC)I think the near future of Iraq is probably going to be a key period for the development of the Arab world. Will it become a modern state (or several modern states), or a disaster area? The first two options could - at best - spread modern thinking to the rest of the region; the last could - at worst - make the last 50 years there look stable.
Improvements in Iran and Egypt could have wider benefits too but I don't think they currently have the same potential for disaster.