Letters.Model letters "Building a supermodel" (SN: 1/22/00, p. 60) seems to ignore the fatal flaw in the search for the virtual person: While such a model is designed to represent all people, it in reality represents no individual. The ergonometric model says that a man is 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs 160 pounds. I can tell you--as a man 6 feet, 5 inches and 320 pounds--that public facilities and equipment designed from this pontification frankly stink. The attempt to standardize stan·dard·ize v. 1. To cause to conform to a standard. 2. To evaluate by comparing with a standard. us all has social consequences too frightening to contemplate. McClellan G. Blair Indiana, Pa. The article mentions that Deere & Co. uses "Jack" to help equipment designers "to ensure there is adequate visibility from the vehicle cab." I believe that automobile manufacturers have neglected the human element in the design of current cookie-cutter cars. As a result, all current models have hazardous blind spots caused by the windshield-support columns. Compounding the problem is the significant glare and distortion distortion, in electronics, undesired change in an electric signal waveform as it passes from the input to the output of some system or device. In an audio system, distortion results in poor reproduction of recorded or transmitted sound. that is caused by windshield glass that is slanted slant v. slant·ed, slant·ing, slants v.tr. 1. To give a direction other than perpendicular or horizontal to; make diagonal; cause to slope: at a 25-degree angle to the line of sight to reduce wind resistance. If automobile manufacturers don't get back to human engineering, my next vehicle may be a John Deere tractor. Eugene T. Phillip Great Falls Great Falls, city (1990 pop. 55,097), seat of Cascade co., N central Mont., second largest city in the state, at the confluence of the Missouri and Sun rivers and near the falls that give the city its name; inc. 1888. , Va. Thoughts on thinking I thought "Cultures of reason" (SN: 1/22/00, p. 56) was quite interesting, but I would derive a different conclusion than did the scientists featured. I would not presume pre·sume v. pre·sumed, pre·sum·ing, pre·sumes v.tr. 1. To take for granted as being true in the absence of proof to the contrary: We presumed she was innocent. that Easterners have less capacity to make logical interferences than Westerners, but that they give logical inferences less import. The primary religions in the East--Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism--stress the importance of harmony and balance and regard the objects of one's senses as a sort of dream that would be suspended sus·pend v. sus·pend·ed, sus·pend·ing, sus·pends v.tr. 1. To bar for a period from a privilege, office, or position, usually as a punishment: suspend a student from school. if one were to reach enlightenment Enlightenment, term applied to the mainstream of thought of 18th-century Europe and America. Background and Basic Tenets The scientific and intellectual developments of the 17th cent. . Their rationality accepts that man cannot be 100 percent rational. This is contrary to the foundation of Western thought, that all can be mastered. David Wivagg Tolland, Conn. The two thinking styles that emerge from the studies could be most simply characterized char·ac·ter·ize tr.v. character·ized, character·iz·ing, character·iz·es 1. To describe the qualities or peculiarities of: characterized the warden as ruthless. 2. as the processes of seeking the dominant and seeking accord. The U.S. test subjects tended to find something that dominated, whether it was in pictures, positions in conflicts, or opinions. The others found more resolution. We all do both, but it wasn't surprising that the Western students tended more to seek the dominant. Mike Smith Seattle, Wash. Regarding the study revealing differing sensitivity to the environment among Guatemalan groups, it seems that a possible explanation might be merely a difference in value systems. Among my neighbors and associates, I find the same range of sensitivity displayed by people I grew up with, all in the same environment. Wayne Lewis Gate, Okla. |
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