Terrence Fugate wrote:

>  Hum how about:
>
>  "...fortunately, there was an excellent library here—and setting up
> classes, and teaching school."
>
>  "Conn gathered a dozen men and women and started classes in computer
> theory and practice; at the same time. He went back to work getting a
> classroom ready for his students."
>
>  "....Then he went back to his classroom.
>  "All right, class dismissed," he said. "You have twenty minutes to
> get your bags packed. We're going to work for real, now."
>
>  Sure feels like some people can learn...

Why did Conn have to gather them? Why didn't the 12 take advantage of
the library on their own?

Might a typical Poictesme teen be like the students in Cheech and
Chong's Sister Mary Elephant?

>  I'd bet the Federation left garages and machine shops.
>  During WWII the Brits made Sten guns in 'every available garage.'
>  You can make a lot of simple stuff in a well equipped garage. You can
> make "anything" in a well equipped machine shop.

A 2 nanometer semiconductor using a CNC lathe or drill press?

> Re: "How far has the population of Poictesme drifted from the 1940s US
> standard you've described at length?"
>
>  I was comparing the US population with Poictesme in 1950 because I
> actually wrote a paper for the mandatory sociology class all
> anthropology majors had to take.
>
>  Drifted isn't a term I'm comfortable with.
>  I suspect most people from 1950 USA would find the social mores of
> the people from the Federation incomprehensible. I'm not sure I can
> draw observations that would be helpful.

Culture influences outcomes. Poictesme has never been the US. It simply
can't be.

Piper shows outcomes on Poictesme. Are those outcomes useful in drawing
inferences about the cultural matrix on Poictesme?