Do our expectations change the system?

[Paul Hollingworth <PH@paulholl.demon.co.uk>]

In Roger Key's recent post he mentions:
>I understand
>this as being the outcome from the system is perfect for the system and
>unless you change the system you will not change the outcome.  Sheldrake's
>suggestions fly in the face of neo-Darwinism (a litle) in suggesting that
>these morphogenic fields have as much if not more impact on ability and
>behaviour than genetics do.  Instance the ever improving capability and
>ability of top sports people - drug fueled or otherwise.  When Roger
>Bannister broke the 4 min mile he acheived what many thought impossible,

If I dare mention the word 'paradigm' here (Alfie's dog food ad fixed
that one for me) I believe our expectations and assumptions do much to
influence the output of the system.

Some of you may remember Cliff Young, the 61 year old Australian farmer
who in 1983, untrained and ill equipped, entered the first Sydney to
Melbourne road running race. Lining up alongside world class long
distance athletes, he must have looked silly, to say the least.

Any long distance runner knows you have to plan to run up to 18 hours a
day and sleep for at least 6. Unfortunately, Cliff was not a long
distance runner, so nobody had told him he was supposed to go to sleep!
Like the tortoise and the hare, the old guy kept trotting whilst the
world class athletes slept and he won the race, covering 875 km. in 5
days and 15 hours.

Paul H

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Paul Hollingworth                       4GM Consulting Ltd      
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