jifl-ga,
This is actually a fairly interesting question, deceptively simple.
I'll give you my five bucks worth.
The question "Why?" represents a level of instinctive self-awareness
associated with the human condition. Almost everyone at some point has
engaged in a conversation with a child wherein no matter what you say,
the child responds with, "Why?"
For example:
Adult: Don't step into the street!
Child; Why?
Adult; Because it's not safe.
Child: Why?
Adult: Because there are too many cars.
Child: Why?
Adult: Because this time of day everyone is on their way to work.
Child: Why?
And usually by this point the adult will force a change of subject,
otherwise the line of questioning would be endless. (It is interesting
to note, however, that the original query of "Why?" in response to
"Don't step into the street," can lead the child in short order to an
explanation of how modern society works. (If the adult in the example
above had had the patience to answer the last Why, s/he would have had
to explain why it is that most people go to work at the same time of
day every morning, which is, if you think about it, not simply
explained. [It was Henry Ford, by the way, who popularized the M-F,
9-5, 40 hour work week, for his first Model T factory].
All this from four successive instances of "Why?" Imagine the topics
being grappled with 100 "Why's" later!
What makes it interesting (and frustrating for most adults) is that
the level of specificity with each passing Why increases...I won't say
exponentially....but significantly. (I would like to see some
scientific research on this).
Probably there is some type of equation that could be used to describe
this, such as
(why)^x = condition(x-1), where x = the curent instance of Why (i.e.,
in the above example 1, 2, 3 or 4)and condition = what it is that is
asked "Why?" to.
It looks like some interesting computer programming algorhithms could
be developed based on this concept, using advanced string
manipulation. (Anyone like to take a stab at this in VB or C++ and
post some code in a Question to be added to by someone else?--Think
open source!)
It is a key point in a human being's mental development when they
realize that one can ask "Why?" to just about anything. It's an
awareness of cause-and-effect relationships, and indeed is the
fundamental basis for all scientific inquiry.
So, to directly answer your Question, "Why?" :
In this case, because you asked on Google Answers, and I felt like
providing an Answer.
Google search strategy:
Keyword, "why"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Why%3F
Good luck in continuing your inquiries!
~omniscientbeing-ga |
