Gamma. OK, if we turn back to our topic, I'd like to recall one thing which impresses me.
Teacher. Great!
Gamma. Just one tiny thing. We feel personal affiliation with people and works of art and therefore we are not willing to easily substitute them with other people or works of art, while we do this much more easily with other type of things.
Beta. And I would like to repeat what impresses me: each single use or reference increases the value of the creative work and publicity of its author.
Kappa. By the way, royalties don't!
Delta. Too bad.
Alpha. Hey, stay focused.
Gamma. I think we are. It was one out of initial suggestions that cultural phenomena increase value while being used. I believe it relates somehow to the thing I was saying.
Alpha. How can we determine this increase in value? There is some sense in your "reference logic," which can cause increase of value. But there is some rationale behind my "competition logic," which can cause decrease of value for me... These two logics are just logics, they are not proven facts. At any rate we cannot take that increase as a given.
Kappa. All right, now, at least, we have a problem statement!
Delta. Wait-wait. I hardly see a problem here. Competition is always seen by businessmen as something hurting them! Still it is considered to be a positive phenomenon for entire society!
Kappa. Actually yes... and if we turn to our very subject, this is even more so... I think.
Delta. Why?
Kappa. Because a piece of knowledge is definitely more valuable if it is more known! Isn't it obvious?.. I mean, valuable for society.
Teacher. What do you think, Alpha?
Alpha. I think, that someone saw a problem two minutes back and now one doesn't. Someone changes one's opinions pretty quickly!
Teacher. Still, what do you think about the idea that a piece of knowledge is more valuable for society if it is more known?
Alpha. I have to think before I can say what I think.
Delta. Exactly.
Alpha. Exactly... applies to everyone.
Teacher. This is a very important point, of course, although a conversation itself can work pretty well.
Alpha. So, what's the advice? Just to keep talking without thinking?
Teacher. Hm, a nailing question... I would say that I have to do two things in a conversation like ours. Firstly, I have to be easy on new ideas... and that actually means putting thinking aside. Secondly, I have to juxtapose different ideas in order to see how they relate to each other and how they relate to reality, and this difficult-to-accomplish job of juxtaposition actually does require or just is thinking...
Kappa. Wow, that resonates! It is pity we cannot go along these lines.
Delta. Yea, we have gone astray.
Kappa. I don't know why, but an entirely new discrepancy just occurred to me!
All.?!!
Kappa. Look... But it is a very strange one... I am not really sure.
Gamma. Well?
Kappa. All right, say you got a car, right?..
Alpha. Of course right! Ha!
Kappa. All right... The car works if all of its details work and all of it is joined properly...
Alpha. That's new!
Kappa. Now, take one part out and the entire thing does not work any more!
Teacher. Interesting... Assuming that's true.
Kappa. All right, let's take another example... Sorry, I am trying to get a hold of my idea...
Delta. Go ahead, catch it!
Kappa. Thanks... let's take a meal.
Alpha. I'm always for it.
Kappa. You can have a small portion of it and it works for you... And the more you have the more it satisfies you, right?.. Until you are completely full.
Beta. Well?
Kappa. Now, if you read a fragment of a story, or listen to a fragment of a music, it may tell you a lot about the entire work... A fragment can be as meaningful as the entire piece would...
Alpha. But you would like to read the entire story!
Delta. That is right, but the more you read, the more you want to reach the end!
Alpha. Same with meals! What's the difference?
Beta. It is not the same. You read a book to the end, no matter how big the book is... It depends on the book, not on you, while you eat as much as you need, no matter how much is left.
Kappa. It is my fault. I shouldn't go for meals here. My thinking was about tools... The car was the right example. A car part is nothing without the car, while a piece of story is always something; it speaks to you...
Teacher. That is right, looks like another discrepancy around the corner, although it is not quite clear yet, what it is. We, probably, do need to see how meals or other consumables reflect this idea, if they do.
Beta. We stopped at the point that you can judge a meal even if that is just a small piece... And it looked like the same with music or books.
Kappa. But the meal in this case is all the same, every piece of it! And the story is all different!
Beta. Yea, but wait, let me finish. There is another similarity here. If you got a dish, a small piece of it, and it feels tasty, you want more of it, you eat until get satisfied. Looks like the same with music, doesn't it?
Gamma. No, it's different. You may want it, but the music or the novel will never bring you a satisfaction in the same meaning as with food. Music may make you more hungry for it. Same with a book... We actually discussed this already... And again, it feels like this feature of a cultural phenomena relates to our personal affiliation with it.
Teacher. I got lost. It feels like we got an issue with those parts in a car vs. part in a meal vs. part in an art work, but it is not clear what is it...
Beta. Yea. We can summarize it as that part is in different relation to the whole when it comes to art to compare with things in the physical world.
Teacher. Aha!.. Still, it is not clear, what comes out of it...
Beta. Yea... Still this is important... A part of a story can be of the same importance as the entire story... It is like with a person again... You can like or dislike a person at first impression and this could stay the same over time...
Teacher. Yes, it is the same about idea. You can appreciate it in a short formula, and it it will be the same idea in thousands of pages of explanations... did you finish, Beta?
Beta. Not quite. When it comes to a complex thing in a physical world, it is difficult to judge an entire thing by its part... You may only guess... And the part normally does not work by itself and has no real value... The entire thing without a single part can also be of no value...
Alpha. What if you miss part of a blueprint?
Beta. A blueprint does say something to you, any part of it. It bears value, it always does. Having a part you can restore it.
Alpha. You can restore a car too.
Beta. Yes, but a broken car bears no value, unless you use it as a blueprint!.. You can retrieve some information from it!.. It's another discrepancy!
Teacher. Can you squeeze it out for us?
Beta. Well, a broken thing having no physical value, may bear a useful information...
Alpha. This was actually said already. Physical things derive their value from inscribed cultural phenomena.
Gamma. Yea, that is right, but some physical things can be used directly because of their physical features. In this case, cultural phenomena serve to use physical abilities. In case of a broken tool, it is opposite: it serves as a media first, as a bearer of the information, which, in turn, can be used to restore the tool in its physical abilities... A broken tool cannot be used in its supposed function at all...
Delta. By the way, food does not necessarily get value from cultural use. It is mostly opposite: it is used because of its direct physical value...
Gamma. Ha-ha-ha, I would say, cultural use can very well make it less usable!
Teacher. Interesting. Does such decrease happen to consumables only?
Beta. I think, it relates... If this is about consumables... They are supposed to disappear while used, so...
Gamma. Actually this was said in the very beginning: culture may bring or just increase, but also can decrease or destroy value of physical things.
Kappa. I got another idea... Although, I don't know whether it has something to do with our topic, or not.
Teacher. What is it?
Kappa. People change value of things by using other things.
Alpha. What do you mean?
Kappa. You use a complicated process to turn fresh tomatoes into canned ones.
Alpha. A-a, that's new. It also was said already,.. in the ve-e-ry beginning.
Kappa. Oh, yes, I am recalling now.
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