《切抜きファイル(1998.4-1999.3)から》

[表紙へ戻る]




From such varied uses as gauging the quality of caviar to tracing the lineage of the nation's third president, DNA testing has gone from Orwellian concept to common practice. But it is still a emotional issue, pitting those who view it as a technological blessing against others who see it as the ultimate invasion of privacy.

Its new place in police sleuthing is proving no different. Law enforcement officials call it a classic gumshoe application of new technology that will implicate the guilty and exonerate the innocent. Some civil libertarians call it akin to search without a warrant.

Whatever the debate, legal experts say such seizures of DNA are likely to be upheld by the courts and will undoubtedly become more common. Courts have long ruled that the police are free to search through property that a suspect has abandoned, like garbage that is left on a sidewalk or in a bin. Legal experts say the same is likely to apply to DNA "abandoned" in a public place, through saliva left on a glass in a restaurant, for instance, or a cigarette butt thrown on a sidewalk.

...

In those cases, the semen recovered from rape victims was not tested for DNA because of the high cost of the old method. Now, the authorities hope they will be able to establish the DNA of the assailant in each case. After doing so, the testing may establish that there were strings of assaults committed by serial rapists, allowing the police to give priority to those cases. The DNA results will also be run into a statewide computer bank in the hopes of matching the DNA of convicted murderers and sex offenders.

Morgenthau and Police Commissioner Howard Safir hailed the new method for making wider testing possible. Under the new process, a test that cost $5,000 each time and took 16 weeks to conduct can now be performed for roughly $80 and take as little as 72 hours because of technological advances.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are the specimen amounts needed and the estimated likelihood of finding useable cells in them in order to determine a person's DNA profile:

  SPECIMEN  SOURCE OR AMOUNT NEEDED   LIKELIHOOD OF USEABLE CELLS
  Blodd stain   Size of a dime                More than 95% 
  Seminal fluid   Droplet the size of a pinhead       More than 95% 
  Hair        Single hair with root and follicle     More than 90% 
            Single hair without root           Less than 20% 
  Saliva       On used gum or cigarette butt       50-70% 
            On used soda can or from the ground   Less than 50% 
  Mucus       Used tissue paper              Less than 50%
  Skin cells 
             From socks, gloves or other clothing used repeatedly 30-60% 
             From doorknob               Less than 20% 
             From handle of knife or pistol found at crime scene Less than 10% 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: City Medical Examiner's office

Quietly, Tests of DNA Transform Sleuth's Job
David ROHDE
New York Times, March 9, 1999



There may be many wrong with "equilibrium analysis," including the possibility that it oversimplifies by neglecting processes of adjustment, or exaggerates the prevalence of equilibrium by neglecting shifts in the parameters that determine the equilibrium. But nobody should resist "equilibrium analysis" for fear that, if he acknowledges that something is in equilibrium, he will have acknowledged that something is all right. The body of a hanged man is in equilibrium when it finally stops swinging, but nobody is going to insist that the man is all right. An unnecessary source of distrust of economic analysis is the assumption that when an economist discusses equilibrium he is expressing approval. I believe that assumption is usually --- not always, but usually --- a mistake.

Thomas C. Schelling
Micromotives and Macrobehavior
W. W. Norton & Company, 1978, pp.26-27



世界タイトル獲得後のいつだったか,銀行に頼んで試合のファイトマネー全額 を自宅に運んでもらった.帯封付きの札束をテーブルに山積みして,家族みん なでじっと見つめた

この話を自ら語りながら,原田は「おれは自分の戦いの代償をこの目で確かめ, 発奮材にしたのだ」と説明した.

減量に苦しむ原田を何度となく取材した.真夏でもジムにストーブを持ち込ん で汗を出す.骨身を削る灼熱地獄だった.「何でこんなに苦しむのか.カネの ためじゃない,なんていいかたはウソだと思うよ」とよく話した.

「ボクサーにはカネも,試合で勝つ喜びも全部が目的なのさ.目的が大きけれ ばこそ,苦しい練習にも耐えられる」

「拳闘の物語(1):造反と忍従」
『朝日新聞』1999年2月15日朝刊



古い話ですがアポロ計画のロケットで絶対液漏れしないリスクゼロのバルブを 開発しようとしましたが,リスクゼロは,この世にあり得ない,それで液漏れ リスクを最小にしながら,むしろ液漏れが生じた時に対処しやすいバルブを開 発したという話があります.日本人には,このような現実的で柔軟な発想が学 者にも欠落しています.

今では普通の人でも,外国語の一つや二つはできる時代となりましたし,イン ターネットで国際コミュニケーションが簡単にできるような時代になりました から,日本の学者も,国内の閉ざされた学会のなかで,外国文献の紹介と他人 の論文の組み合わせだけでは,もう飯は食っていけませんよと,ご忠告申し上 げたい.

勝瑞 豊
「司法書士界縦横無尽」
『法律新聞』1999年1月22日



In fact, my interest in social influence dates back even further than the beginning of my academic career. I distinctly remember an assignment I got when I was fourteen years old. The city council of our town, Evanston, Illinois, was considering a proposal to cross-train the police officers and firefighters. My teacher asked us to write about whether it was a good idea or not. The plan certainly seemed like a good idea to me because the police would learn some additional first aid skills to use if they were the first on the scene of a fire, and the firefighters would learn some crowed control techniques to use if they hapened to be the first on scene. I called the local fire station to see what the people there thought. The man who answered the phone told me, "I don't know much about it, but we're all against it down here." I was not sure just why they were all against it (probably job security), but the response made a deep impression on me: it was possible to have an opinion based upon social influence rather than independent analysis. Moreover, one could be quite comfortable with this method of arriving at opinions. As I thought about it, I realized the firefighter I had talked to was perhaps more sensible than I first thought. In many circumstances, reliance on social influence could be a quite sensible way to reach an opinion.(pp.145-146)

...

Listening to sutudents from such a wide range of backgrounds reinforced my appreciation of just how important our traditional disciplines are for shaping our understanding of the universe. For example, an economics student implicitly equated "behavior" with "choice," and "choice" with "rational choice." This is quite a leap. A political science student wondered whether the leap is warranted, and an anthropologist was quite certain that it was not. People from biophysics or computer science considered "choice" as simply a matter of optimization or adaptation, depending on the problem.(p.206)

Robert Axelrod
The Complexity of Cooperation
Agent-Based Models of Competition and Collaboration
Princeton Univ. Press, 1997



本田の頭の中には,自らも携わった軍需工場があった.軍の保護にすがるだけ で,革新もアイデアもない企業の温室時代だ.「戦争時代じゃあるまいし,わ たしゃ国のためには働かないよ.自分のために全力で自動車をやりたいんだ」(ホンダ50年史から)

お国のためにと思って泳いだつもりはない」.自己の目標実現の喜びが記録 を更新させた”フジヤマの飛び魚”古橋との共通点である.

社員は怒鳴り声が聞こえるとさっと方向を変えて逃げた.…気に入らないと鉄 拳を振るう.スパナが飛ぶ.品物をけとばす.「一発ひっぱたいて辞表をかい たらどんなにいい気持ちか」.元会長の杉浦英男は何度も思った.

偶像崇拝を嫌った創業者のポリシーは,「DNA」となって会社の隅々にしみつ いた.[ミーム]

「20世紀日本の経済人:黎明編4・本田宗一郎」
『日本経済新聞』1999年1月25日朝刊



牡丹燈籠」の出版は,円朝物と速記術の普及の他に,計らずもわが国近代小 説の展開に一つの契機を与えることとなった.

維新後,欧米の新しい思潮をと り入れて創作される文芸作品も,すべて文章は江戸以来の文語文によっていた. そのため,口演される話し言葉が,そのまま文章になっている速記本の文体は--- 今日から考えれば,可成り難しい漢字,当て字などを用いてはいたが,まこと に斬新な表現を持っていた.(p.99)

そして,翌々明治十九年の頃,口語体小説「浮雲」を書くため,苦心していた 小説家二葉亭四迷(本名長谷川辰之助,一八六四〜一九〇九)が,逍遥に相談 してみると,即座に逍遥は,円朝の牡丹燈籠の速記本をあげて,その文章を参 考にするように教えたという.

同年四月,四迷が冷々亭杏雨という別名で記した自著「虚無党気質」の広告文 に,

[…]悪く申せば円朝子の猿真似ですが,賞めて申せば,此小説などが日本の新文 章の嚆矢に相成りませうか.

として,円朝速記との関係にふれている.(p.100)

四迷と共に言文一致体小説の創始者とされる山田美妙(本名山田武太郎,一八 六八〜一九一〇)も,明治二〇年七月創刊された雑誌「以良都女」に連載した 小説「風琴調一筋」の序文で速記本の事にふれている.

[…]此小説の文などをば,稍此辺に注意して書いたもので,一口に云へば,円 朝子の人情噺の筆記に修飾を加へた様なもの.[…](p.101)

[円朝]「お前[円喬]が巧くなった巧くなったと云ふ事を聞く度に,私は自分が 褒められるより嬉しく思ふけれど,若し私が居なくなった跡で,お前を巧いと 褒める人があったら,それは敵だと思ってお居で,…可けないとか,拙いとか 云ふ人があったら,それは私が小言を云ふのだと思ってお聞き.芸人は死ぬま で一生稽古だから,其の積りで怠らず修業をしなくっては可けない」 (p.200)

《辞世狂歌》
今すこし遊びたけれどお迎ひに
     一足さきにハイ左様なら

《辞世》
眼を閉て 聞き定めけり 露の音

永井啓夫『新版・三遊亭円朝』(青蛙房, 1998年)



市場化と情報化は効率を高めて経済を底上げする半面,副作用として勝者と敗 者の格差をさらに広げる.ただそれを「荒涼たる世界」と見るのは一面的過ぎ る.[マイクロソフト会長ビル・ゲイツによる]こうした寄付などが新たに生ま れた富を還流させるからだ.時にそれは国や国際機関の影響力さえ上回る

税金とは異なる所得・資産の再配分システム――.米国の寄付総額は年間千五 百億ドルと国家予算の一割弱に相当し,日本の四百倍にのぼる

日本でボランティア組織などに法人格を認める特定非営利活動促進法(NPO 法)が施行されたのは昨年12月と日が浅い.米国のような手厚い寄付優遇税制 も未整備だ

「21世紀・勝者の条件E」
『日本経済新聞』1999年1月7日朝刊



科学と技術は人間の手とよく似ており,穀物を育てることもできれば,人を殴 ることもできる.使い方次第だと思う.

では,科学と神の関係はどうか.自然の神秘を解き明かそうとする科学の理論 に,神を持ち出すのは間違っていると思う.私自身は神を信じないだけでなく, 偏狭な神なら信じることに敵意さえ抱いている
神が存在しないことを科学が証明できるとは思わないが,世界を支配する強大 な知性があるという考えはばかげており,倫理に反する.もし世界を支配する 神があるとすれば,それはよい神ではなく,愛すべき神でもない.むしろ怪物 で,人々は崇拝すべきではない.

「2000年代を読むD:スティーブン・ワインバーグ教授」
『讀賣新聞』1999年1月7日朝刊



Luck and Sharing

One finding from the literature of evolutionary ecology on optimal foraging is that different kinds of sharing rules benefit the individual in different situations. For example, when the variance in foraging success of the individual is greater than the variance for the band as a whole, band-wide food sharing buffers the variance.

...

Thus, situations involving a random and frequent reversal of fortune can create substantial payoffs for cooperation. In effect, an individual can store food in the form of social obligations --- by accepting food, others obligate themselves to reciprocate in the future. I may sacrifice by giving you some of my food today, but tomorrow I may be the one who is empty-handed and in need. For situations involving frequent, chance-driven reversals of fortune, the favored strategy involves sharing, from individuals who have food to those who do not. Luck plays an important role in hunting; consequently, hunter-gahterers frequently distribute game relatively equally to everyone in the band, no matter who found it or made a particular kill. Because it is a relatively high-variance activity, hunting may have been a particularly important driving force in the evolution of cognitive adaptations for social exchange.

By the same token, when variance in foraging success for an individual is low, the average long-term payoffs to sharing are less. If everyone has access to the same goods, there is no particular benefit to sharing --- one gains nothing by swapping the same goods at the same time. In this circumstance, an individual may be better off sharing just within his or her family, in accordance with kin selection, mating, and parenting principles.(p.212)

...

Consequently, the degree and source variance in resource acquisition were selection pressures that should have shaped the evolved architecture of our social exchange algorithms. Information about variance in foraging success should activate different modes of operation of these algorithms, with high variance due to chance triggering a psychology of sharing.(p.213)

...

Because foragin and sharing are complex adaptive problems with a long evolutionary history, it is difficult to see how humans could have escaped evolving highly structured domain-specific psychological mechanisms that are well designed for solving them. These mechanisms should be sensitive to local informational input, such as information regarding variance in the food supply. This input can act as a switch, turning on and off different modes of activation of the appropriate domain-specific mechanisms. The experience of high variance in foraging success should activate rules of inference, memory retrieval cues, attentional mechanisms, and motivational mechanisms. These should not only allow band-wide sharing to occur, but should make it seem fair and appealing. The experience of low variance in foraging success should activate rules of inference, memory retrieval cues, attentional mechanisms, and motivational mechanisms that make within-family sharing possible and appealing, but that make band-wide sharing seem unattractive and unjust(p.215).

Leda COSMIDES & John TOOBY
Cooperation
Cognitive Adaptation for Social Exchange
Barkow, Cosmides, & Tooby, The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture, Oxford UP, 1992



15日,東京と千葉を結ぶJR総武線は二度の停電で電車がストップ,帰宅の 会社員らが線路を歩いたことも重なって長時間にわたり大混乱となり,十五万 六千人以上に影響が出た.

「夜の総武線,停電で混乱」
『日本経済新聞』1998年12月16日夕刊


[午前]1・50

タクシーによる振り替え輸送も行われたが,それについてのアナウンスは一度 もなく,改札口では,乗客らが「どうやって家に帰ればいいんだ」と,駅員に 詰め寄る場面も.疲れきった駅員の一人は「タクシーで振り替えを行っている ことをアナウンスできれば対応も楽なんですが,そうすると(電車の遅れとは 無関係の)便乗者が続出してしまいますから」と本音をポツリ.

「総武線トラブル・千葉駅ドキュメント」
『讀賣新聞』1998年12月17日朝刊

[午後6時45分から停電で停止し,75本の電車が運休し 68本が最高3時間以上遅れて15万人に被害を与えたた場合で,しかも,午 前2時近くの時刻に,多数の被害者の乗客を目の当たりにしながら,「便乗者 が出るから」とタクシー振り替え輸送のアナウンスをしないJRの感覚は何な のだろう.便乗者が出てきたときの総社会費用と,旅客運送契約違反の 被害者の総社会費用の,どちらの方が大きいかは明らかだろう.]



国保の場合,医療機関は毎月,県国民健康保険団体連合会に診療報酬明細書 (レセプト)を提出し,同連合会の審査に基づいて,国保を運営する市町村が 診療報酬を支払う.患者負担分は三割だが,この審査で,医療機関からの請求 額が減額されると,払いすぎが生じたことになる.

このため厚生省は一九八五年,「民法上の不当利得として返還請求できる」と の見解を示し,払い過ぎの額が一定額以上となった場合は患者に通知するよう, 市町村に求めている.通知の基準は,月額一万円以上となっている.

しかし,同省や県社会部によると,県内では昨年度,四十一市町村が患者(被 保険者)に減額を通知した一方で,対象レセプトがなかった自治体を除く二十 五市町村は通知をしなかった.



…市町村も減額を知ることができるはずという.

にもかかわらず,通知をしない理由としては,…「患者と医療機関のトラブル が心配」とする自治体が多い.中には「住民が知らなければそのままで済む」 (旭市)として,これまで行ってきた通知を止めた例もあった.


「国保運営市町村の3割,医療費過払い通知怠る」
『讀賣新聞』1998年12月1日朝刊



野菜売買保管事業」という農林水産省の事業がある.予算額は例年五千万円. 契約農家にキャベツとハクサイを栽培させ,野菜価格が高騰したときに放出し て価格を安定させるのが目的だ.野菜暴騰期の今秋,同省はこの制度を使って 約二百八十トンのキャベツを放出したが,焼石に水の状態だった.投入量が少 なすぎて効果がないのだ.実は,市場価格が高騰しない”平時”には,この契 約野菜は廃棄処分されてきたという.肝心の高騰期に役に立たず,平時は捨て る --- こんな制度が本当に必要なのだろうか.

廃棄する分も含めて,買い取りの原資は国庫補助金.九三年度以降,毎年の補 助金は五千万円で,積み立てられた基金の総額は今年三月末で三十八億五千六 百万円にのぼる.約八百トンを出荷した九四年度は,放出に伴う販売収入が約 四千六百万円しかなかったのに,契約農家への支払いは十倍近い約四億四千万 円に上った.

東京農大の岡部守教授(食料環境経済学)は「市場投入量が少ないため効果は 薄く,廃棄処分というロスも多い」と指摘した上で,「価格抑制効果を望むな ら,卸や小売り段階に補てん金を支給する方が,まだ効果があがる.現物の野 菜を作るのは時代遅れで,現状では生産者保護の政策にしか見えない.価格形 成は市場に任せるべきで,国が介入すべきことではない」と厳しく批判してい る.

「『野菜放出』意味あるの?」
『讀賣新聞』1998年12月1日朝刊



会議の議論はまず,山一の「救済」から始まった.自主廃業ありき,ではなかっ たのである.官僚たちがまず頭に描いたのは会社更生法の適用申請だった.
「更生法はどうだろうか」.長野らは口々にそう言った.再建を目的にした更 生法なら山一の名は残る.
「長野さんも更生法で救えないかと思っていた」と参加者の一人は言う.
これに対し,小手川は自主廃業を強く主張した.
これだけの大企業じゃ,裁判所が更生法を認めるわけがありませんよ. 裁判所の処理能力を超えている
小手川の訴えにはわけがある.月初めに破たんが表面化した三洋証券は会社更 生法の適用を申請したが,裁判所は難色を示していた.債権者の数が膨大だか らだ.山一になると,個人口座は三洋の五倍の二百二十万口座.債権者集会を 開くのは事実上,不可能だった.おまけに,申請するためには不動産の全謄本 を取得するなど,事務的な準備が必要だ.通常なら一か月.三洋の場合,裁判 所が徹夜で対応してくれたが,十日近くもかかった.十一月末には資金繰りが 行き詰まる山一には時間がなかった.

「背信山一:壁だらけ,救済時間切れ」
『讀賣新聞』1998年11月23日朝刊



...

The story of this book begins with a hoax. For some years, we have been surprised and distressed by the intellectual trends in certain precincts of American academia. Vast sectors of the humanities and the social sciences seem to have adopted a philosophy that we shall call, for want of a better term, "postmodernism": an intellectual current characterized by the more-or-less explicit rejection of the rationalist tradition of the Enlightenment, by theoretical discourses disconnected from any empirical test, and by a cognitive and cultural relativism that regards science as nothing more than a "narration", a "myth" or a social construction among many others.

To respond to this phenomenon, one of us (Sokal) decided to try an unorthodox (and admittedly uncontrolled), experiment: submit to a fashionable American cultural-studies journal, Social Text, a parody of the type of work that has proliferated in recent years, to see whether they would publish it. The article, entitled "Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity", is chock-full of absurdities and blatant non-sequiturs. In addition, it asserts an extreme form of cognitive relativism: after mocking the old-fashioned "dogma" that "there exists an external world, whose properties are independent of any individual human being and indeed of humanity as a whole", it proclaims categorically that "physical `reality', no less than social `reality', is at bottom a social and linguistic construct". By a series of stunning leaps of logic, it arrives at the conclusion that "the [Pi] of Euclid and the G of Newton, formerly thought to be constant and universal, are now perceived in their ineluctable historicity; and the putative observer becomes fatally de-centered, disconnected from any epistemic link to a space-time point that can no longer be defined by geometry alone". The rest is in the same vein.

And yet, the article was accepted and published. Worse, it was published in a special issue of Social Text devoted to rebutting the criticisms levelled against postmodernism and social constructivism by several distinguished scientists. For the editors of Social Text, it was hard to imagine a more radical way of shooting themselves in the foot.

...

What We Intend to Show
The goal of this book is to make a limited but original contribution toward the critique of the admittedly nebulous Zeitgeist that we have called "postmodernism". We make no claim to analyze postmodernist thought in general; rather, our aim is to draw attention to a relatively little-known aspect, namely the repeated abuse of concepts and terminology coming from mathematics and physics. We shall also analyze certain confusions of thought that are frequent in postmodernist writings and that bear on either the content or the philosophy of the natural sciences.

The word "abuse" here denotes one or more of the following characteristics:

1) Holding forth at length on scientific theories about which one has, at best, an exceedingly hazy idea. The most common tactic is to use scientific (or pseudo-scientific) terminology without bothering much about what the words actually mean.

2) Importing concepts from the natural sciences into the humanities or social sciences without giving the slightest conceptual or empirical justification. If a biologist wanted to apply, in her research, elementary notions of mathematical topology, set theory or differential geometry, she would be asked to give some explanation. A vague analogy would not be taken very seriously by her colleagues. Here, by contrast, we learn from Lacan that the structure of the neurotic subject is exactly the torus (it is no less than reality itself, cf. p. 20), from Kristeva that poetic language can be theorized in terms of the cardinality of the continuum (p. 40), and from Baudrillard that modern war takes place in a non-Euclidean space (p. 147)--all without explanation.

3) Displaying a superficial erudition by shamelessly throwing around technical terms in a context where they are completely irrelevant. The goal is, no doubt, to impress and, above all, to intimidate the non-scientist reader. Even some academic and media commentators fall into the trap: Roland Barthes is impressed by the precision of Julia Kristeva's work (p. 38) and Le Monde admires the erudition of Paul Virilio (p. 169).

4) Manipulating phrases and sentences that are, in fact, meaningless. Some of these authors exhibit a veritable intoxication with words, combined with a superb indifference to their meaning.
These authors speak with a self-assurance that far outstrips their scientific competence: Lacan boasts of using "the most recent development in topology" (pp. 21-22) and Latour asks whether he has taught anything to Einstein (p. 131). They imagine, perhaps, that they can exploit the prestige of the natural sciences in order to give their own discourse a veneer of rigor. And they seem confident that no one will notice their misuse of scientific concepts. No one is going to cry out that the king is naked.

Our goal is precisely to say that the king is naked (and the queen too). But let us be clear. We are not attacking philosophy, the humanities or the social sciences in general; on the contrary, we feel that these fields are of the utmost importance and we want to warn those who work in them (especially students) against some manifest cases of charlatanism. In particular, we want to "deconstruct" the reputation that certain texts have of being difficult because the ideas in them are so profound. In many cases we shall demonstrate that if the texts seem incomprehensible, it is for the excellent reason that they mean precisely NOTHING.

...

Alan SOKAL & Jean BRICMONT
FASHIONABLE NONSENSE:
Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science
Picador, USA, 1998



《シェパード犬の訓練》

「愛情を注ぐことなくひたすら厳しくしつけると,若いイヌは心が傷つき,能 力を発達させることができない.自信の基盤となる心からの信頼を築けないか らだ.健全なしつけとは,意志を持たない打ちひしがれた奴隷を作ることでも, 命令したときだけ動く機械を作ることでもない.自分の願望を殺して高度な判 断を優先させ,自由な意志で働き,また働くことに喜びを見いだせる生き物を 作ることなのだ.眠っている性質や能力を呼びさまし,極端な行動を抑制し, 弱点を克服して,あらゆる過ちを正しい方向に導いてやること.それがしつけ ということだ.」

[《教育者への訓示》
 愛情を注ぐことなくひたすら厳しく教育すると,子 供は心が傷つき,能 力を発達させることができない.自信の基盤となる心からの信頼を築けないか らだ.健全な教育とは,意志を持たない打ちひしがれた奴隷を作ることでも, 命令したときだけ動く機械を作ることでもない.自分の願望を殺して高度な判 断を優先させ,自由な意志で働き,また働くことに喜びを見いだせる生き物を 作ることなのだ.眠っている性質や能力を呼びさまし,極端な行動を抑制し, 弱点を克服して,あらゆる過ちを正しい方向に導いてやること.それが教育 ということだ.]

マックス・フォン・シュテファニッツ大尉



...
Dr. Stephen Suomi, chief of the Laboratory of Comparative Ethology at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Bethesda, Md., and his colleagues are studying rhesus monkeys that show temperamental differences similar to those of Kagan's shy children. These "uptight" monkeys, representing about 20 percent of the wild population studied by the researchers, are from birth more vigilant, more reactive to disruption in the environment and more fearful than their peers.

Uptight males linger longer with their mothers' troops than other males, who emigrate to a new troop at puberty. The shy males' submissiveness usually lands them low in the dominance rankings. They carry higher parasite loads than other monkeys -- suggesting prolonged stress may affect their immune systems -- and display other physiological differences, including higher stable heart rates and elevated levels of stress hormones.

But Suomi's team has found that when monkeys bred to be uptight and timid are raised by successful, secure, high-ranking mothers, a kind of miracle occurs. "They learn from their mothers how to cope with new social situations," Dr. Suomi says. "They get very good at recruiting friends and seeking help, and they often end up at top of the dominance hierarchy."

Erica GOODE
Old as Society, Social Anxiety Is Yielding Its Secrets
New York Times, October 20, 1998




国民のための司法の充実は,哲人であり聖人であり天才でもある誇り高い少数 の優れた法律家を国税によって選抜,育成することにあるのではなく,まずは, 《実用に耐える大量の法律家の存在》が重要なのであって,改革の第一歩は法 曹人口の大増員策から始まるのだと思う.

勝瑞 豊
「司法書士会縦横無尽」
『法律新聞』1998年9月25日(1337号)




(アダム・スミス)「個人が見えない手に導かれて,自らの意図しない目的を まっとうする.個人が意図していないからといって,社会には必ずしも悪では ない.個人が自らの利益を追求することで,意図する場合よりも効果的に社会 発展に寄与できることも多い.」


見えざる手のたとえが説得力を持つのは,ミクロとマクロの現実を同時に表し ているからだ.個人が認識している現実は,たくさんの個人がかかわるときに 浮かび上がる現実と必ずしも一致しない.同じAという行動でも,あるレベル ではBという理由であっても別のレベルでは理由がCになる.生物学者にとっ て,こういう多層思考はお手のものだ.たとえばセックスは生殖が目的だが, 動物たちは交尾するとき,生殖の役割などみじんも考えていない.生殖の欲求, 性欲に衝き動かされているだけなのだ(多くの場合人間も同じだろう).それ と同じで,同じ種に属する固体がお互いに助け合うとき,相互支援の恩恵を念 頭に置く必要はない.恩恵が来るまで時間がかかるし,間接的だ.そうしたや りとりは,進化の時間の尺度で見て初めて意味が出てくる.(56頁〜58頁)


アリのコロニーは,一匹の女王アリが産んだ何百万という個体で構成されてい る.生殖の利害がここまで重なり合っているのに,どうして同じコロニー内で 競い合う必要があるだろう? 解決すべき利害の衝突がないのだから,道徳シ ステムも必要ないのである.(59頁)


道徳原理はもっぱら自分が所属するグループに向けられるもので,外界に適用 されにくい(されたとしても公平ではない).…ヨーロッパ都市に立ってみる と,城壁の内側の暮らしがきっちりと規制され,組織化されていたことが容易 に想像できる.よそ者がそこに近づこうものなら,煮えたぎった油をかけられ るのがおちだったろう.しかしアレグザンダーは,共同体を支える道徳的な柱 と,争いや倫理観の衝突とは同じコインの表裏だと皮肉な見解を述べている. 現代に生きる私たちは,前者を高く評価しつつも,後者がしつこく残っている ことにとまどいを覚えているのだ.(60頁)


協力的で統率のとれたグループは,所属する構成員すべてに利益を与える.そ れゆえグループに生きるものは社会に気を配り,クモが巣を繕い,ビーバーが ダムを維持するように社会を改善し,強化する努力をしなければならない.と ころが階層の上層部でしょっちゅう内部抗争が起こっていると,全員の利益が 損なわれてしまう.そのため紛争解決は当事者のみならず,コミュニティ全体 の問題になってくるのだ.(60頁)


奨励は,アレグザンダーが「間接的な互酬性」と呼ぶ形をとることもある.互 酬的利他現象に見られるような個体と個体の直接的な便宜のやり取りではなく, ある行動の見返りが第三者を通じて得られるものを言う.
ジョンという男 の子が線路で遊んでいたところを,あなたが助けてやったとしよう.人びと は身近な出来事につねに注意を払っているので,数時間もしないうちに村じゅ うに知られるところとなる.あなたは立派で信頼に足る人物として,評価が一 段も二段も上がり,その後の付き合いや仕事が有利になるかもしれない.あな たに見返りを与えるのはジョンではなく,コミュニティ全体なのだ.(63 頁)


ローレンツでさえ,カモのつがいが死ぬまで貞節を貫くものではないことを知 り,失望したときに混同のわなに陥りそうになった.だたローレンツは,お気 に入りの動物であるカモの「欠点」と同時に,弟子のひとりが「何を期待して たんです? カモにも人間くさいところがあるっていうだけじゃないですか!」 と言ったことも記して,読者をにやりとさせるに留まった.

飢餓という想像を絶する状況では,道徳性の追究などまったく意味がない.生 きるか死ぬかの時に,ほかのことが入りこむ余地などないのである.そんな光 景を目の当たりにしたターンブルは,皮肉を込めて「道徳も贅沢のひとつだ」 と述べている.「道徳といえども,あくまで自分たちにとって都合がよく,許 せる範囲のものでしかない.それが伝統になったのは生活に余裕があったから だ.」(151頁)


サルや類人猿が支配的関係を重視し,地位や結びつきを積極的に求めることか ら,彼らの集団生活に二つの矛盾する戦略が内包されていることがわかる.ひ とつは社会秩序の弱点を探り,自分の地位を引き上げる隙間を探すというもの. 既存組織をくつがえして混乱を引き起こすという意味では,この戦略は反社会 的と言えるかもしれない.しかし古い壁を打ちこわす側から見れば,反社会的 どころか純粋なる前進である.
第二の戦略は,第一の戦略に対抗して現状維持をめざすものだ.こちらの戦略 で最大の恩恵をこうむるのは,いま最善の地位にあるものたちだ.しかしその 結果社会が安定することで,助かる者もいる.それは群れが全面戦争に突入し たとき,まっさきに被害を受ける弱者や幼い者たちだ.そのため身の安全が保 障されるのであれば,社会の下層に属する者が支配権力を応援する取決めを結 ぶ可能性もある.社会とは,二つの矛盾する戦略が均衡している状態であり, だからどんな社会も,単に各部分を足し算したものではない.(174頁)


親族間の分配から血縁を超えた分配への移行には,食べ物が備えるいくつかの 特徴が関係していた.割りづらい巨大な果実のように,植物でも特徴の一部を 示しているものがあるが,そうした特徴を全部備えているのは大きな獲物[肉]だけ である.

肉食が分配発達の触媒になっているのだとすれば,人間の道徳性は動物の真っ 赤な血に染まっているという結論は避けられないだろう.見も知らぬ物乞いに 金を与えること,飢えた人々のために食べ物を送ること,貧者救済策に一票を 投じること.わたしたちがそうしたくなる衝動は,肉を持つ者に群がっていた 祖先のころに端を発するのだ.(234-236頁)

フランス・ドゥ・ヴァール
利己的なサル,他人を思いやるサル:モラルはなぜ生まれたのか
西田・藤井訳,創思社,1998年



...
Placebos are "lies that heal," said Dr. Anne Harrington, a historian of science at Harvard University. A placebo, Latin for "I shall please," is typically a sham treatment that a doctor doles out merely to please or placate anxious or persistent patients, she said. It looks like an active drug but has no pharmacological properties of its own.
...
Placebos are about 55 percent to 60 percent as effective as most active medications like aspirin and codeine for controlling pain, Kirsch said. Moreover, placebos that relieve pain can be blocked with a drug, naloxone, that also blocks morphine.
...
Studies have shown, time and again, that placebos can work wonders. Like "real drugs," they can cause side effects like itching, diarrhea and nausea. They can lead to changes in pulse rate, blood pressure, electrical skin resistance, gastric function, penis engorgement and skin conditions. The question is, why? Explanations of why placebos work can be found in a new field of cognitive neuropsychology called expectancy theory -- what the brain believes about the immediate future.
Like classical conditioning theory (Pavlov's dogs salivate at the sound of the bell), expectancy involves associative learning. The medical treatments you get during your life are conditioning trials, Dr. Kirsch said. The doctor's white coat, nurse's voice, smell of disinfectant or needle prick have acquired meaning through previous learning, producing an expectation of relief from symptoms. Each pill, capsule or injection is paired with active ingredients, and later, if you get a pill without active ingredients, you can still get a therapeutic effect, he said.
...
Response expectations are strong because the world is filled with ambiguity. A long thin object seen in dim light could be a stick or a snake. But it may not be safe to take the time to find out. So people evolved a mechanism to anticipate what is going to occur. This expectation speeds the perceptual processing at the expense of accuracy.
As in the outside world, people's internal states have inherent ambiguity. That is why, when people in an experiment were given a drug that produced a surge of adrenaline, they interpreted the feeling as anger, euphoria or nothing at all, depending on what they had been told to expect.
...
Dr. Marcel Kinsbourne, a neuroscientist at the New School for Social Research in New York, explains it this way: The brain generates two kinds of activation patterns, which arise from networks of neurons firing together. One type is set in motion by information flowing into the brain from the outside world -- smells, tastes, visual images, sounds. At the same time, the cortex draws on memories and feelings to generate patterns of brain activity related to what is expected to happen.

The top-down patterns generated by the cortex intersect smoothly with the bottom-up patterns to inform us about what is happening, Dr. Kinsbourne said. If there is a mismatch, the brain tries to sort it out, without necessarily designating one set of patterns as more authoritative than another.

The expectations that result are internally generated brain states that can be as real as anything resulting purely from the outside world. For example, recent experiments with monkeys show that if they expect a reward like a sip of apple juice, cells in their brains fire 20 to 30 seconds before they actually receive it. In other words, expectancies are embedded in the brain's neurochemistry.

"We are misled by dualism or the idea that mind and body are separate," said Dr. Howard Fields, a neuroscientist at the University of California at San Francisco who studies placebo effects. A thought is a set of neurons firing which, through complex brain wiring, can activate emotional centers, pain pathways, memories, the autonomic nervous system and other parts of the nervous system involved in producing physical sensations, he said.
...

Sandra BLAKESLEE
Placebos Prove So Powerful Even Experts Are Surprised
New York Times, October 13, 1998




日本における基礎研究は,どうしてこうも低調なのか.創造的な知性を潰す受 験制度も一員だ.…小学生のころから喜々としてトンチもどきの問題を解くこ とに明け暮れれば,二十歳になるまでに,自分で考える能力を喪失するのは当 然だ.
これと同様に深刻な問題は,日本の学者のモラルハザード(倫理の欠如)だ.

では基礎研究を発展させるためにはどうしたらよいか.答えは簡単で,基礎研 究をするインセンティヴを負から正にすればよい.業績をあげれば給料を上げ, 逆の場合は下げる.数年間業績がなければクビ.こういう人事を可能にするに は,今の公務員制度を前提とすれば,国立大学は民営化する必要がある.
ただ民営化するだけではだめで,政府の補助金は,大学への一括助成は廃止し, 学生個人への奨学金と,個々の基礎研究に対する助成に再編すべきだ.その助 成金の何割かが大学の収入になるようにすれば,基礎研究で業績がある研究者 の争奪戦が始まり,彼らの給料は上昇する.おおむねこのような制度を採用し ているアメリカの例が示すことは,優れた基礎研究は,市場で供給できるとい うことだ.
日本の大学はこれ以上悪くなりようがない.ということは,民営化をして失敗 したときのコストはゼロということだ.

林文夫「時論:なぜノーベル賞が取れないか.すぐに大学民営化を」
『日本経済新聞』1998年10月19日朝刊



…理系出身者と文系出身者の相互交流は,今後ますます重要さを増すだろう. 危惧されることは,次の三点である.
1.理系出身者から見れば,文系出身者の議論の仕方,理論の立てかたが気に 入らない.検証可能性,あるいは反証可能性を問題にしているのではない.こ れらが不可能であっても,発展性のある理論は存在する.問題なのは,あまり にも教条主義的な点である.
2.文系出身者の論文において,数理的な理論や概念を完全に間違えて自らの 文脈の中で都合よく利用しているだけのものが見られる.著者が独創的なら, 誤読がかえって新しい発想をもたらすことがあるので,あまり目くじらを立て るべきではないかもしれない.しかし,「都合よく」作られた理論は単に人を 惑わすだけであることも事実として受け止めねばなるまい.
3.理系出身者は,哲学的思考に弱すぎる.ひいては,理系の哲学嫌いとなる. これは,日本に特有のことかもしれない.科学の導入のされ方に問題があった のかもしれない.いきすぎた結果主義,実利主義は既存の学問を貧困にする. また,そこに新しい学問が生まれ育つことはない.

津田一郎「複雑系科学」
『学士会会報』No.821(1998-10), pp.108-109



There is no escaping the conclusion: good and bad mix freely in our being. More startling is the recent understanding that even the good serves a selfish purpose, just another mode of adaptation that draws us toward reproduction. Our genes carry the script of love, cooperation, and conflict, not because social systems mold our personality, but because our personlaity finds a haven in the cloak of culture. ...

We cannot view love, loyalty, and altruism without also seeing hate, abandonment, and selfishness. If parental care can be explained through evolutionary principles and contingencies of history, so can infanticide and abortion. If marital bonding and incest taboos are imprints of our genetic past, so are child abuse, rape, and murder. "Even mother's milk nourishes murderers as well as heroes," observed the sardonic playwright George Barnard Shaw. We may wish for better, but when we accept one of our sides, we accept the other. This is our bittersweet destiny, to be noble, debased. It is in this interplay of opposites where we see the scientific perspective of good and evil, life and death.

The good and bad of human behavior, the self-centeredness spelled out in love and hate, reflect the trials by fire of ancient time. Love or hate, all sorts of deep compulsions, and the costs of those acts turn on the past. Reluctantly we stare at our own image and see the sharp edges of destiny. Philosophy and gods be damned, the hand of destiny writes on.(p.7)

...

We have complicated philosophies because we have complicated brains, yes, but in structure these philosophies are tuned to the vibrations of the world as they played themselves out over millennia. We did not simply walk through nature; nature walked through us. There is no separating the two. Living long enough to reproduce [K-strategy vis-a-vis r-strategy] requires a high sensitivity to potential dangers, large and small, short-term and long-term. The willy-nilly characters of our past environments cut themselves deeply into the human mind.

Crowning risk with central importance in the evolution of human mentality, we are left with the conclusion that man did not evolve complicated moral and philosophical systems in response to specific evolutionary demands for ethics and morality. Rather, he evolved strategies to minimize danger and prolong life, some of which can be served by moral imperatives, religious beliefs, and superstitions -- bread and survival disguised as philosophy.(p.108)

...

[Helen Keller's] epiphany was said to have come in a single day when suddenly she made the mental connection between the feel of water coming from a pump and the general notion of "water." It was a revelation of the deepest kind, for she instantly understood that the world around her could be represented by mental concepts. (p.233)

...

The details of concept formation are obviously speculative, but the overall importance of the body in knowing the environment is undeniable. A swimming fish, a flying bird, a digging mole, and a walking human obviously have different conceptions of their environment, each concept is species-specific, each is based upon specialized muscle movements and brain processes. (p.237)

...

Movement led to interpretations of new qualities of the environment --- sharpened sensitivity, enlarged perceptions, induced knowledge of location, opened discrimination between beneficial and harmful stimuli, and created the anticipation of change. Motor movements shifted their force inward, building neurological analogues of the encircling world, composing relations among movement, position in space, sensataions, perception, and causality. Knowledge, action patterns, and self-reflection were the new tools for survival and reproduction.
...
It seems farfetched to argue that all of our mental finery emerged from the transformation of motor movements into cognition, but that's what it looks like. The mind was never separate from the body, contradicting Rene Descartes; it was always a part of that body --- the body in movement, the movement transformed into concepts and rules of the mind. Our nature is earthbound in a very literal sense, emerging from the interaction of the body with the earth, shaping our concepts, rules of action, and our human philosophy. (p.246)

Delbert D. Thiessen
BITTER-SWEET DESTINY: The Stormy Evolution of Human Behavior
Transaction Publishers, 1996



Memetic Evolution

Meme propagation drives memetic innovation by helping generate and recombine ideas. The beliefs spreading most vigorously prevail in the natural selection of memes, giving them the best odds of spawing new vaiants and combinations. Such innovation, in turn, drives propagation by supplying both new and strengthened thought contagions. Meme propagation and innovation thus accomplish the great feedback algorithm of Darwinian evolution in the ideosphere. Much as biological evolution keeps viruses renewed and infectious, so too does memetic evolution keep certain beliefs current and contagious. It all happens without plan, and it gives evolving thought contations a profound influence on society. (p.12)

...

But whether societies will become memetically self-aware remains far from certain. As Daniel Dennett explains in Consciousness Explained, "[I]n its own terms, whether or not the meme replicates successfully is strictly independent of its epistemological virtue; it might spread in spite of its perniciousness, or go extince in spite of its virtue." (p.175)

Aaron LYNCH
THOUGHT CONTATION: How Belief Spreads Through Society
Basic Books, 1996



金なんかないけど,ラスベガースッ!
金だ.金だよ.キンキラキンのキン!
金が世界を回してる

クレージーキャッツ『クレージー黄金作戦』
矢作俊彦「20世紀の古典」『朝日新聞』朝刊,1998年8月21日から



米研究グループが記憶のしくみのヒントつかむ

 物事をよく思い出せるかどうかは覚え方次第――米国の二つの研究グループ が記憶のしくみに迫るヒントをつかんだ。記憶されるときに脳の特定部分の活 動が盛んなら、後ですんなりと思い出すことができ、しかも集中しているほど この部分の活動が高まる、という。この研究結果は21日付の米科学誌サイエ ンスに発表された。

 研究では、ほぼ瞬間的な脳の活動をとらえられる磁気共鳴断層撮影装置(M RI)を使った。記憶の過程で脳がどう活動しているか、スタンフォード大の ジェームズ・ブルーワー博士らは写真、ハーバード大のアンソニー・ワグナー 博士らは言葉を対象に調べた。

 健康な被験者にさまざまな写真や言葉を見せ、後で思い出してもらった。す ると、よく思い出せた場合は、これらのものを見ていたときに前部前頭葉と側 頭葉の一部が活発に活動していた。逆に、これらの部分が活動しているかどう かで、後で思い出せるかどうかが予測できた。

 人によって思い出せる写真や言葉はさまざまだったが、言葉の場合は意味ま で考えていたものほど、また写真は、自分の経験などを重ね合わせて強く意識 していたほど、脳のこの部分の活動が盛んだった。記憶の過程でその意味を処 理している部分とみられる。

『朝日新聞』Internet Version
August 21, 1998


...

The scope of agent-based models, and their obvious relevance for the study of emergence, suggests we give them serious consideration when designing a general setting, if we can handle the complexity. The ant colony ... illustrates the point. The rules describing an individual ant's repertoire can be few; the complexity of the colony emerges from the large number of ants, and their coupled interactions with each other and the environment. In this the ant colony has much in common with a neural network, where the flexible behavior of the whole depends on the activity of large numbers of agents (neurons in the case of the neural network) described by a relatively small number of rules.(p.117)

...

John H. HOLLAND
EMERGENCE: From Chaos to Order
Helix Books, 1998


(アインシュタインの「方程式」)

 成功 = 仕事 + 遊び + 沈黙

「編集手帳」から
『読売新聞』1998年8月21日朝刊


When I was in high school I remember reflecting on what kind of being God could possibly be--I was curious...I also remember asking that if God was all-powerful, could he do things like change the laws of logic? If [God] could change the laws of logic, then he was a kind of lawless Being incomprehensible to the human mind. On the other hand if [God] couldn't change the laws of logic, he wasn't all-powerful. These alternatives left me dissatisfied...this `teenage theology' left me with the feeling that either God was not subject to the laws of logic, in which case there was no point thinking rationally about God, or he was subject to the laws of logic, in which case he was not a very impressive God.

John D. BARROW
IMPOSSIBILITY: The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits
Oxford Univ. Press, 1998


また法律家は,リーガル・マインドを強調するが,これは,自己の判断を論理 的に説明できないときに,部外者に対してそれを正当化する機能を持つ.

…法律家は,法の明確化,立法による解決に,一般的にはあまり熱心ではない. 紛争の起こりやすい法を積極的に維持しておいたうえで,起こった紛争に対し ては自分たちが助けてやると乗り出していく構図とも見られ,健全とは言いに くい.

…あいまいで,法曹,法解釈学研究者,法律官僚などのいわゆる「法律家ギル ド」を利する法自体が大きな社会のゆがみを生み,今も助長し続けていること に目を向けるべきである.

 「法の支配」は「法律家の支配」であってはならない.市民も企業も,法律 家に対する幻想を捨てるべきである.既存の法解釈学は現在秩序の温存に資す る制度的道具に過ぎない.経済社会のパラダイム転換にとっては,無力である のみならず,むしろ有害となることさえある.具体的で明確な立法による政策 形成にこそ英知を結集すべきである.その際,法律家に条文技術を除く政策内 容の決定をゆだねるのは多くの場合無謀な試みとなる.

 これまでの日本には法政策の担い手は,学術的にも,実務的にも,不在であっ た.法が現に「ある」ことを無批判に受け入れるのではなく,必要悪としての 法解釈学が不要になるような立法の営みを「実践する」ことにより,本当に公 正で活力のある社会を実現すべきである.

福井秀夫
「市場重視の立法改革を」
『日本経済新聞』1998年8月5日朝刊


人間の行動はしごく単純である.にもかかわらず,人間の行動の軌跡が複雑 に見えるのは,人間を取り巻く環境が複雑だからである」H.A.サイモン

人間の行動原理は単純極まりないというのである.ここで「単純」というの は「人間の様々な行動を単純な原理に還元できる」ことを意味する.単純な原 理に従い環境に「適応」する人間の行動は,環境の変化が複雑(予測不可能) であるがゆえに,傍目には「複雑」に見える.

データと矛盾しない二つの原理があるとき,どちらが勝っているのかの判断基 準の一つは単純性である.理論は単純であるほどよい.これを「思考経済の法 則」または「ケチの原理」という.人間行動は複雑であると頭から決めつける のは,人間を「科学」することを放棄するに等しい.

佐和隆光
『週刊ダイヤモンド』1998年8月8日, 118頁


The notion that all people are connected through indirect networks was first studied by the Stanley Milgram, a social psychologist at Harvard University who in 1967 asked people in Nebraska and Kansas to mail a letter to two people in Boston with whom they were not acquainted. They were to forward the letter to friends who might know the Boston people.

The average number of intermediaries between the Midwesterners and the Bostonians was six, a finding that was popularized in the 1990 in the play "Six Degrees of Separation," by John Guare. The play and a subsequent movie were based on the notion that everyone in the world is connected to everyone else through a chain of at most six acquaintances. If two people have one mutual acquaintance they have one degree of separation. Subsequent degrees of separation are based on the number of people needed to make the link.

Sandra BLAKESLEE
"Mathematicians Prove That It's a Small World "
New York Times, June 16, 1998


Logarithm tables (and the slide rules derived from them) are not much used for routine calculating anymore; electronic calculators and computers are simpler and faster. But logarithms remain important in many scientific and technical applications, and they were a key element in Dr. Benford's discovery.

Dr. Benford concluded that it was unlikely that physicists and engineers had some special preference for logarithms starting with 1. He therefore embarked on a mathematical analysis of 20,229 sets of numbers, including such wildly disparate categories as the areas of rivers, baseball statistics, numbers in magazine articles and the street addresses of the first 342 people listed in the book "American Men of Science." All these seemingly unrelated sets of numbers followed the same first-digit probability pattern as the worn pages of logarithm tables suggested. In all cases, the number 1 turned up as the first digit about 30 percent of the time, more often than any other.

Dr. Benford derived a formula to explain this. If absolute certainty is defined as 1 and absolute impossibility as 0, then the probability of any number "d" from 1 through 9 being the first digit is log to the base 10 of (1 + 1/d). This formula predicts the frequencies of numbers found in many categories of statistics.

Probability predictions are often surprising. In the case of the coin-tossing experiment, Dr. Hill wrote in the current issue of the magazine American Scientist, a "quite involved calculation" revealed a surprising probability. It showed, he said, that the overwhelming odds are that at some point in a series of 200 tosses, either heads or tails will come up six or more times in a row. Most fakers don't know this and avoid guessing long runs of heads or tails, which they mistakenly believe to be improbable. At just a glance, Dr. Hill can see whether or not a student's 200 coin-toss results contain a run of six heads or tails; if they don't, the student is branded a fake. Even more astonishing are the effects of Benford's Law on number sequences. Intuitively, most people assume that in a string of numbers sampled randomly from some body of data, the first non-zero digit could be any number from 1 through 9. All nine numbers would be regarded as equally probable.

But, as Dr. Benford discovered, in a huge assortment of number sequences -- random samples from a day's stock quotations, a tournament's tennis scores, the numbers on the front page of The New York Times, the populations of towns, electricity bills in the Solomon Islands, the molecular weights of compounds, the half-lives of radioactive atoms and much more -- this is not so.

Given a string of at least four numbers sampled from one or more of these sets of data, the chance that the first digit will be 1 is not one in nine, as many people would imagine; according to Benford's Law, it is 30.1 percent, or nearly one in three. The chance that the first number in the string will be 2 is only 17.6 percent, and the probabilities that successive numbers will be the first digit decline smoothly up to 9, which has only a 4.6 percent chance.

A strange feature of these probabilities is that they are "scale invariant" and "base invariant." For example, it doesn't matter whether the numbers are based on the dollar prices of stocks or their prices in yen or marks, nor does it matter if the numbers are in terms of stocks per dollar; provided there are enough numbers in the sample, the first digit of the sequence is more likely to be 1 than any other.

The larger and more varied the sampling of numbers from different data sets, mathematicians have found, the more closely the distribution of numbers approaches what Benford's Law predicted.

Malcolm W. BROWNE
"Following Benford's Law, or Looking Out for No. 1"
New York Times, August 4, 1998


《失敗を許さない社会,失敗に不寛容な社会》においては外国の模倣 をする以外に新しいものは生まれないし,事業家も育たず勤め人だけが再生産 されやがて経済は成長力を失ってしまう.今の日本がそのような道をたどりつ つあるのです.(27頁)

実務法律家の多数意見である,裁判官,弁護士,司法書士の,現実から遊離し た観念論と独りよがりな説教の源は,多分,十八世紀末(半物々交換時代)の 内容からなる民法典の大脳への反復的刷り込みにあるのに違いありません.とっ くに,我が民法典の示す市民法・小商人の時代から,時代は,巨大資本,巨大 組織よりなるコンピュートピア,世界資本主義時代に変わりつつあるというの に,日本の実務法律家たちは十八世紀,一九世紀の眼鏡をとおしてしか,経済 社会を,そして現実に生き,サービスやモノを生産し余暇や競馬を楽しむ凡人 達の生活ドラマを,理解していないのではないでしょうか.その現実の生産者, 消費者から報酬をいただいているのは日本の裁判官,弁護士,司法書士,法学 者達なのであって,その世界においては,いまだパラダイム・シフトは起って いないらしい.しかし,近いうちにその世界にも終わりがくることでしょう. (51頁〜52頁)

勝瑞 豊
『「超」済出発』
東林出版社,1998年


「1件の特許は論文十編に値する」と言われる一方で,依然,論文だけを重視, 経済目的の特許を軽視あるいは蔑視する風潮も根強いという.

学者と特許の研究
『読売新聞』1998年7月5日朝刊


《USO放送》

モラルハザード

公的資金があるもんネ   ──  銀行

自己破産があるもんネ   ──  個人

東京・マアちゃん
『読売新聞』1998年7月5日朝刊


... When under tremendous, unrelenting stress -- in this case, the first semester of law school -- students who were optimistic about doing well had more T-cells and natural killer cell activity than they had before the semester began. These immune factors, which help thwart infection, showed little change in the pessimists. The findings strengthen the notion that thoughts and feelings can affect the immune system, said Dr. Suzanne C. Segerstrom, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington and the lead author of the study, which appears in the June issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

...

The study followed 90 healthy students just before they started law school through the middle of their first semesters, a notoriously stressful period. In the beginning, blood tests revealed that all of the students had comparable levels of T-cells and natural killer cell activity. These measurements were repeated eight weeks later to see whether they had changed.

...

Susan Gilbert
"Optimism's Bright Side: A Healthy, Longer Life"
The New York Times, June 30, 1998


… モンゴルが演出した「技術移動」「技術伝播」の例は,西から東の場合だけで なく,もちろん東から西へもある.モンゴルは,文化を否定したどころか, 科学・技術・情報・学術に,きわめて熱心であった.そうした知識・技術・能 力をもつ人びとにたいしては,人種・宗教などのちがいにかかわりなく,尊重・ 優遇し,できるだけ自分たちの手もとにかかえこもうとした.

これまで,モンゴルを,野蛮で非文明と決めつけているのは,純然たる誤 解である.直接の原典史料,とりわけどれか一つの「文明圏」の文献だけに目 を限らずに,東西の多言語文献をひとしく眺めわたすならば,それはあきらか なことである.…(pp.31-32)

クビライ新国家を特徴づけるものとして,軍事から経済への旋回も,挙げ なければならない.軍事国家モンゴルという立場から見れば,軍事を支える経 済基盤の充実ということになるが,じつは,もっと踏み込んで,経済コントロー ルをもって統治の手段としたことにこそ,「クビライ・システム」の眼目があ る.(p.166)

クビライ政権は,通過税を撤廃した.交通上のさかい目や,都市・港湾・渡津・ 関所などを通過するごとに徴収されていた従来の方式を,全廃したのである. これは,時代を画する英断であった.(p.167)

当然,遠距離通商はさかんとなった.それにあおられて,中小規模の交易・ 商業活動も活性化した.クビライ政権の仕立てた交通・運輸網を利用して,物 流は広汎に巻きおこった.(p.168)

杉山正明
(世界の歴史9)『大モンゴルの時代』第一部
中央公論社,1997年


... The most interesting thing about memes is not whether they'er true of false; it's that they are the building-blocks of your mind.(p.36)

... The evolution of ideas, culture, and society revolves around the selfish meme just as the evolution of species revolves around the selfish gene.(p.84)

... Memes involving danger, food, and sex spread faster than other memes because we are wired to pay more attention to them --- we have buttons around those subjects. (p.88)

... But following sexual mores makes you behave in the interest of everyone else's DNA, not your own. So the optimal selfish-gene strategy, before people became conscious and had the possibility of a life about something other than spreading their DNA, was to participate in spreading mores, but to secretly ignore them whenever an opportunity arose to mate counter to them. That is the evolutionary explanation for hypocrisy.(p.116)

... We have an enormous hunger to understand the world around us, which was extremely useful when the world was simple and mostly consisted of physical rewards and dangers. In the society of memes, however, we are constantly trying to make sense of things that simply have no sense. (p.191)

... Beliefs are like cow paths. The more often you walk down a path, the more it looks like the right way to go. (p.207)

... Your "gut feelings" evolved to maximize your DNA's chance of replicating back in prehistoric times. (p.214)

Richard Brodie
VIRUS OF THE MIND: The New Science of the Meme
(Integral Press, Seattle, 1996)


…幸福な人に共通する4つの特徴が明らかになった.まず第一に,彼らは自 分自身が好きである.…彼らは,自尊心が強く,自分達は道徳的で,知性があ り,偏見はなく,人とうまくやっていくことができ,普通の人より健康である と常に信じている.

 第二に,幸福な人は,自分は主体的に生きていると思っている.…第三 に,幸福な人は普通,楽観的である.第4に,幸福な人のほとんどは外向的で ある.…

D.G.マイヤース・E.ディーナー(詫摩紀子訳)
「どんな人が幸福と感じているか」
(日経サイエンス特集『脳と心の科学:心のミステリー』(1998年) 38-39頁)


...

Q. How did you find science?

A. I was a cocktail waitress in Davis, Calif. in 1972. I'd been in and out of school and done all kinds of jobs -- jazz musician, lab technician, problem-dog trainer and Playboy bunny, which was, incidentally, a great job. But everything seemed to get boring after a while, so I decided to make a career of waitressing and save the days for reading, composing and working with animals. One day, two professors from the University of California at Davis who regularly came in for beer, started talking about animal mimicry, and I asked them, "Why has no animal ever mimicked a skunk?" Professor Robert Swampy Schwab, who was chair of Wildlife and Fisheries, was floored. He decided that this question-asking waitress should become a scientist.

...

Claudia Dreifus
"A Conversation With Polly Matzinger: Blazing an Unconventional Trail to a New Theory of Immunity"
New York Times, June 16, 1998


 …

「そもそも経済学部卒で銀行局長になったのは僕が始めてなんだからあき れた役所だ.東京大学法学部卒なんていうものは,経済がどうなろうと体制が 安定さえしていればいいと考えるんだよ.−−−ところで,君は法学をやった ことはるかね?」

「いえ,ほとんど」

「僕は少し かじってみたことがあるけど,創造性を否定する哀しい学問だ よ.だいたい,ふつう志のある学生なら,この世をよい社会にするためにはど のような体制・システムを構築しなければいけないかとか,創造的なことを考え たがるものだろう?」

「ええ」

「しかし法学には,驚いたことにそういった創造的なマインドはまったく ないんだ.−つまり,法制度をどうすべきかという創造的な立法論はしないで, 既存の法律の細かい文言の解釈論ばかりにのめり込む.法学がこんな調子だか ら,法学部の学生は哀れだよ.なにしろ,法律がいかに悪法であろうとも, その法文上の文言の範囲内でしか動いてはいけないと徹底的に教え込まれるん だからな.学期末試験や司法試験で,解釈論を外れ立法論に触れようものなら 即零点らしい.まあ君も,少し法学を勉強してみれば,なぜ経済学にノーベル 賞があって法学にはないのか,すぐに分かるよ」

「だからアメリカなどでは,立法論や制度論をリードしているのは法学者 じゃなくて経済学者なのでしょう」

滝島は中根にさらにおもねた.中根は大きくうなずくと,

「そのとおりだよ.解釈論に偏った法学教育を受けてきた法学部卒の連中 は,何かと既存の制度を絶対的なものと考えたがり,制度の安定性の維持や 制度内においての細かい文言操作ばかりにこだわるようになる.だから,全体 をどう変革していくべきかといった創造的・動的な視点にどうしても欠けるん だ.まあそれでも,予算を前年比3パーセント増にするか3.1パーセント増 にするかで 数ヶ月も延々と議論する財政は務まるかもしれんが,日々国際的 に変動していく金融を法学的マインドでやられたらたまらんよ

榊東行
『三本の矢(上)』
(早川書房, 1998年)98頁


...

An older professor is said to have challenged [John Nash] to solve one of the field's most notorious problems. The problem grew out of work done by G. F. B. Riemann, a 19th century mathematician, and was considered virtually insoluble. But Mr. Nash wound up solving it. To do so, he invented a completely new method for approaching the problem that turned out to unlock a difficulty encountered in a far larger class of problems. Mathematicians still describe the solution as "astonishing" and "dazzling." Most mathematicians consider this and other work Mr. Nash did in pure mathematics to be his greatest achievements, worthy of Nobels if such were given in the mathematical field. Many joke that [Mr. Nash] got his Nobel [Prize] for his most trivial work.

...

Sylvia Nasar
"The Lost Years of a Nobel Laureate"
New York Times, November 13, 1994


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