Honoring Women Who Keep ERA Alive: Jennifer McLeod
‘Fair Share’ Housing: Round Three
Marking the Birth Of Electronic Music
Pursue Your Career and Lifestyle Dreams
Trenton Computer Festival Hits 3-0
A Machine Made in Our Own Image: Eric Baum
Giving it Away? New Rules for Non-Profits
Corrections or additions?
These articles by Bart Jackson, Kathleen McGinn Spring, and Sally
Friedman were prepared for the April 13, 2005 issue of U.S. 1
Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Survival Guide
Top Of PageHonoring Women Who Keep ERA Alive: Jennifer McLeod
She had brilliance, spunk and courage. She was a woman ahead of her
time who left an indelible mark on America.
Alice Stokes Paul, the architect of some of the most significant
achievements of women in this century, would have been 100 years old
in 1985. That was the year when the Alice Paul Centennial Foundation
was launched to honor her legacy and perpetuate her work. It is
located, appropriately enough, at Paulsdale, the property in Mount
Laurel where the suffragist/women’s rights activist Paul was born, and
where she died in 1977. After 2003 the organization was renamed the
Alice Paul Institute to best reflect its mission and programs.
On Wednesday, April 13, at 6 p.m. Alice Paul Institute’s Alice Paul
Equality Awards Dinner takes place at the Hyatt Regency Princeton.
Cost: $85. Call 856-231-1885 or E-mail info@alicepaul.org. Honoring
the Institute’s namesake, the highlight of the dinner is the awarding
of first Alice Paul Equity Awards to four women who have demonstrated
their own long-standing commitment to advance women’s equality in New
Jersey.
Being honored are Vivian Sanks King of Newark, vice president of legal
management and general counsel to the University of Medicine and
Dentistry in New Jersey; Ruth B. Mandel of Princeton, director of the
Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University; the Honorable
Sylvia B. Pressler of Bergen County, judge of the Superior Court’s
Appellate Division (retired); and Jennifer S. Macleod of Princeton
Junction, national coordinator of the ERA network.
“This event recognizes the living legacy of Alice Paul, who was such a
courageous leader in the fight for equal rights for women,” says
Princeton attorney M. Elaine Jacoby, co-chair of the dinner committee
for the event and a member of the board of the Alice Paul Institute.
“Each of our honorees, by her example, encourages our young women to
become leaders.”
For Jennifer Macleod, the Alice Paul mandate has always resonated. And
despite numerous other honors in her long and lustrous career as an
advocate for women’s rights, the Princeton Junction woman suggests
that the Equality Award has special meaning.
Macleod, born an American citizen in London, where her family owned
the legendary Selfridge’s Department Store, she received her B.A. in
psychology from Radcliffe College, then earned a Ph.D. in research
psychology from Columbia. Her professional life has been devoted to
social psychology and management consulting with large doses of
service in promoting women’s equality. And while she is officially
retired from management consulting with a firm she founded and headed,
Macleod is definitely not at rest.
“There is so much work to do,” says this indefatigable crusader, who
co-founded and served as first president of Central New Jersey’s NOW
in 1969. “A 2002 survey revealed that 72 percent of Americans think
our Constitution guarantees equal rights for women, and that’s wrong.
Gender equality is actually a glaring omission in our Constitution,
and one with tremendous implications.”
Macleod notes that because women do not have Constitutionally-mandated
equal right, they lose the bedrock protections they should have. “My
daughter and granddaughter lack those equal rights,” says Macleod,
whose efforts on behalf of women have has even included the sit-in
that resulted in Princeton’s Nassau Inn opening its luncheon
restaurant to women back in 1970.
Some of this honoree’s most urgent work has been as a leader of the
nationwide campaign to ad the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution during the modern years of the New Jersey campaign, from
1969 to 1974.
“It’s still a front-burner issue to get the legislation that can
complete the ratification,” says Macleod, who has served as the
national coordinator of the ongoing campaign since 2000. Macleod also
manages the organization’s web site, www.ERACampaign.net.
Macleod’s work is in keeping with the proud legacy of Alice Paul. Born
in 1885 into a Quaker family through which she learned the principles
of equality, Paul attended Moorestown Friends School and Swarthmore
College in Pennsylvania. She would later earn a Ph.D. and three law
degrees to better enable her to champion the suffragist movement.
In 1916, Paul founded the National Woman’s Party, which worked to gain
suffrage for women through a constitutional amendment.
From 1923 through her 1972, a period of nearly 50 years, Paul
continued her fight for women’s rights by introducing the Equal Rights
Amendment, which she authored, into every session of Congress. It was
finally passed in 1972 for ratification by the states. “Nothing is
complicated about ordinary equality,” Alice Paul once said. And
generations of women – and men – have come to understand the
profundity of that notion.
Today, the campaign goes on because of the ongoing efforts of leaders
like Macleod and the other women being honored tonight.
King has championed health issues for women of all ages in her
capacity as the chief legal officer for UMDNJ, and has been active on
the Governor’s Advisory Council on AIDS which is epidemic among women.
For Dr. Ruth Mandel of the Eagleton Institute, women’s issues are
always a priority. Under her stewardship, the Institute developed its
Center for Women and Politics where Mandel herself is a senior
scholar.
Retired Judge Sylvia Pressler holds the distinction of being the one
of the first women Superior Court judges in the state, and only the
second woman to serve on the Appellate Division. Through her
pioneering legal decisions, the rights of women and girls in New
Jersey have been significantly expanded.
Rhonda Carboni, president of the Alice Paul Institute, summarizes the
meaning of the April 13 awards, and the choice of honorees: “Alice
Paul dedicated her entire life to the cause of women’s rights,” says
Carboni. “The Institute is so proud to honor four women who, through
their own lives and work, have followed in her footsteps and been an
inspiration to our own and future generations.”
— Sally Friedman
Top Of Page‘Fair Share’ Housing: Round Three
When the state Supreme Court handed down the infamous Mount Laurel
decision in l975, and again in l983, most municipalities were
dumbstruck. The l975 ruling ordered each municipality to shoulder its
“fair share of the regional need for low and moderate income housing.”
By l983, seeing that most towns were still dawdling, the court
reinforced its initial ruling, demanding target dates for specific
numbers of units. Fortunately for Princeton Borough and Princeton
Township, such construction had been a tradition dating back to the
l930s.
The third and newest round of fair share responsibilities is just
being published by the state’s Council On Affordable Housing. In hopes
of exploring just what this will mean to the borough and the township,
the Princeton Area League of Women Voters sponsors a free panel, “What
is the Future of Affordable Housing in Princeton?,” on Wednesday,
April 13, at 6:45 p.m. at the Princeton Public Library. Call
609-924-8822.
Panelists include Alan Mallach of the National Housing Institute;
Douglas Massey of the Woodrow Wilson School; Ellen Ritchie of the New
Jersey Council on Affordable Housing (COAH); and David Kinsey of the
Princeton-based municipal planning firm Kinsey & Hand.
While Kinsey’s planning advice has guided scores of municipalities
throughout the state, his involvement with Princeton is more than
professional. Born and raised in Princeton, he attended Dartmouth,
earning a B.A. in government and architecture in l969. Returning to
Princeton, he obtained a graduate degree in public affairs and
international relations. His firm, Kinsey and Hand, has offices at 14
Aiken Street and specializes in, among other things, COAH compliance.
“Princeton Borough and Township both had begun their commitment to
affordable housing long before the state began any mandates,” says
Kinsey. It is a commitment of which the community can be justifiably
proud. Notes Township Affordable Housing coordinator Christy Peacock:
“This is not a business model. No business would undertake such an
effort for financial gain, but giving everybody a chance to live in
the area provides a human component to our town and is simply the
right thing to do.”
Early efforts. Tracing Princeton’s affordable housing history, Kinsey
points to the l930s, when Franklin Terrace opened with 10 rental
units, as the decade in which the town began to construct below market
cost housing. This was followed by Maple Terrace in the 1940s, Hageman
Homes in the 1950s, Elm Court – with 88 units – in the 1980s. Also in
the 1980s, the borough build its first occupant-owned units, including
a half dozen on Hamilton Avenue and another half dozen on or near John
Street.
The township got in on the act in the 1970s, putting up 339 rental
units between 1976 and 1978. “When the Mount Laurel Decision came
through in l975, we really had a leg up,” says Peacock.
COAH mandates. Formed in l985, the Council on Affordable Housing began
establishing actual target numbers for each municipality. Towns could
reach their compliance quota of affordable units by either building
new construction or by renovating existing units. Most towns opt to
renovate up to code as many units as possible, Kinsey says, because
it’s so much cheaper. But there is also a human element at work.
Peacock notes that “with all these baby-boomer seniors trying to live
in their own homes, the renovation process becomes important in
letting them stay.”
After setting the housing targets, COAH oversees each town’s
compliance efforts, and re-sets them when necessary. Three rounds of
adjustment have been presented statewide, based on population
projections. The first round of quota figures was fixed in l987 and
lasted until 1993. The 1993 adjustment lasted theoretically until l999
when a third round of official figures was to be set. But, because of
governmental foot-dragging, the third round is just now coming into
play.
So what are Princeton Borough and Township’s quotas? “We haven’t a
clue,” says Peacock. “The figures just aren’t out yet.”
Lee Solow, the regional planning director for Princeton Borough and
Township, notes that “The university is the last missing piece of the
puzzle. Every piece of new construction demands a share of affordable
housing units, and we just don’t have the university’s projections
yet.”
Additional adjustments. “The Princeton zip code dances all over the
map,” says Kinsey. “The affordable housing formulas have been based on
zip codes, which in our case just doesn’t reflect our condition.”
Because of this unintentional gerrymandering, the number of jobs and
people in the borough were artificially raised.
Therefore, COAH should be lowering the Borough’s obligation in the
reassessment. Looking at the boom that is Princeton, it is
understandable how difficult a task it is to project any area’s
affordable housing needs, let alone low income housing for the whole
state.
Princeton’s leg up. As of the last census, Princeton Borough’s 14,203
residents and the Township’s 16,027 gives the combined community a
30,230 population. Currently, the Borough and Township provide 805
units of affordable housing within their borders. This number should
probably put the municipalities in compliance, but may not. This is
so, at least in part, because houses built before the Mount Laurel
decision are not counted toward compliance. Therefore, of the
Township’s 558 low and moderate housing units, only 381 will receive
COAH credit. Even so, Princeton is far closer to compliance than are
most municipalities in the Garden State.
Future strategies. “Princeton’s real problem is that we are totally
built out,” says Peacock. “Therefore, with our space limitations we
must be very creative to meet our COAH obligations.”
Kinsey offers two tactics. Since l990, Princeton Borough zoning law
states that when five or more units of any construction are built, one
of every five must be an affordable housing unit. This is a law that
must be continued and more strictly enforced, he insists.
Secondly, Kinsey views the Princeton Hospital’s several properties as
presenting “a once-in-a-generation opportunity for affordable housing
– and much else.” There could be both profitable and
publicly-beneficial uses for the hospital’s buildings – or for the
ground under them – after the hospital moves, which it is expected to
do within a few years.
Planning director Solow does not foresee vast changes to the look of
the borough or the township in meeting COAH obligations. “We have many
opportunities to add a few housing units to already existing
low-income communities,” he says. “And we also still have many units
that can be renovated.” He also points out that the population boom is
over for both the township and borough. “At absolute maximum, we
estimate a 2,000 person growth in the community over the next 10 years
– historically, this is normal fluctuation,” he says.
What affordable housing isn’t. Many residents mistake affordable
housing for a state handout. That is dead wrong. Affordable housing
dwellers merely qualify to purchase the unit based on a below average
income. A one person householder with a gross income of $16,191 or
less qualifies for a very low income unit.
Annual earnings between $16,192 and $27,818 qualifies an individual
for low income housing. A person with a $22,254 income who meets other
requirements may qualify for a 5.5 percent, 30-year mortgage to
purchase a $38,000 condo. Home association dues are $189.95 and taxes
are $66.47 each month. That’s if a slot is available.
Moderate income qualifying ranges are from $27,819 to $44,058. A
$40,000 a year earner may qualify for one of the Griggs Farms units at
on Route 206 and Cherry Hill Road. With the same rate mortgage, he can
buy a $109,109 condo with a $97.97 monthly homeowners fee and $190
monthly taxes.
Builders have traditionally groaned under the burden of COAH
requirements, and they tend not to be popular with homeowners either.
Townships sometimes only grant permits for market rate housing if
contractors also agree to build a mitigating number of low income
units. Homeowners sometimes see this affordable housing as increasing
already burdensome property taxes.
On the other hand, as Peacock points out, the job of government is to
take care of its people. And while the Princetons took an early lead
in putting up affordable roofs, the soaring price of houses within
their borders means that the challenge of housing the workers who make
the municipalities work – the policemen and teachers, waiters and
recent graduates – is far from over.
— Bart Jackson
Top Of PageMarking the Birth Of Electronic Music
It is well known that the Sarnoff Corporation, both under its current
name and going back, when it operated as RCA Labs, has played – and is
playing – a huge role in bringing the world its most popular
electronic devices, including radio, television, color television, and
high definition television (HGTV). What is less well known is
Sarnoff’s role in developing the world’s first electronic music
synthesizer using binary sequencing.
On Thursday, April 14, at 7:30 p.m., in Sarnoff Corporation’s
Auditorium, there is an evening devoted to devoted to the invention
and sounds of the first electronic music synthesizer, which uses the
same technique used in synthesizers today. There is no cost. Call
609-924-2636.
Highlighting the occasion is Princeton University Professor Emeritus
Milton Babbitt, who has won a Pulitzer Prize and a MacArthur
Fellowship for his pioneering work in serial composition, and who
continues to teach at the Juilliard School. He discusses his
experiences working with RCA’s staff in composing and recording music
on the synthesizer. Throughout the evening, recordings of music
composed on and for the synthesizer by Babbitt and members of the RCA
Labs will be played.
Alex Magoun, Sarnoff’s librarian, who also speaks at the event, notes
that RCA chairman David Sarnoff announced the Mark I on January 31,
1955, where he encouraged “the engineer and the artist [to] join
forces and seek to understand the terminology and problems of each
other in order to advance together.” Designed and built at RCA’s
Laboratories on Route 1, the Mark I was intended to reduce costs for
recording mood, lounge, and soundtrack music. It is now preserved by
the Smithsonian Institution.
The Mark II featured magnetic tape recording and was intended for the
world’s largest record manufacturer, RCA Victor. When RCA Victor
balked, the company donated the three-ton instrument to the Electronic
Music Center of Columbia and Princeton Universities in 1959. Princeton
University professor Milton Babbitt, Charles Wuorinen, and other
serial composers used the Mark II not for the production of pop music
but to realize their theories of modern composition.
In addition Babbitt’s recollections and Magoun’s talk on the history
of the synthesizer, Rebecca Mercuri, a Radcliffe fellow, explains its
operation.
Top Of PagePursue Your Career and Lifestyle Dreams
Make a list of priorities, and maintaining good health often comes up
first. If good health isn’t at the top of the list, family probably
claims the top spot. Coming in no lower than fifth for most people
would be nurturing friendships. Possibly unstated, in part because it
may seem so completely out of reach, is finding deeply satisfying
work.
So why do so many people grab a fast food lunch while rushing between
appointments, work past their children’s bedtimes day after day, lose
track of college chums, and manage to watch television for 20 hours a
week while swearing they have no time to exercise. And why do so many
people spend years – sometimes decades – in jobs that drain the life
out of them?
Anne Marie Segaric provides some answers when she speaks at the “A+
Life Pow-Wow” at the Princeton Arts Council on Thursday, April 14, at
7:30 p.m. Also speaking is Galia Gichon, founder of Down to Earth
Finances. Euna Kwon Brossman, a contributing writer for U.S. 1
newspaper, moderates.
A New York City-based job coach and Cornell graduate, Segaric
(Segaric.com) lists some of the top things people want to do,
but keep putting off, as keeping in touch with friends, taking care of
health, looking for a new job, paying bills, cleaning, and paperwork.
All of these tasks are important, but it could be argued that looking
for a really good job is the most important. This is so because it
affects every other part of life – including health and relationships.
While many people spend only three or four waking hours a day at home,
most central New Jersey workers spend 10 to 12 hours a day either at
work or commuting to work – and may spend one or two of the hours they
have at home completing work-related projects.
Finding a job that is a good fit in every way can improve attitude,
reduce anxiety and its effects on health, and ensure adequate time for
exercise, preparing healthy meals, and spending quality time with
family and friends.
On her website Segaric quotes the often-cited statistic that 50
percent of the population are deeply unhappy in their jobs. She
acknowledges that most people are afraid to make the change. The top
reason, in her opinion, is that they don’t believe that it is possible
to do work they love and make a decent amount of money.
It is, she insists, and provides advice in her new booklet, “107 Tips
for Changing Your Career While Still Paying the Bills.” Some advice on
getting started:
Pretend it’s five years into the future. Write a letter to a friend
you have not seen in awhile and tell them what you’ve been doing for
the past 5 years. Describe your career and personal life to get an all
around picture.
Survey friends and family. Ask five people whose opinion you trust to
tell you what kinds of jobs they see you doing. You’d be surprised how
often others know you better than you know yourself!
What do you value? To be completely satisfied and fulfilled with our
daily activities, they must be oriented around what we value. List the
top 10 things you value such as learning, guiding, self-expression,
order. Then choose the three you couldn’t live without. What kind of
job would let you honor those three values 80 percent of the time?
What do you do for fun? What are your hobbies? Is there something
you’re always doing for friends and neighbors just because you love
doing it? Maybe that hobby is your life’s calling.
Top Of PageTrenton Computer Festival Hits 3-0
‘You mean I’m actually going to have a computer in my very own home?”
asked the astonished WHWH on-air personality who interviewed Allen
Katz in l976. The concept seemed science fictional. College of New
Jersey professor Katz had been asked to come on the air and explain
the first Trenton Computer Festival, which he and cohort Sol Libes
were launching.
By l989, when Bill Gates stepped up to the podium as keynote speaker,
the Trenton Computer Festival, was already the nation’s oldest and
largest computer show. It had outgrown its original home, at Trenton
State, now the College of New Jersey, and had moved to a larger
exposition hall. But this year, for its 30th anniversary, the show
returns to its home.
And so, on Saturday and Sunday, April 16 and 17, at 10 a.m. technical
wizards, geeks, browsers, and anyone interested in hearing informed
predictions on the future of computing can gather back at the College
of New Jersey to fondle the newest tech toys and learn the latest from
the most revered gurus. Cost: $15. Visit
www.TrentonComputerFestival.com.
“This show, more than any other, will go beyond personal computers and
software to reflect the whole new digital direction we are taking,”
says Katz.
By dint of long association, Katz has become necessarily both an
historian and prophet of the cyber revolution. A native of Montclair,
he attended the New Jersey Institute of Technology, earning an
electrical engineering degree in l964. He earned his master’s at
Rutgers and returned to NJIT for his Ph.D. in electrical engineering.
For the last 33 years Katz has taught at the College of New Jersey,
while at the same time using his skills to lead colleagues and
students into several enterprises.
In l976 he founded his first company, Hamilton-based Linearizer
Technology, which improves amplifiers by providing a microwave
distortion correction. In l99l he began a microcomputer firm which,
according to Katz, was “well, a bit of a mistake.”
A computer pioneer, Katz looks into the future of computing:
Death of the book? “Right now the college (TCNJ) is planning a new
massive library,” says Katz. “But I’ve got to wonder just how much use
all those paper volumes are going to get when so much material is
available online.” Katz admits that snuggling up by the fire with a
good laptop creates eye strain than comfort, but he predicts that a
solution to the strain of reading most computer screens will arrive
very soon.
The online access explosion, as Katz calls it, allows so much
information to be gained so rapidly that the younger generation
already finds no need to use any other method. He points out that
virtually everyone under age 25 would leave neither home nor bedroom
without his iPod.
No hands? Already, our cars, homes and most of our major work tools
are computerized to some extent. “You can currently go to Radio Shack
and buy a wireless module that will integrate your heat, AC, music,
lights, doors, and locks all according to your programmable whims,”
says Katz. “Within 15 years such programming will be standard, making
homes much more cost efficient.”
The auto-piloted auto, touted since the l950s, could soon be a
reality, he insists. Using the same RFID techniques employed in
identification technologies, guidance systems can be made to pick up
certain spots and obstacles on the road, as well as overall
directions.
While digital enhancement itself is typically cheap, the adjustment
invariably carries a high price tag. “Look at E-Z Pass,” says Katz.
“It is arguably the best motoring system upgrade in 15 years, but they
still cannot get the thing to pay for itself.”
Implanted information? Probably the most frightening part of the
digital invasion is what Katz terms the biological revolution. The
technology for implanting everything from communicators to information
evaluators is near at hand, he says. While many may squirm at the
Orwellian possibilities, imagine what teenager wouldn’t jump at the
opportunity of having his pals’ cell phone numbers and his music
library, not only at his fingertips, but in them.
Software outshining hardware? In 1890, as the horseless carriage
dawned, America boasted over 1,000 automobile makers. Within fewer
than 50 years that number had dwindled to a mere handful.
“The computer industry,” says Katz,” has already passed through this
cycle.” Hardware will in all likelihood expand with the market, and
software companies will bloom as new niches become available.
Better marketing? Computers are so poorly marketed that if they
weren’t so innovative, no one would buy them. Imagine if you had a few
thousand burning in your pocket as you entered an automobile
dealership.
Then imagine that the salesman had the auto on hand, but he wouldn’t
let you test drive it. He wouldn’t let you see it. You could only
purchase it blind, take it home in a crate, and then if you found it
unsatisfactory, pack it up and ship it back. Silly as it sounds, that
is the way most computers are sold.
“Dells seem nice. Gateways seem nice. But in most cases the buyer has
no chance to compare or be shown the features,” says Katz. “Hopefully
events like our Festival will bring about more hands-on selling.”
Will the Hackers Win? As the digital realm grows bigger and better,
identity theft and viruses will correspondingly become a bigger and
bigger problem. “Dedicated virus hunters and ID theft methods are
always improving,” says Katz, “but most likely these problems are very
much here to stay and to be combatted.”
The problematic interface of man and machine is not new. People cede
control to some black box for the sake of ease, speed, and
convenience; then want to grab it back when they perceive control
ebbing away. But despite worry over glitches and loss of privacy,
computer technology is especially seductive. The Trenton Computer
Festival provides a look at the best of what’s out there, and at what
is coming down the road.
– Bart Jackson
Top Of PageA Machine Made in Our Own Image: Eric Baum
Man has made computers in his own image, it has been said, because he
had no other schematic with which to work. The machines’ often
frustrating processes, their compacting of data into a single
hardwired response, have all been pirated from their creators’ little
gray cells and etched into that large gray box engulfing our desktops.
After all, the only cognitive patterns the inventor could ever
imagined were his own.
Thus, following the maxim that to improve a creation one must study
the creator, Eric Baum delves into the deepest levels of humanity in
his talk “What is Thought?” on Saturday, April 16, at 11:20 a.m. at
the Trenton Computer Festival at the College of New Jersey. Cost: $15.
Visit www.TrentonComputer Festival.com. Taking the title from his
recent book published by MIT Press, Baum’s lecture unites human and
computer “thought” process as analogous. He then separates the two and
squares one off against the other, demonstrating the historical
advantage of creator over the creation.
Since he was growing up, in Princeton, Baum says he was always
pondering things from a different angle. Graduating from Harvard in
l978 with a B.S. in physics, he returned to his home town to earn a
Ph.D in physics from Princeton University.
Baum is now dedicating his time to independent research while still
remaining firmly rooted in academia. “I think I’m still an adjunct
professor at Columbia,” he says. But above all, Baum is an , inventor,
and discoverer. As part of his human thought replication process, he
has developed the popular computer games “Go” and “Sokoban.”
For most of us the study of human thought might seem to begin with the
brain. But for Baum, the source springs from much more basic levels.
Simplicity, Watson. As with so much in the universe, it is the most
basic elements that embody the power. The simple structure of the atom
is bound by and can unleash the greatest force. Correspondingly, for
Baum, the entire process of thought resolves itself into a series of
binary choices. Do this or do that. Make this decision or that.
The power, as with the atom, comes in massive complex unifications of
these simple elements. When millions of these mental binary
computations join together to form thought modules, we can judge and
choose how to take action. Can I climb this tree? Which branches would
hold my weight?
Biological grounding. The brain, clever as it is, could not possibly,
with any amount of speed, compute each of the possible selections
required to make even a single active decision. Imagine looking at a
bunch of colored patches, computing them all into the fact that this
was a tree, and that you might possibly climb it, based on an overall
assessment of your physical prowess, the thickness of each branch, and
its distance from the ground. By the time you figured it out, the wolf
would have devoured you on the ground.
To keep you quick, and away from the wolf’s jaws, your mind would have
to be planted with modules of pre-computed thought. These
pre-programmed thought modules, reasons Baum, sift through the
overwhelming number of choices, and present to our minds only those
few that have meaning. And this meaning is the really sweet part of
human thought.
Meaning is that marvelous computational compacting of all of our
world’s structure, which allows us to swiftly compartmentalize and
choose. One glance: a thousand computations: this is a tree. Boom. And
where does all this marvelously compacted data get stored for easy
access? In the genome, says Baum. All, or at least many, of
humankind’s learned knowledge is passed along through the genetic
code. Somehow, we hold an instinct – or genetically passed module –
that draws back our foot from the dangerous precipice.
Up to the mind. The human mind is the selector and executor of thought
modules delivered by the genome. “Additionally our minds are endlessly
re-programmed by experience, folk tales, bedtime stories, and
religious teachings,” says Baum. “They are the new software.” We build
new code and pass it on.
But what keeps our verbal code brief and manageable is that, unlike a
computer algorithm, each piece is invested with this shortcut of
meaning. Each possibility presented to us in life comes weighted by
the meaning given it both by our DNA within and by our mind’s
re-programming from the environment. We are not aware of these
meaningful summaries, which attend our every decision. They just flood
in naturally.
As proof of this heritage of meaning, Baum points to our language.
“Note that so much of our speech is filled with metaphor,” he says.
“That is because we are constantly referencing these modules of
previously computed thought.” We think, and say “this situation is
akin to that one.”
Computer competitive. “Interestingly, Microsoft Office has more binary
circuitry than human DNA,” says Baum. “If we had to compute each of
our choices by the brain and DNA alone, we wouldn’t even do as well as
our PCs” The good news is that we don’t have to. We have eons of
evolutionary hardwiring to compress and shortcut our cognitive
processes.
Baum admits that it seems impossible to make a computer that can
compete with those reusable computational thought models gifted us by
evolution. The concept of stacking up programming equivalent to the
human modules of meaning is daunting indeed.
“But you know,” says Baum, “in my research recently I have had a
glimmer of hope.” He thinks that it could be possible to teach
computers to use some of the shortcuts that speed the human brain to
not only recognize the wolf, but to almost simultaneously assess the
degree of danger he poses, and to plot – and execute – a getaway.
— Bart Jackson
Top Of PageGiving it Away? New Rules for Non-Profits
With the post-tsunami tidal wave in charitable giving, now may be a
particularly apt time to study the new and proposed laws that govern
how charities operate. The legal landscape will be explored on
Wednesday, April 20, at 8 a.m. at the Green Acres Country Club on
Route 206 in Lawrenceville.
The subject: “Hot Topics in the Laws Affecting Non-Profits.” Sponsored
by the Princeton Community Foundation and Lawrence-based insurance
firm Borden Perlman, this seminar features Jennifer Hauge, deputy
director of Newark-based Pro Bono Partnership, and fellow senior staff
attorney Nancy Eberhardt. Call 609-219-1800.
In addition to offering workshops and literature, Pro Bono Partnership
also matches charities with volunteer lawyers throughout the New
Jersey and New York. Its attorneys offer aid in incorporation
procedures, contractual proceedings, and IRS obligations. For more
information about this organization call 973-273-0600 or visit
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