[spam] Groups

[From Bjorn Simonsen (2006.11.10.13:25 EUST)]

From Rick Marken (2006.11.08.2100)

Ah, that was one of those Norwegian jokes!! Ya, sure. I used to work

with Norwegian-Americans so I usually know when
they’re joking;-).

Here is a joke people like to tell to people from Bergen (the city
where I live).

Question: “ Do you know what has an IQ at 101, standing at the top of
Ulriken (a mountain-top sight in Bergen (600m above sea level)) roaring on
Brann (a football team in Bergen)”.

Reply: look at the bottom of this mail.

What is a group?

A collection of individuals.

Is this good enough?

Do you think upon the bodies? Do you think upon their
ethnology? Do you think upon their age? Or do you think upon what they wish and
what they do? I think it depends on what we mean when we use statistics on
groups.

It is of course OK when we use statistics on people to
generate a “number-picture” that shows some of their characteristics. It is a
kind of entertainment.

I think we at least shall be careful when we name such
statistics as knowledge.

Let me explain.

There is what we on this list call a Real Reality out
there (I guess). We experience this reality as disturbances. One of these
disturbances may be gravity and another disturbance may be Force (Newton 1.
law). It is something out there that influences stones and balloons. We
perceive these disturbances as events.

We talk about these events and use words describing
those events. We use our words from in here to describe the force out there. We
understand that there are two things, the force out there and the word “force”
in here.

It is OK when we use statistics on the force out there
doing experiments. It helps us to obtain more words about the force out there.
This is knowledge and we can use our knowledge and make planes or motors.

Now let me switch to groups. Groups composed of
individuals. We perceive them as disturbances. We are not able to experience
events from a group because they don’t exist. I know we use words to describe
the group out there, but there is one thing; the word “group” from in here.
There is no connection between the group out there and the word “group” in
here, because the group out there doesn’t exist. The group out there is an
Illusion. Or are you able to mention some events about groups that are not
“words” from in here?

When we use statistics on groups we use statistics on
our words or on our illusions.

Bill Powers has given us an equipment that helps us to
understand this better. He has given us PCT and HPCT.

A Gorilla has a less developed brain than human
beings. We both have developed the area between thalamus and the inner layer of
the cerebral cortex. We both are able to control events. We both are able to
control how to hang from a branch.

Gorillas have not developed the inner layer of the
cerebral cortex as much as human beings. We are able to control our words. They
are not.

When Gorillas and Human beings are disturbed (in a PCT
way) of a group, neither of us is able to control events (group-events) because
they don’t exist. As human beings are able to talk about groups in a way
Gorillas can’t do.

But these words are constructions from in here. We are
able to talk about a lot of relationships when we describe a group. But we
don’t describe relationships between “group-events” because they don’t exist.

Maybe I shall say that they don’t exist yet. Maybe
Kent McClelland will help us when he serves his new book (?).

When a test constructor makes tests and use them on
human beings he (and other people) find that some people “answer” the test in a
common way. He then constructs a group exercising events from his (their)
brain. This is the Illusion.

My way of thinking is that a group has no reference.
The group has no brain or analogous. Nobody can tell us about the relationship
between this “no brain or analogous” and the behavior of the group, because
this “no brain or analogous” doesn’t exists.

Of course many people (most people) have much to say
about groups.

This is enough about statistics. But I will add that
the worse thing happens when people or politicians start a treatment viewed in
the light of group statistics.

What they really do is treating their own illusions.

Bjorn

Reply to the joke above: “101 people from Bergen”

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