January 11 [Plato's Cave]
January 11
This morning at breakfast, Sean (who I don't think I have mentioned before) found out that Christine had watched a Star Wars movie with me last night and got mad because he said that Star Trek was the better series and they argued about that.
It was good-natured arguing, though, like which hoofball team has the better forward, not mean arguing. I said that I hadn't known about Star Trek and offered to go over to his room and watch one of the Star Trek movies, just to be fair to both sides. I don't want either of them to be mad at me!
He generously decided that it would be best for me to see all the Star Wars movies first so that I would be prepared to watch the one at the theater, and he could show me the Star Trek movies later.
I should write out a list of all the new friends that I'm making, just to keep track of them.
Humans name their clouds in Latin, which is an important language that nobody speaks unless they're talking about scientific things. They place great importance in the height of clouds, which is part of the cloud's name. I don't think that they understand that while the nature of the cloud might change somewhat due to its altitude, it doesn't change the fundamental makeup of it. It's almost like they decided the appearance of clouds first and their function later.
I was a bit confused by the system, because humans measure distance in both feet and meters and can't seem to agree on which is better. I think it's dumb to have two kinds of measurement for height and that their President ought to proclaim which is the best. Feet make more sense, since humans have them and can get an approximation that way like we used to do with hooves (well, the earth ponies did), but then when you get into really long distances they get too big too fast. That's why the pegasus mathematicians came up with counting by twelves instead of fours, and then the unicorns claimed it was all their idea all along because they hate the idea that they're not the most clever tribe of ponies in everything.
Meters count by tens, but each one is longer. And humans count by tens anyways, since they have ten fingers. Plus you can put a Latin word in front of them like kilo or centi, and that makes them longer or shorter, depending on what they need.
I'd seen some interesting clouds on my way to class, and I wanted to bring one in so that everyone could look at it up close, but I'm still not supposed to fly up to them, because although I've read the FAA book, I haven't taken the test to prove that I know what it says.
Over the weekend, I had sent a computer message to Mister Salvatore to tell him that I was ready to take the test. He replied that he had gotten the message and was arranging things. I hope it gets done soon. I can't do a proper exercise regimen in the limited air space I'm allowed.
After class was over, I flew around the quad a little bit, just to keep my wings in shape. There were lots of trees that I could fly around, and I could fly up the hill and then glide back down while staying low enough that I didn't have to worry about being hit by an airplane, although it wasn't as good exercise as I could get on a proper flight, even if I did laps around the quad.
We started philosophy class by talking about when Plato lived. He was a student of Socrates, and he's the one who wrote down most of the stuff that we know about Socrates.
He separated the world into the forms and things. The forms are the ideal version, and the things are what we can actually see and touch. So the papasan chair in Christine's room is a thing, and according to Plato there is a 'really real' world that is made up of forms, including I guess an ideal papasan chair. I'd like to sit on that chair.
The important thing is that there is one archetype in the 'really real' world, and everything we see is a copy of that.
That kind of makes sense? It's hard to wrap my head around, but I think it's like clouds or snowflakes: the weather factory makes a prototype—which is the archetype—and then the weather ponies make copies of it to distribute over Equestria.
Even then, things like clouds are constantly shifting and changing, because once the base clouds are taken out of the weather factory, they start to react to the environmental conditions and change from their ideal form to their un-ideal 'thingness.'
The professor showed us a drawing of a cave, which illustrated Plato's philosophy, and explained how prisoners that are chained in the cave can only see the shadows of people on the wall and believe that these shadows are reality, until one of them escapes and goes outside and sees what the world is really like.
I'm not sure how they wouldn't know what it was like from before they were prisoners, unless they had never been outside. I know some animals are born in caves and don't come out until they are old enough. So maybe humans are too, and maybe if they were made prisoners when they were young, they would only know what the inside of the cave was like.
I was inspired by the Star Wars movie and the thought of seeing another one of them tonight, so in Equestrian class we started by talking about the last play I had seen, which was about a rebellious earth pony who didn't listen to what her friends told her and she finally went into the forest where she shouldn't have and got eaten by a timberwolf. It's a very important to listen to what the older and wiser members of your band have to say. They didn't get old and wise by being stupid.
A couple of them told stories they know, like about a chicken who gets hit by an acorn and thinks the sky is falling (chickens are dumb; they can hardly remember how to fly) and a fox who outsmarts a crow and a tiny hippo who has his toy train stolen by a raven.
It kind of reminded me of being a filly again, and having my mother tell me bedtime stories. Those are important because they can help guide your dreams.
I wonder if Princess Luna can still see my dreams?
It was kind of late when the Star Wars movie—which is called The Empire Strikes Back—was finally over. I was worried about how it ended; if everyone had stayed together they'd be better off. Sometimes you have to go off on your own, but it's safer to be in a group.
Christine lives way down at the bottom of the hill, and my dorm is all the way at the top. I could have walked, but after watching the movie I was thinking about flying, so I took off (being mindful to not fly too high) and flew over top of everything until I got to my dorm room. I knocked on the window until Peggy looked up and she was surprised when she saw me there. It was really funny. Then I landed and went in the normal way.
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There's that Equestrian communalism
Ah Plato. You know, there's an amazing article somewhere about hoe Equestria is basically Plato's Republic with magical horses
The big plus of the metric system compared to the imperial one is how much rational it is. One meter equal an exact fraction of ligth speed, the scale of value is always the same and other stuff like volume or weight are easy to convert.
Plus every unit is based on constant.
Very useful for science, makes a lot of thing easier.
In the day to day life it is less important I guess.
I wonder if they told him WHY Plato was named that way... It always amused me that most people know him by his nickname ("Plato", meaning "huge shoulders", due to him being a wrestler) rather than his real name, Aristokles.
7009245
So is the foot which is defined as precisely 0.3048 meters.
Seems logical that the ponies would have a stronger herd mentality than humans.
7009252 Well, we don't know actually. It is possible that Plato was indeed a nickname he got from is wrestling coach, but it might also being his true name. As for Aristocles, the problem is that the only other Aristocles in Athens' record is not realted to Plato, Diogenes, the guy who said Plato's name was Aristocles pretented Plato had been named afetr one of his ancestor, as was the tradition in Athens.
So yeah, specialist don't agree on the question.
7009225 Sound like something fun to read, where can I find it?
7006204
That's ok. I don't mind. I just thought it was fitting with how some jokes were placed. Thanks for responding though.
7009260 And the pound is equal to 2,2046 kilo, no?
Truer words have not been spoken.
Unicorns = North Korea. Hey. Wait, that makes sense. They love unicorns.
7009282 here ya go!
7009245 The main appeal of the imperial system is that Americans (such as myself) are too stubborn and egotistical to change from what they're used to. It's a great attitude to have when it comes to big things like winning wars, but for the more mundane day-to-day things, it can cause obstacles.
7009303 Thank you!
7008979 Exactly! I think ponies don't have a "fantasy" genre, they just consider it all science fiction, i.e. something that could theoretically happen, while fantasy is stuff that could never really happen.
Blunt opinion time!:
t.
-Plato's Cave is a giant crock of s
-"Empire" is the best Star Wars film.
-The Imperial system sucks and should just be replaced with the dang metric system like the rest of the world
-And this story is still awesome.
I kinda like how Silver Glow's just telling children's stories in her Equestrian class. It reminds me a bit of when I used to teach in Japan, discussing cute little stories like that with my students, using them to learn basic new words. Ah, so nostalgic...
Another cute chapter.^^
Up next, her philosophy teacher recommends the Matrix.
7009368
I say keep the imperial system! Let the sciency types use it, after all it makes no sense at all.
He wants to show her all the Star Trek movies? That's not a friend, that's an enemy.
Ah, the Allegory of the Cave. That brings me back... Granted, I've always thought that Eastern Philosophy has had a lot more heft to it (I frequently read 'The Art of War' for brain stimulation and read though the teachings of Cao Cao), but Western Philosophers always have something interesting about them. Especially good ole' Plato.
As this goes on it reads less like a curious student adapting to a new culture and more like a child trying to understand adults.
7009411 No kidding. Untill the reboot, Star Trek suffered from the odd/even curse. All the odd ones where bad and the even ones where good.
And I too with for the Imperial system of measurement to die. Metric is so much easier to deal with in engineering and science. No "G sub c" constant to deal with in Forces.
7008932 They usually appease the monster by feeding them some of the numerous Lyra, Sweetie Drops, and Colgate clones. No one misses those, cuz more keep showing up from somewhere...
It's the little things like this I really love about this story. Such a small little thought really highlights the differences in how the races experience the world, both currently and historically.
Another great chapter.
metric system PAH! Nothing metric is parked on the moon, or leaving the solar system!
7009245
So is the imperial system! The official definition of IS units is their equivalent in metric units.
Thank you. Best explanation of the metric system's beauty ever.
7009438 Which is an apt description for how being an exchange student feels a lot of the time in the beginning.
7009659 Beauty my third nose hair! Base 60 is where you find mathematically useful divisors. HAIL BABYLON!
7009659
I've always felt that metres are too long for practical day-to-day use but centimetres are too short to be an alternative to feet... more people need to learn about decimetres. (They're roughly the width of your hand if you fold your thumb in.)
7009310
*nod* In addition to the units, it also extends to other things. I'm Canadian and we're the only country other than the U.S. to not use A4 paper.
Everyone's arguing about system of measurements, and here I am wondering what the stories with the crows were.
And in the days before that, they all used the Celest.
An earthpony celest (1 ec) was the exact length of the princess' golden shoes, a pegasus celest (1 pc) was her wingspan and a unicorn celest (1 uc) her horn-length from root to tip. Luna got fed up with that and tried to introduce the unified Lune system but was rejected all around. The result was Nightmare moon (who measured the distance between Equestria and the Moon down to the equivalent of our femtometre using the rebound time of a magic pulse. She had enough time on her hooves after all).
7009225
It really is. I'd say it's the most important article concerning Equestria that I've ever read.
7009310
It also comes in handy for losing wars.
So...we're not going to talk about tiny hippo?
http://poorlydrawnlines.com/comic/tiny-hippo-and-the-tiny-train
7009509
For similar reasons, I advocate beginning written math with "Let τ=2π".
7009287
Could be.
7010077
Ain't no one fucks with tiny hippo.
7009645 yes, so constant! So logical!
7009310
There's also the massive associated expense of changing over every single sign in the US to metric. It'd eat up the entire transportation budget and then some.
Really neat story, very enjoyable to read. I think you did a good job on it! I'd love you to continue, (please, don't stop writing).
7010055 Don't go there. It's won the ones that mattered.
7009750
Become a physicist, and measure everything in Cmx10-2 instead of metres.
Ponies using base twelve? Interesting idea, and it would make sense for them to use some multiple of four. I'm sure it's also helped their library science, since it's a duodecimal system and all.
Only kind of sorry for this one.
Oh dear. Silver's going to need to figure out metaphors and parables pretty darn quick if she's going to get anywhere in philosophy. Literal-mindedness is not your friend in that field.
Interesting question about Luna. I'm really not sure what the answer is there.
7009619 The NASA uses metric system.
So does ESA.
7011328
not in 1960
and altitude is still in feet
7008887 Ah! I didn't know that! Very interesting. Like I said, first time going through Kzoo was for that job interview. True she may develop her own crush on someone. Either way it will be interesting to see! Also, I would laugh if she is a little confused when someone refers to a Mustang as a pony car!
7011478 I haven't read any of his work except a generic overview of his ideas. I could have read the Communist Manifesto, but the PDF was around a thousand pages. I think his theory was the people would rise up and Institute an national socialist system or some kind of "equality" so everybody was the same economically. Wishful thinking if what was said about his life was true since he was more greedy and selfish than a average humans instincts.
Nobody could have predicted the modern age where automation, electronics, and information are bought at a premium.
Investments and savings were probably a thing during his time, but were only available or understood by the rich. I'll have to look deeper into that.
I haven't learned anything about the last one, and I need to look it up.
I definitely need to skim through his stuff.
7009225
I wish I had known that before writing this chapter
7009245
IIRC, it was supposed to equal an exact fraction of the distance from pole to pole, but someone miscalculated that slightly.
Yeah, the conversions are nice, and not having to use fractions is really nice. I always get fractional sizes mixed up.
7009271
Actually, in reality it's a bit more complicated than that (herds are further subdivided into bands), but yeah, they're probably a bit more aware of the 'safety in numbers' concept than we usually are.