by karvel 11 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
our bookstudy conductor said that the chinese gov't wanted to buy MEPS for "millions" from the society but the society refused saying that they could have it for free if they would use 'my book of bible stories' in their schools....and the chinese gov't agreed................wtf?
anyone else ever heard this story? or is this one region specific?
What is MEPS? only MEPS I know is MEPS-Military Entrance Processing Station
hahahahaha!
I think this one qualifies as a jw urban legend. I wouldn't be surprised to hear something like this as I've heard many doozies from them, but there is no way the chinese government would agree to such a thing. The chinese gov is a cult of its own that wouldn't see eye to eye with the WT. imo.
yes this was one of the urban legends. there are a couple of threads that cover urban legends and I think this one is addressed in those threads as well
There was a similar story about the Chinese government that was told at our CA. About a week later they made an anouncement at the Service meeting that the story was unsubstantiated and should not be repeated.
Multilanguage Electronic Phototypesetting System (MEPS)
***
w 1986 1/1 p.25 par.16 Building for an Eternal Future***Jehovah’s people themselves have contributed their skills in developing a multilanguage electronic phototypesetting system (MEPS), now supplied to 26 Watch Tower branches. This has made possible a unified global offset-printing operation and has helped toward publishing the Kingdom message simultaneously in many parts of the earth.—Compare Isaiah 52:7-9.
One of the better things the JW's have involved themselves in.
fokyc
I didn't hear that, but I did hear the Chinese Government wanted to use the Bible Story books to teach everyone the new unified and simplified chinese language -- which I find hard to believe that a communist state would use a Bible based children's book...
When MEPS first came out, many witnesses misunderstood what it was. They thought it was an automated translating machine. At the time (early 80's), I was a computer programmer and knew that many large companies had tried this, spent millions, and failed. In fact, even today, translating machines are rudimentary, and require considerable human intervention.
MEPS is a phototypesetting machine that is functional in multiple languages - a neat piece of software, but hardly the world-leading technology that many witnesses believed it to be. Today, it is now 21 years old, and in the software business, 21 years is like a millenium.
The likelihood of the Chinese wanting to buy an outdated piece of software for millions of dollars, when there are undoubtedly superior products commercially available is laughable. The idea of the society turning down free money (I mean, selling software in no way diminishes your asset) is equally laughable.
But, witnesses like to believe that they are better than the rest of the world.
This is the same logic that leads them to exclaim how well managed their assemblies are - everything is so precise that only God's direction could make it happen. Well, last year, I went to a Stones concert. The elaborate staging and logistics, and the speed of set up and take down boggle the mind - far superior to anything I ever saw at a convention. But then, Satan has always been better organized than God.
I vaguely remember a story like this - at least the part that the Chinese government wanted to buy the software.
The Chinese government using the Bible Stories book in their schools is silly.
Running Man: You're exactly right about the amount of confusion as to what MEPS was. So many thought that it was software that would take, say, the English WT mag and immediately translate it into dozens of languages. Wayyyyy wrong!
Thanks for jogging the memory!
S4
We were told years ago that the Society sold MEPS to IBM. Turning around and selling it to the Chinese as well wouldn't surprise me if the idea of the Chinese actually "buying" software weren't so laughable in itself.
W
