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Unabomber Manifesto -- an excerpt
"Steve Harris" writes:
"Thomas McDonald" wrote in message ... "David James Polewka" wrote in message ... http://www.panix.com/~clays/Una/una3.html THE MOTIVES OF SCIENTISTS ...snip... "curiosity" explanation for the scientists' motive just doesn't stand up. David, This fellow is a comedian. How interesting that he feels competent to rule on what is "normal". FWIW, pretty much everyone I know who has a very narrow scientific focus has a range of curiousity and excitement about other areas. Hell, even Gould was a Red Sox fan, and wrote on baseball. Most scientists I know read things like Science News or Science Digest, and have an avid interest at least in all areas of science (and usually many other areas of learning as well). Alas, we live in a world of specialization which particularly rewards specialists, grant-wise. ...snip... When Albert Einstein delivered a eulogy for his friend and fellow scientist Max Planck, he said some people become scientists for various reasons, as a way to compete, to achieve fame, but some, including Planck, did it because they wanted to know and under- stand the world. Also, from an essay by Martin Rees at http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/rees03/rees_print.html: It's good for us as researchers to address a wider public. It makes us realize what the big questions are. What I mean by this is that in science the right methodology is often to focus on a piece of the problem which you think you can solve. It's only cranks who try to solve the big problems at one go. If you ask a scientist what they're doing, they won't say trying to cure cancer or trying to understand the universe; they'll point at something very specific, progress is made by solving bite-sized problems one at a time. But the occupational risk for scientists is that even though that's the right methodology, they sometimes lose sight of the big picture. Members of a lay audience always ask the big questions, the important questions, and that helps us to remember that our piecemeal efforts are only worthwhile insofar as they're steps towards answering those big questions. |
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