The Ancient Japanese Technique That Produces Lumber Without Cutting Trees

Re:The Ancient Japanese Technique That Produces Lumber Witho... by rsynnott on Wednesday November 23, 2022 @08:21AM (#33718793)

> but like so much else in Japan to a westerner’s eyes, it’s appearance only.

Eh. I'm not sure I'd call it appearance only. In some parts of "the West" (notably the Roman Republic and early Empire, but it went on a for a long time after that) adult adoption as a succession/continuity-of-business mechanism was commonplace.

Notable Roman examples include the _first two emperors_ (Augustus/Octavian was adopted by Julius Caesar, Tiberius was adopted by Augustus. Tiberius also had both an adopted and natural son; given that the adopted one was adopted before the natural one was born, he was the heir, giving some indication of how seriously this was taken. (Ultimately they both died)

Even in medieval and early modern Europe, legally adopting apprentices etc wasn't uncommon.

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Re:The Ancient Japanese Technique That Produces Lumber Witho... by brutusborn on Wednesday November 23, 2022 @08:44AM (#33718983)

My memory was that the emperor adoptions were more pragmatic than anything, either because the emperor didn't have a son or as insurance against a power struggle caused by a single son dying. It's been a while so I could be mistaken.

This is the same mechanism that business succession planning reduces risk. Failure to train and groom new talent for leadership roles is a good way to ensure a company dies with its current staff.

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Re:The Ancient Japanese Technique That Produces Lumber Witho... by rsynnott on Wednesday November 23, 2022 @10:18AM (#33720210)

> My memory was that the emperor adoptions were more pragmatic than anything, either because the emperor didn't have a son or as insurance against a power struggle caused by a single son dying.

Yeah, generally, but they're just the most famous examples (because emperor); this was standard behaviour for the time if you had something to pass on and didn't have kids. Adopting adult men was really commonplace in Roman society; Roman infant mortality was _astronomical_. The Japanese adoptions mentioned above were pragmatic, too.

Arguably, it's unfortunate that the custom died out for European aristocracy (though it did continue to some extent for normal people). A _huge_ number of wars were caused by failure to produce an heir.

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Re:The Ancient Japanese Technique That Produces Lumber Witho... by brigandish on Thursday November 24, 2022 @02:16AM (#33728582)

I meant modern eyes but point taken, that is indeed interesting.

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