Analogical thinking does not have to mean superstitious. Other modes of thought may likewise involve superstitions. Analogical modes may and do lead one astray, yet may also yield vital insights and add to the corpus of science.
Consider the paved surfaces we call “roads” snaking everywhere, allowing metallic objects to travel through at high speed, corpuscular in nature. Snaking along next to rail lines sometimes, hosting linked cars (wheeled containers a theme), and snaking along electrical filaments, held in place by protein fibers (so-called “phone poles”), and set there by the analog of an ant colony, except made of mammals, and humans in particular.
The humans used to get more help from horses before the advent of “energy slaves” meaning trucks and tractors and such, fueled by ancient energy stores sucked from deep underground, or powered by batteries charged from dams, tides or winds.
That’s integrating human level infrastructure into the biology of the planet, as no less natural than what goes on within each mammal, in terms of corpuscles and transportation tubes.
Some philosophies work to take humans outside of nature as if standing apart, next to God, watching from outside as it were.
Others see humanity as integral within creation and not all that godlike in terms of free from the preoccupations, the consequences, of mortality, of needing food and shelter, nutrition and environment control.
Think of philosophies as like pairs of glasses. You’re free to switch pairs. Try different looks sometimes. Change it up.
Yes, I have an interest in shipping.
As a Geek (Greek with no r) I think in terms of cargo containers as IP packets, IP as in TCP/IP, a low-level communications protocol that comes up in these blogs sometime, as here we’re in Geekdom. Container shipping is analogous, in many ways, to the packet switching networks we call “the internet” for short.
When Marshall McLuhan talked about our Global Village, he wasn’t making “village” out to be some idyllic place free from strife.
Village life is not like that, not always. We have festivals and good times, but village life is strife-ridden in most novels and films that go for a realistic portrayal. It’s samsara out there.
McLuhan wasn’t saying something unrealistic in talking about our convergence to a global village through technology and telecommunications. We were balling up, interconnecting the circuit boards, meaning reprogramming challenges for all concerned.
That Astoria bridge I just drove across, in both directions, the day before yesterday: one of the mega cruise liners, in need of repairs in the Port of Portland, had smoke stacks too high to fit under said bridge, and so it moored in Canada briefly, to have its stacks removed, after which it made the voyage to Portland and back out again, to have its stacks replaced. I was following that whole multi-week maneuver on Facebook.
This bioregion, Cascadia, inherently inspires thoughts about multi-modal transportation. The Columbia River supports barge, ship and small boat traffic, we have fishing fleets, and train to grain elevator to ship transfer ports.
The economy in some way mirrors that to the St. Lawrence Seaway in bringing inland materials, mineral, biological, to the coastal cargo ports. These ports are Pacific Rim facing, meaning Asia of course, but also South and Central America, LA and the Bay Area, as well as Hawaii.
