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Dear Kai

Started by The Good Reverend Roger, September 19, 2012, 04:59:13 PM

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LMNO

Quote from: v3x on September 19, 2012, 07:04:49 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on September 19, 2012, 07:03:44 PM
Quote from: v3x on September 19, 2012, 06:30:17 PM
Quote from: Fidel Castro on September 19, 2012, 06:27:30 PM
Quote from: A Very Hairy Monkey In An Ill-Fitting Tunic on September 19, 2012, 06:24:05 PM
The other thrilling thing is watching branches of science which once existed in what we held as separate demesnes increasingly intertwine and overlap. The rate of intertwining is speeding up, to the point where I'm starting to wonder how universities are able to separate sciences into departments at all. There are all these arbitrary department divisions that must constantly be crossed in order to advance the research.

When I was in university, physics was part of the liberal arts department, for some reason.

Probably because when you were in university, physics was the study of how round things roll better than square things, and "The Wheel" was considered far-fetched.

:trolling:

It's for SCIENCE!

Just think how much funnier this will be in 75 years, when SCIENCE will have kept Roger alive for over 300 years.

:lulz:

:ohnotache:

P3nT4gR4m

OR TRANSHUMANISE ME  :lulz:

I'm up to my arse in Brexit Numpties, but I want more.  Target-rich environments are the new sexy.
Not actually a meat product.
Ass-Kicking & Foot-Stomping Ancient Master of SHIT FUCK FUCK FUCK
Awful and Bent Behemothic Results of Last Night's Painful Squat.
High Altitude Haggis-Filled Sex Bucket From Beyond Time and Space.
Internet Monkey Person of Filthy and Immoral Pygmy-Porn Wart Contagion
Octomom Auxillary Heat Exchanger Repairman
walking the fine line line between genius and batshit fucking crazy

"computation is a pattern in the spacetime arrangement of particles, and it's not the particles but the pattern that really matters! Matter doesn't matter." -- Max Tegmark

Kai

Quote from: Fidel Castro on September 19, 2012, 04:59:13 PM
I couldn't help noticing how discouraged you were with the world last night.  I thought about it a little, and the following occurred to me.

Once upon a time, scientists were heroes.  The space race, walking on the moon, better and better methods of cooking, communication, transport, clean air energy...If there was a problem, people looked to the scientists to fix things.  They were placed on a pedestal like Gods.

Then it turned out that there were problems that couldn't be fixed by engineers or physicists or chemists.  Suddenly, that pedestal was knocked out from underneath them, and they were then responsible for all manner of horrible shit...Most of which were actually the same things they'd been lauded for, like nuclear power.  Nuclear power didn't change, the public perception of it changed when they tore down their science gods.

This in fact led to science itself being dragged through the mud...Sometimes by religious fanatics who didn't like the answers science provided in the first place, and sometimes by people who thought they were "doing science", but were actually only adding to the stigma (economists, for example) by smearing the label "science" with whatever wrong-headed shit they were pushing.

And then 40 years go by.  Suddenly, all manner of cool shit is happening.  Possible "warp drive" technology.  Autofabricators.  New and better medicine.  Vat-grown organs.  Artificial meat.  Suddenly, scientists are looking pretty good again.  Never mind that during their years in the wilderness, they gave us cell phones and the internet and better transportation (a car wreck today is nothing like a car wreck in the 70s...Trust me on this one.).  My daughter's smart phone has more computational power than existed in the entire world in 1980.  The internet has allowed more communication between scientists around the world than ever existed, let alone the "glory days" of the scientific community that was ended by WWI.  Technology breeds technology.  Science breeds science.

Also, the anti-science crowd is being more and more marginalized, mostly by themselves, as they push harder and harder for more and more ridiculous things...Because they have started reading their own press, and they think that everyone else in America wants to join their little Taliban Lite.

Now it just remains to be seen whether or not scientists can achieve the same sort of attitude they had in the 60s, the "Hell yes, we can get to the moon on 32K of RAM" sort of "everything is possible" attitude.  All it takes is BIG BRASS BALLS AND/OR OVARIES.  I believe it was Richard Feynman that said "Science, pure science, and damned be he who cries 'enough'!".

While we weren't paying attention, while we were moaning about how shitty the world is, these jackasses were out inventing autofabricators and all manner of other crazy shit.  While we were crying in our beer, the world got better the same way it always has...A few bright, motivated monkeys went out and made shit better for everyone else.

So enough pissing and moaning, Kai.  Sure there's all sorts of bad shit going on.  Warships to the gulf?  Happens like clockwork.  War and rumors of war?  It's ALWAYS been that way, and it used to be WORSE.  It is time to stop worrying about shit you can't change, and instead concentrate on what it is that you DO, which may not be all sexy and shit like the warp drive stuff, but is equally important because you are adding to the sum total knowledge possessed by a species that just might make it, after all.

Things ARE getting better...So you do science, and don't worry about the monkeys.

Yours truly,
P.T. Barnum

Funny how it's the shit I can't change that I get most upset about. The shit I can change, I usually just do without a peep, even if it's a major mess and I'm the responsible party.

And we are living in an amazing time. Mind you, every proceeding era is an amazing time if all you have in comparison is the past. But there are many incredible discoveries being made every day, all thanks to Scientists and their empiricism.

As for me...well, Feynmen yet again offers the explanation. A past student sent him a letter, saddened about working on problems that were humble and down to earth. He responded:

Quote from: To Koichi Mano, 1966I was very happy to hear from you, and that you have such a position in the Research Laboratories. Unfortunately your letter made me unhappy for you seem to be truly sad. The worthwhile problems are the ones you can really solve or help solve, the ones you can really contribute something to. A problem is grand in science if it lies before us unsolved and we see some way for us to make a little headway into it. I would advise you to take even simpler, or as you say, humbler, problems until you find some you can really solve easily, no matter how trivial. You will get the pleasure of success, and of helping your fellow man, even if it is only to answer a question in the mind of a colleague less able than you. You must not take away from yourself these pleasures because you have some erroneous idea of what is worthwhile. No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it. You say you are a nameless man. You are not to your wife and to your child. You will not long remain so to your immediate colleagues if you can answer their simple questions when they come into your office.

You are not nameless to me. Do not remain nameless to yourself — it is too sad a way to be. Know your place in the world and evaluate yourself fairly, not in terms of the naive ideals of your own youth, nor in terms of what you erroneously imagine your teacher's ideals are.

My problems are little problems, but I can really do something about them, and I can answer my colleagues' simple questions, if not more. I am not nameless to myself.
If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water. --Loren Eisley, The Immense Journey

Her Royal Majesty's Chief of Insect Genitalia Dissection
Grand Visser of the Six Legged Class
Chanticleer of the Holometabola Clade Church, Diptera Parish

LMNO

I need to re-read my Feynmann.  That guy is like whoa.

Kai

Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on September 20, 2012, 12:47:44 PM
I need to re-read my Feynmann.  That guy is like whoa.

The guy is a goldmine. It seems like every single thing he ever said publicly is a useful tidbit.
If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water. --Loren Eisley, The Immense Journey

Her Royal Majesty's Chief of Insect Genitalia Dissection
Grand Visser of the Six Legged Class
Chanticleer of the Holometabola Clade Church, Diptera Parish