{"id":724,"date":"2005-01-30T00:53:14","date_gmt":"2005-01-30T04:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/metasj\/order\/"},"modified":"2005-01-30T00:53:14","modified_gmt":"2005-01-30T04:53:14","slug":"order","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/order\/","title":{"rendered":"Large-scale order"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

There is a certain orderliness to the large-scale organizations in any
\nreally good novel, history, or description of the future, which I have
\nnever experienced in the present.  I doubt it has existed at very many
\npoints in history.  That we lack not only such order, but also a deep
\nsense of duty to remedy this absence [feel free to localize this sense
\nto your region, subspecialty, culture, etc., to match your normal
\nsphere of influence], fascinates and frustrates me.<\/p>\n

I have often wondered why the people with a well-developed sense of the whole<\/span> — of  million-year<\/span> timespans and the totality of our geography and planet; our peoples and human interactions; millenia-long economies and scarcities<\/span>,
\nfabricated and unavoidable — why these people have so little impact on
\nthe decisions that seem to have the greatest control over the
\nyear-to-year development of our societies and governments.<\/p>\n

And I more often wonder why so few of the geniuses I know feel
\ncompelled to identify, sketch out, strive and campaign for, large-scale
\norder… in their field or in society or just in their favorite
\nhobbies.  Perhaps the creative spirit lusts after that creative
\nmoment and the act of creation more than the dull completeness of
\nproviding a framework for it all.  Perhaps this is like asking why
\nthere are so few set theorists, and so many fewer who are sane. 
\nBut I don’t think so.  The desire for completeness is deep and ancient<\/span>. 
\nNovels describe societies with all-knowing or all-encompassing
\norganizations and entities, scientists postulate universal theories,
\nand religions offer omniscient and omnipresent gods.  This is not
\nsimply because it makes explanations simpler (although it does). 
\nThere is a comforting glory in such completeness that transcends all
\nother hallmarks of correctness and success.<\/p>\n

Perhaps reading this are amused by my naivete, certain that any
\npractical form of completeness is impossible.  Perhaps you feel
\nexactly the same way, and have devoted your life to struggling with
\ngrand unifying theories.  <\/p>\n

And perhaps you have spent years baffled by the natural opportunities
\nfor completeness in little aspects of the world around you, which are
\nregularly overlooked or quietly opposed.  If so, I’m looking for
\nyou.  We have work to do.<\/p>\n

\nshards<\/span>: citations db<\/a> | wp<\/a> | knuth<\/a> | alexander<\/a> | G<\/a> |
\n<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a certain orderliness to the large-scale organizations in any really good novel, history, or description of the future, which I have never experienced in the present.  I doubt it has existed at very many points in history.  That we lack not only such order, but also a deep sense of duty to remedy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-724","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P7iVvB-bG","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/724\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}