I created the word "parambient" for reasons shortly explained. The original reasons were personal and social. Then I realized that the engineering background of this word can invoke strategies and tactics from mathematics, physics, engineering, as well as biology, which might open new frontiers in all of these subjects, as well as provide better care for those most needing it.

My dear deceased wife, Esther, walked with a cane when I first met her, a victim of polio at age 11 months. She detested the word "cripple", even when applied to things or processes -- "the negotiations were crippled by interferences" -- "the device was crippled by defective parts...". Another word Esther disliked, but often has to tolerate, was "handicapped", which originally meant a beggar: some one handy with a cap to put out for "alms". And Esther especially detested the attributive form of speaking about persons with some diasability, calling them "the disabled", or "the blind", or "the deaf", or "the lame", etc. Labels which pin down a person by some physical feature, as a lepitopterist pins a dead butterfly to a display case -- ignoring other facets of the person's physical and behavioral being. Don´t use the disbility as an attributive noun, but as an adjective coupled with ¨person¨ or some such gabble.

Disabled people have a word for non-disabled people: "tabs" --temporarily able-bodied. And too many tabs are insensitive to their language, especially those in the media. Noticing this, and living with Esther and her problems, inspired me to create another word for certain usages.

Engineers speak, for example, of "the ambient temperature", meaning "the temperature of the environment". This allows the interpretation that a system in equimeasure with its environment is, in that sense, ambient. For a quasi-antonym of this, I conceived the term "para-ambient" or "partially ambient", and shortened my label to "parambient". This parambiency can only be ameliorated by prosthesis -- some prosthetic device such as a cane or spectacles or hearing aid or insulin injections, etc.

Think about the implications of this! The dolphin is said to have a brain bigger than that of a human, and is one of the most ambient of creatures. It seems to be adapted perfectly to its environment. But have dolphins used their brains to create something comparable to human civilization? No, for they don't need to. On the other hand, the human animal is one of the most helpless of all animals -- one of the most parambient. CIVILIZATION IS THE GENERAL PROSTHESIS TO MAKE MORE AMBIENT THIS HELPLESS HUMAN. And, at this Website, I've a file noting that MANY OF THE MOST CREATIVE OR INVENTIVE OR PIONEERING PEOPLE IN HISTORY HAVE BEEN PARAMBIENT -- had some DISABILITY -- were PARAMBIENT

DO YOU WISH TO SEE THE FRONTPAGE OF THIS FILE?