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Darren New wrote:
> Consider another example. Imagine this:
>
> You're in the conference room, along with several coworkers, waiting for
> someone you haven't met before to show up so you can start. This person,
> who has been around the company a while but you just never happened to
> meet, walks past the window on the way into the conference room. You
> coworker whistles a tune under his breath,
>
> ... which you don't recognise.
>
> ... which you recognise as the Darth Vadar theme.
>
> ... which you recognise as the Wicked Witch of the West theme.
>
> ... which you recognise as the Indiana Jones theme.
>
> OK? Your different opinions, of this person who you still haven't met,
> have been shaped by a string of otherwise-meaningless tones. That's
> culture. (Assuming you've actually seen those movies, see...)
Wait... The WWW had a *theme*??
Maybe I'm just strange, but I don't think it would matter what a person
is whistling. The fact that they're whistling something would be more
significant...
> The reason you read Shakespeare is because others do too, and when they
> make references to a Shylock, a pound of flesh, or "Lead on, McDuff", or
> things like that, they're bringing *that* entire story into context.
See, now, in all the years I've been alive, I've never [knowingly] heard
of anybody making any Shakespeare references at all. [Except maybe to
Romeo and Juliet.]
> Sort of like that Star Trek NG episode where the aliens communicate
> *only* in cultural references, and they kidnap the two captains and beam
> them down to the hostile planet surface so they'll have some cultural
> story in common to start communicating with?
>
> (Yes, thank you, I appreciate just how f'ing nerdy this sounds. :-)
...as nerdy as me saying "yeah, I remember that silly episode"?
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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