20 NOV 2018 by ideonexus
Seeing Organizations as Biological Systems
There’s a continuing struggle between complexity and robustness in both evolution and human design. A kind of survival imperative, whether in biology, engineering, or business requires that simple, fragile systems become more robust. But the mechanisms to increase robustness will in turn make the system considerably more complex. Furthermore, that additional complexity brings with it its own unanticipated failure modes, which are corrected over time with additional robust mechanisms, which ...- Other takeaways: Resilience, rather than efficiency. Holism, rather than reductionism. Plurality, rather than universality. Pragmatism, rather than intellectualism Experimentation, rather than deduction Indirect, rather than direct approaches
06 JAN 2018 by ideonexus
Considering Art Creative but Engineering Not as a Questio...
In retrospect, Cohen and MacKeith made a number of questionable assumptions that undermine that conclusion. To be fair, these assumptions were quite common among psychologists at the time and still persist to a significant degree among the public. One of these assumptions is that some activities, such as the arts, are inherently creative, whereas others, such as science or engineering, are not. Another assumption is that creativity is a function of one's ability to fantasize, which is to say,...06 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
On the Future of Chemistry
Chemistry is not the preservation hall of old jazz that it sometimes looks like. We cannot know what may happen tomorrow. Someone may oxidize mercury (II), francium (I), or radium (II). A mineral in Nova Scotia may contain an unsaturated quark per 1020 nucleons. (This is still 6000 per gram.) We may pick up an extraterrestrial edition of Chemical Abstracts. The universe may be a 4-dimensional soap bubble in an 11-dimensional space as some supersymmetry theorists argued in May of 1983. Who kno...Folksonomies: chemistry
Folksonomies: chemistry
The science has a nebulous future to predict owing to the engineering and experimental nature of its character.
23 APR 2012 by ideonexus
Civilization is the Story of Engineering
The story of civilization is, in a sense, the story of engineering—that long and arduous struggle to make the forces of nature work for man's good.Folksonomies: civilization engineering
Folksonomies: civilization engineering
All culture is about bending nature to human will.
12 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
The Engineer is the Key Figure in the Material Progress o...
The engineer is the key figure in the material progress of the world. It is his engineering that makes a reality of the potential value of science by translating scientific knowledge into tools, resources, energy and labor to bring them to the service of man ... To make contribution of this kind the engineer requires the imagination to visualize the needs of society and to appreciate what is possible as well as the technological and broad social age understanding to bring his vision to reality.Folksonomies: engineering
Folksonomies: engineering
He translates scientific knowledge into tools, resources, energy and labor.
10 AUG 2011 by ideonexus
Adam and Eve are a Religious Variable
“But…” Lyra struggled to find the words she wanted: “but it en’t true, is it? Not true like chemistry or engineering, not that kind of true? There wasn’t really an Adam and Eve? The Cassington Scholar told me it was just a kind of fairy tale.” “The Cassington Scholarship is traditionally given to a freethinker; it’s his function to challenge the faith of the Scholars. Naturally he’d say that. But think of Adam and Eve like an imaginary number, like the square root of minu...Included in theistic equations the same way the square root of minus one is used in mathematics.
21 APR 2011 by ideonexus
L Peter Deutsch: Computer Science is Not Science
I have a little bit of a rant about computer science also. I could make a pretty strong case that the word science should not be applied to computing. I think essentially all of what's called computer science is some combination of engineering and applied mathematics. I think very little of it is science in terms oft of the scientific process, is, where what you're doing is developing better descriptions of observed phenomena.Folksonomies: computer science
Folksonomies: computer science
It is applied mathematics and engineering.