help with a question

Describe ONE of the following complex concepts in simple terms that a layperson could understand, to allow us to understand its mind-blowing importance.

• Electricity
• Object Relational Mapping
• Metaphysics


anyone have any idea what i could write? any simple ideas would be awesome. i cant think of much.

Importance with regards to what?

p.s. naughty! is this homework!?

yeah haha. importance just generally i guess. :( hardness.

Presuming you know what they all are:

Electricity ... you really need help for why electricity is important?

Object Relational Mapping: Not important really with regards to getting something done, but extremely useful and increases efficiency developing software applications that work with relational databases.

Metaphysics: Important because it is the branch of philosophy which all your further philosophy must not violate and must revolve around. Any philosophy you hold should be consistent with your metaphysical philosophy (for example, your philosophy on fidelity cannot violate your philosophy on 'what is being?') and because of the way your metaphysical philosophy dictates all your other philosophies, it is inherently important.

These three things are so different from each other. What the hell is the subject? Electricity seems relevant to a physics subject. Object Relational Mapping relevant to a programming subject, and metaphysics relevant to a philosophy subject. What the fuck, dude?

its for a grad position, have to fill out this massive thing. thanks heaps for having a go at it, thats good stuff man.

I lost you after following....

my brain just ezploded...

If it's for a grad position I am tempted to assume it's somewhat of a trick question. They might not care about those three things themselves but actually the concept of importance and its subjectivity. By this I mean, perhaps you would do better to discuss the concept of importance, and that in order to apply a value of importance to anything, we need information such as: Important to whom? Important to what end? Important in what context? etc. What criteria does a given thing need to meet in order to be accepted as important?

Is importance dictated by desire? Is it dictated by life? For example, electricity is most certainly not important as far as staying alive is concerned, since we most certainly survive without it. Is food important? Absolutely, since we die without it. In a context of life/death, none of those three things hold any importance whatsoever. This is of course only true if we mean electricity as utility rather than electricity as a part of nature (which powers our brain etc).

Object relational Mapping. (I know this one stop hogging it all Dwain!)

Ok this is used alot in enterprise systems however as a developer you will never apply it directly.

This is where a row in a database (ie: name: echoes password: pass1) is mapped to an object within your code. This makes it easier to modify a database from an object oriented piece of code. When you change the object in your code this change is reflected on the database.

That's a definition though veom. The question is about importance.

Is this really about importance? The way I interpret that question it is a matter of being able to convey highly complex information in relatively simple terms which will enable normal people to understand the subject better. Explaining why the subject is important seems secondary to actually convey information about the subject in an easily understandable way.
Take the Theory of Relativity. Very complex and incredibly hard to wrap your head around, but by explaining the theory using a train to represent the speed of light Albert Einstein managed to make the otherwise complex theory into an idea that most people are able to understand. Making you explain why the concept is important (or allowing them to understand why it is important) seems more like a way to ensure that you actually know what you are talking about, as opposed to just copying a wikipedia article.

You're basically tasked with explaining sciencey things without being sciencey.

it doesn't matter, got through to the next round! haha thanks to all who had a crack at it for sure. only lke 20 rounds to go!

Too late, but seriously search for everything...
First two links are simple english version of wikipedia for less complex explanation.
Just change the wording around somewhat and you are good.

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphysics
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_Relational_Mapping

I'll say it again. It is NOT asking for definitions!

Shroom wrote:

I'll say it again. It is NOT asking for definitions!

Definitions:
1. A statement of the exact meaning of a word, esp. in a dictionary.
2. An exact statement or description of the nature, scope, or meaning of something.

Exactly