getting grumpy about usage

[redbird]

(This is from the same discussion roadnotes alluded to this morning.) Someone on the polyamory community was objecting because people were using the word in what zie thinks is the "wrong" way, or because people are seeking sex and love to make them feel better about themselves and life. Ohh-kay. But then they started talking about being "more evolved". This led, some comments later, to my posting the following:

---

On evolution: The course of evolution, as I understand it, has run from the simpler to the more complex in structure. Only because there's no meaningful way to get less complex than no structure at all. And even then, do we know when viruses evolved? (They're simpler than any other life--if you call them "life" at all.) Evolution finds and fills niches. Sometimes that means birds learning not to fly, or a complex lung turning into a swim bladder.

And it still has nothing to do with learning to handle relationships in a more mature fashion.

"Evolution" is a much better defined term than polyamory--which means I get annoyed at people who abuse it, especially when those people are trying to build other definitions on it, or attacking other people for using "polyamory" differently than the speaker does.

the net result of this misuse is I hear from idiots in IMs all the time who think I want to hop into bed with them because since my profile says I'm interested in poly, I must be a slut (negative connotation) or a swinger. I. Don't. Think. So.


Any mention of anything related to sex seems to get that result in IM, from what I've heard. I have *no* profile on ICQ and I get random messages from strangers, some of them clearly pushing porn pages and some possible wannafucks. That's not about poly any more than the guy who tried to pick me up at the gym is about tattoos.

And yes, "unicorn" means one-horned. A rhino is not a unicorn. A rock band consisting of two guitarists, a bass player, a drummer, and a saxophonist is not a unicorn.

Comments

[avram]

We share a pet peeve!

[kiya]

And yes, "unicorn" means one-horned. A rhino is not a unicorn. A rock band consisting of two guitarists, a bass player, a drummer, and a saxophonist is not a unicorn.


Mongo steal, put in quotes file?

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Urm... "one-horned". Guitars aren't horns, bass (guitars) aren't horns, drums aren't horns, saxophones... are horns.

So, if the saxophonist has only one saxophone, then the rock band is ... one-horned.

(Sorry! Wannabe saxophonist speaking.)

But I share the peeve about evolution...

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I don't mind "evolved" used in a metaphorical sense. Steam engines, chess-playing computer programs, airplanes have all evolved, in a reasonable sense of the term.

B

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i've decided i should just drop the polyamory communities here from my reading list. nothing ever gets said there that doesn't get said better in alt.polyamory, and the level of "lifestyle" blather just drives me up the wall. that's all i need, "more evolved" arguments.

*bleagh*.

i am being good today. i've avoided two rant subjects already. yay, me. :)

-piranha

[kiya]

i am being good today. i've avoided two rant subjects already. yay, me. :)

You are a much more virtuous fish than I am a bird.

[redbird]

Enjoy it. Credit to Vicki Rosenzweig, please.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

You are a much more virtuous fish than I am a bird.

or not. :)

i should not post about virtue before the day is actually over. i did get sucked into that long thread after all. *augh*.

nice snake! (advantage of LJ/DJ over usenet: being able to see pictures other people like. must upload more userpics which i made yesterday.)

[kiya]

Hee. :)

He's my pretty baby. He's a lot bigger now -- that photo was taken last November, I think, when he was about eight months old. Now when he curls up like that, it's around my forearm rather than my hand.

(On the picture front -- a while back I was explaining to people that the wine I was brewing was a pretty colour. Eventually, I went and took a picture of it, posted it to my journal, and said, "See? Told you!")

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Indeed, there are problem-solving algorithms which do evolve in a very literal sense of the term - I've worked with some for DNA sequence alignment. I don't think they've yet been used for playing chess, but that's because of the size of the problem rather than any qualitative objection.

[redbird]

Sure. There's selection going on there--that's about as evolutionary as you can get.

Good to see your pixels here!