infallible

Yuval Noah Harariの "Nexus" を読んでいます。Part 1, Chapter 2 STORIES: UNLIMITED CONNECTIONS

As Stalin knew, it is possible to brand not only products but also individuals. A corrupt billionaire can be branded as the champion of the poor; a bungling imbecile can be branded as an infallible genius; and a guru who sexually abuses his followers can be branded as a chaste saint. People think they connect to the person, but in fact they connect to the story told about the person, and there is often a huge gulf between the two.

"infallible" とその反語の "fallible" はこの "Nexus" に頻繁に出てくるので "fallible" の意味を押さえておきます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: able to make mistakes or be wrong: Memory is selective and "fallible".
・Collins Dictionary: capable of being mistaken; erring: They are creatures of convenience, victims of their own fallible logic.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: A fallible object or system is likely not to work in a satisfactory way: This method is more fallible than most because it depends on careful and accurate timing.
・Vocabulary.com: As humans we are all fallible, because fallible means likely to make errors or fail. Nobody's perfect, after all.
Fall down on the job and you're fallible. It's a forgiving way to say you screwed up. If a scientific experiment's data is fallible, that means you can't trust the numbers. More than just locking your keys in the car, fallible can allude to a lack of moral strength. If in addition to locking your keys in the car, you kissed your best friend's husband, you might try using "I'm fallible" as your defense.

人だけではなく物とかシステムについても言えるのですね。

AI is an agent

Yuval Noah Harariの "Nexus" を読んでいます。プロローグの中に次の説明があります。

...AI is the first technology in history that can make decisions and create new ideas by itself. All previous human inventions have empowered humans, because no matter how powerful the new tool was, the decisions about its usage remined in our hands. ...In contrast, AI can process information by itself, and thereby replace humans in decision making. AI isn't a tool--it's an agent.

AIの事はChatGPTをちょっとかじっているだけですが、印象としてはやはりツールの一種で、つまり馬鹿とハサミはなんとやらと思っているのですが、どうもそんな程度では留まらないようです。

elite cabals

Yuval Noah Harariの "Nexus" を読んでいます。昨日取り上げた引用文の直後の個所からの引用です。

Bureaucrats, judges, doctors, mainstream journalists, and academic experts are elite cabals that have no interest in the truth and are deliberately spreading disinformation to gain power and privileges for themselves at the expense of "the people."

"elite cabals" の "cabal" はどんな意味でしょうか？

・Collins Dictionary: a small group of intriguers, esp one formed for political purposes: The top handful of premier league clubs coalesce in a highly vocal and influential cabal to assert their own interests.
・Vocabulary.com: A cabal is a secret plot, or a small group of people who create such a plot. Some conspiracy theories are based on the idea that governments worldwide are in the hands of a powerful cabal.
Cabal comes from the word cabbala (also spelled kabbala), which refers to a Jewish tradition of interpreting texts. Cabbala is often regarded as a secret and mystical practice and, as such, the word took on the additional meaning of “secret behavior.” Cabal comes from this sense of the word. A well-known cabal in 17th-century England was coincidentally made up of five members whose names’ initial letters spelled the word cabal. (Their names were Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale.)

anti-vaxxers

Yuval Noah Harariの "Nexus" を読み始めました。副題は 'A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI' となっています。Harariの著作を読むのはこれで4冊目ですが、氏の作品はどれも大作で、 "Nexus" もNoteなどを入れると5百ページ近くあります。

今日取り上げるのはページ番号がローマ数字で示されているプロローグの中にに出てきた単語です。

Populist leaders such as Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, and populist movements and conspiracy theories such as QAnon and the anti-vaxxers, have argued that all traditional institutions that gain authority by claiming to gather information and discover truth are simply lying.

"anti-vaxxers" の "vaxxer" とはどんな人でしょう。 "vaxxer" より "anti-vaxxers" を取り上げている辞書が多くあったので、"anti-vaxxers" の説明を取り上げます。

・Merriam-Webster: a person who opposes the use of some or all vaccines, regulations mandating vaccination, or usually both: Anti-vaxxers, those who refuse to vaccinate, have been around for as long as vaccination.
・Wiktionary: A person who opposes vaccination, as for its purported dangerous effects.: Like everyone else (other than anti-vaxxers, I guess), I was delighted to see the good news about the Pfizer vaccine hopefully being rolled out before Christmas.
・Word Spy: A person who does not vaccinate their children in the belief that vaccines are harmful.: I do know that from talking with a few ladies at church they are wary of vaxes. Only a couple other anti vaxers.

"vax" は "vaccine" の事だったのですね。

docent

先週は何十年ぶりに虫歯になって治療、30分間で済みました。それから弟が背骨の骨折で入院、コルセットはまだできていないが、その後もリハビリでまともに歩けようになるのか心配。独り者なので歩くのに不自由だと一人暮らしは難しくなる可能性あり。色々あって貯蓄もない弟なので、考えてやらないといけない。
さて、Reader's　Digest 12月&1月合併号の記事 "The Man Who Looks After His Wife's Ex" からの引用です。

Kris's day started off in typical fashion. She drove to her father's company, where she worked as an administrator. After a few hours, she left for her second job as a docent at the art museum.

"docent" は美術館での仕事なので学芸員を連想しますが、何でしょう？　辞書を見ます。

・Merriam-Webster Dictionary: a person who leads guided tours especially through a museum or art gallery: Inside the entrance, volunteer docents offer pamphlets and welcoming smiles.
Did you know?
The title of docent is used in many countries for what Americans would call an associate professor—that is, a college or university teacher who has been given tenure but hasn't yet achieved the rank of full professor. But in the U.S. a docent is a guide who works at a museum, a historical site, or even a zoo or a park. Docents are usually volunteers, and their services are often free of charge.
・Vocabulary.com: If you’re a docent, you’re a teacher at a college or university. In most countries, you’d rank right below a professor.
Docent came into English by way of German, tracing back to the Latin word docere, meaning “teach.” Docent typically refers to someone who teaches at a college or university, but the term can be used more broadly to mean "someone who promotes learning." If you take a museum tour, it might be led by a docent, a volunteer who acts as a guide to the museum’s collection. Pronounce docent with a long “o” sound and a soft “c”: “DOH-sent.”

日本の学芸員には資格が必要ですが、"docent" はボランティアでもできる様なので、レベルには人によって大きな差があるでしょうね。

indoctrination

前回取り上げたReader's　Digestの "Mom's Wall-Sign Wisdom" からの引用文の後に出て来た個所からの引用です。

When I was a kid, my mom would comb my hair, and it was always knotty and it always hurt, and she'd say, "Beauty feels no pain." Which is truly a Jedi mind trick of gaslighting and dangerous patriarchal indoctrination.


"Jedi mind trick" は辞書には説明はないだろうと思いWikipediaを見ると、次の説明がありました。

From the Star Wars films, the first of which—Star Wars—was released in 1977. In the films, members of the Jedi order are able to use a metaphysical power called the Force to implant suggestions in other people’s minds to induce them to act as the Jedi wish.
A mental feat such as apparently inducing someone to act a certain way or reading someone's mind, achieved as if by magic or telepathy.: "It's the Fourth Law of Magic," I said. "You aren't allowed to control the mind of another human. But … hell, it's of the first things a lot of these stupid kids try—the old Jedi mind trick. Sometimes they start with maybe getting homework overlooked by a teacher or convincing their parents to buy them a car.


なるほで、それではその後に出てきた "indoctrination" も同じような意味に違いない。

・Oxford English Dictionary: the act or process of forcing somebody to accept a particular belief or set of beliefs and not allowing them to consider any others: political/religious indoctrination
・Collins Dictionary: the process of teaching a person or group of people systematically to accept doctrines, esp uncritically: Yes, ever since he came home from the camp this summer, that indoctrination camp, worse than military school.
・Vocabulary.com: Indoctrination means teaching someone to accept a set of beliefs without questioning them. Your sister's orientation at her new job might seem more like indoctrination if she comes home robotically reciting her corporate employee handbook.
Indoctrination often refers to religious ideas, when you're talking about a religious environment that doesn't let you question or criticize those beliefs. The Latin word for "teach," doctrina is the root of indoctrinate, and originally that's just what it meant. By the 1830s it came to mean the act of forcing ideas and opinions on someone who isn't allowed to question them.

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

伊坂幸太郎氏の小説 "Remote Control" を読み終えたので、今日はReader's　Digest 12月&1月合併号の記事 "Mom's Wall-Sign Wisdom" から引用します。

After my divorce, I remember finding out I wasn't going to get child support. We don't have kids, but I still wanted child support, you know? I wanted inner child support. And so I was crying and crying and hugging my mom and she hugged me back and said, "Sarha, don't sweat the small stuff. And guess what? It's all small stuff."

世の中の出来事はなんでも "It's all small stuff. ではありませんが、苦しい、辛い時に "Don't sweat the small stuff." と考えられると楽ですね。

coast

昨日は2歳下の弟の入院騒ぎがあり、手続き等で忙しくジムにも行きませんでした。
さて、伊坂幸太郎氏の小説 "Remote Control" を読んでいます。パート4，The Imcidentから引用します。

It felt strange to be riding alone, since she almost always had Nanami on the back when she went out on her own bike. Yet it wasn't freedom she felt but anxiety. Her breath came hard and her legs were getting weary. Taking advantage of the lack of traffic, she cut diagonally across the wide avenue and stopped pedaling, letting the thing coast. As the front tire hit the curb on the other side, the bike bucked softly under her.

"letting the thing coast" の意味が分かりません。辞書で調べます。"coast" の慣用句と言うと "the coast is clear" を思い出しますが、"letting the thing coast" は慣用句ではなく、動詞の "coast" に次の意味があるのが分かりました。　

・Oxford English Dictionary: (of a motor vehicle or a bicycle) to move, especially down a hill, without using any power: She took her feet off the pedals and coasted downhill.
・Collins Dictionary: If a vehicle coasts somewhere, it continues to move there with the motor switched off, or without being pushed or pedalled.: I switched off the engine and coasted round the corner.
・Vocabulary.com: Coast also has a verb form that describes an effortless movement, like when you're riding your bike down a hill and you don't have to pedal at all. It can also be used figuratively to describe something that's gained without much difficulty. You might coast to victory in the playoffs when your team wins 8-0 and is never threatened.

これで、先日お亡くなりになられた火野正平さんのNHK番組 'こころ旅' での名台詞、「人生下り坂最高」を思い出しました。正平さんは私より2歳若かったのに下り坂を楽しみ過ぎたのかな。

in cold blood

伊坂幸太郎氏の小説 "Remote Control" を読んでいます。パート4，The Imcidentから引用します。

"There's more," said Nobuyuki. "The police are planning to use these new dart guns they've just brought on line." The new information was more than Haruko's brain could take in. "The cops must have realized they couldn't shoot him in cold blood on live TV, so they came up with an alternative that lets them 'shoot' him--with an asterisk. He shows up and at the least sign of suspicious behavior they bring him down with a tranquilizer dart and hog-tie him.

"in cold blood" これは直訳すると冷血にとなりますが辞書での説明を見ます。

・Collins Dictionary: If something violent and cruel is done in cold blood, it is done deliberately and in an unemotional way.: The crime had been committed in cold blood.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: If someone kills in cold blood, they kill in a way that seems especially cruel because it seems to show no emotion.: killed in cold blood
・Wiktionary: In a ruthless and unfeeling manner, particularly as applied to first-degree murder committed without provocation and with malice aforethought.: It was not a suicide! He was murdered in cold blood.

戦争で敵を殺すのも冷血かなと思いましたが、戦場の兵士は必ずしも冷血ではないでしょう。冷血なのは戦場に兵士を送り出した戦場にいない人たちですね。これは間違いない。

tattletale

伊坂幸太郎氏の小説 "Remote Control" を読んでいます。パート4，The Imcidentから引用します。

On days off, I make deliveries for especially for good customers on my own, charge them a lower rate, and everyone makes out--except the company, The guy on the phone said they knew all about it, and they would tell the company if i didn't cooperate. Feels like a fucking grade school tattletale, except they'll get me fired right when my daughter's starting all those expensive girlie lessons.

"telltale" と似ていますが "tattletale" の意味を辞書で確認します。

・Oxford English Dictionary: a child who tells an adult what another child has done wrong
・Collins Dictionary: a talebearer or informer, esp. among children
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a person, especially a child, who secretly tells someone in authority, especially a teacher, that someone else has done something bad, often in order to cause trouble: She has good manners, yet tends to be a bit of a tattletale at times.
・Vocabulary.com: A tattletale is a person who tries to get someone in trouble by revealing secret information about them. Your tattletale brother will probably tell your parents that you were actually at the movies, not the library.
The word tattletale is mostly used in the U.S. (in Britain it's more common to use telltale). It comes from the verb tattle, "report someone's wrongdoing." In the 16th century, you'd have called a tattletale a pickthank. These days, you can also use words like snitch or whistle-blower.

"tattletale" は普通は子供について使うのですね。