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Dear Kai

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

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The Good Reverend Roger

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
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

LMNO

#1
September 19, 2012, 05:18:23 PM
Wise words to live by.  The world is both going straight to hell, and being raised above it's meager origins.  The achievements of SCIENCE are tempered by the apes that think they understand it.  And the whole thing spins, a cacaphonous waltz that can only really be called existence.

The Good Reverend Roger

#2
September 19, 2012, 05:29:26 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on September 19, 2012, 05:18:23 PM
Wise words to live by.  The world is both going straight to hell, and being raised above it's meager origins.  The achievements of SCIENCE are tempered by the apes that think they understand it.  And the whole thing spins, a cacaphonous waltz that can only really be called existence.

The achievements of SCIENCE are enjoyed by people raised to hate it.  No worries, it's been that way for a long time, and things still move right along.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

The Good Reverend Roger

#3
September 19, 2012, 05:37:15 PM
It reminds me of the atheist/theist conundrum.  What do you do with your life, given the uncertainties of what happens when you die?  Well, obviously, you live your life.

Just so with amazing advances in a world full of suicidal primates.  They're busy tearing stuff up and shitting all over the future, and I'm working for a company that is involved with making transparent aluminum.  Fuck the primates and their stupidity, we're doing SCIENCE for its own sake.

And if the world ends tomorrow?  Well, at least I was doing something COOL when it happened, right?

Build the future today, let tomorrow worry about tomorrow.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

LMNO

#4
September 19, 2012, 05:42:45 PM
You're doing what, now?


Dude, I want a transparent aluminum drum set.  It would sound totally freaky, and look amazingly cool.

The Good Reverend Roger

#5
September 19, 2012, 05:46:01 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on September 19, 2012, 05:42:45 PM
You're doing what, now?


Dude, I want a transparent aluminum drum set.  It would sound totally freaky, and look amazingly cool.

Okay, but it's a little pricey.  Right now it's being tested for use as armor for the military, but there's about a billion applications for it.

Fun part:  The entire armor section (windshield, whatever) is grown as a single alumina synthetic sapphire crystal.  Basically, the alumina is heated up over 3000C, whereupon all the atoms in the feedstock line up in perfectly straight rows.  The hardest stuff on Earth, utterly flawless, and it won't melt unless you actually nuke it or chuck it into the sun.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

The Good Reverend Roger

#6
September 19, 2012, 05:49:15 PM
Another application it's being tested on is making screens for phones, etc, that can't break.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

#7
September 19, 2012, 05:58:58 PM
Can I tell you the most exciting thing about science right now? The thing that literally makes my nipples hard when I think about it?

It's that we don't know what we're going to be doing in four years. We are moving so fast that kids starting college now have no idea what kinds of jobs or research they will be doing when they graduate. Can't even speculate.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."

The Good Reverend Roger

#8
September 19, 2012, 06:01:33 PM
Quote from: A Very Hairy Monkey In An Ill-Fitting Tunic on September 19, 2012, 05:58:58 PM
Can I tell you the most exciting thing about science right now? The thing that literally makes my nipples hard when I think about it?

It's that we don't know what we're going to be doing in four years. We are moving so fast that kids starting college now have no idea what kinds of jobs or research they will be doing when they graduate. Can't even speculate.

And this is, as I have said, what the singularity really means.  It's not Science Jesus or any of that other hippie shit, it's the point in time where you can no longer make educated guesses about the future, as technology is increasing faster than the news of the technology can be communicated.

In 1500 CE, that was about 300 years ahead.

Now it's about 2-4 years ahead.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

tyrannosaurus vex

#9
September 19, 2012, 06:06:52 PM
The Warp Drive news I caught wind of and posted about got me thinking about this. There's so much awesome shit happening in science right now I really do not understand why the entire species doesn't just stop what they're doing, walk outside, gaze up into the sky and just wonder about things.

Like the only living Deity in the world, Devin Townsend, once wrote: "Technology will be the Second Coming, and it will hit us while we're looking for a man."
Evil and Unfeeling Arse-Flenser From The City of the Damned.

LMNO

#10
September 19, 2012, 06:09:05 PM
And if that Feynmann quote is accurate, I think I want it as a tattoo.

The Good Reverend Roger

#11
September 19, 2012, 06:09:36 PM
Quote from: v3x on September 19, 2012, 06:06:52 PM
The Warp Drive news I caught wind of and posted about got me thinking about this. There's so much awesome shit happening in science right now I really do not understand why the entire species doesn't just stop what they're doing, walk outside, gaze up into the sky and just wonder about things.

Like the only living Deity in the world, Devin Townsend, once wrote: "Technology will be the Second Coming, and it will hit us while we're looking for a man."

Hell yeah.

Even the healing bit.  The feedstock we are making cannot react with the human body.

Unbreakable, eternal replacement joints and bones that your body can't reject.  And that's just ONE company, and it's only a fraction of what we do.  Throw in those lunatics at NASA and the crazy Germans who are building machines that build machines, and things are looking exciting as hell.

Then feed the multitudes with vat-grown beef, instead of loaves and fishes.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

The Good Reverend Roger

#12
September 19, 2012, 06:10:17 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on September 19, 2012, 06:09:05 PM
And if that Feynmann quote is accurate, I think I want it as a tattoo.

It's a real quote, and I can find out if it was Feynman.  Hang on.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

The Good Reverend Roger

#13
September 19, 2012, 06:13:13 PM
Found this while I was looking:

"The loveliest theories are being overthrown by these damned experiments; it's no fun being a chemist anymore."
- Justus von Liebig, 1834
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

P3nT4gR4m

#14
September 19, 2012, 06:17:32 PM Last Edit: September 19, 2012, 06:20:19 PM by P3nT4gR4m
Quote from: Fidel Castro on September 19, 2012, 06:10:17 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on September 19, 2012, 06:09:05 PM
And if that Feynmann quote is accurate, I think I want it as a tattoo.

It's a real quote, and I can find out if it was Feynman.  Hang on.

Real or not it's a cool as fuck thing to have tattooed on your johnston regardless.

Who the fuck attributes sources on a tatt anyroad?

*ETA*

Regarding the OP - fuck yeah! It's getting easier and easier to maintain a permanent sense of wonder, given that, in the couple of days it takes something wondrous and new to become mundane, something new and wondrous appears. We live in the most awesome period in history and it's getting more awesome by the hour.

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
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