20 MAR 2018 by ideonexus
The Bible of Civilization
But to begin with perhaps I may meet an objection that is likely to arise. I have called this hypothetical book of ours the Bible of Civilization, and it may be that someone will say: Yes, but you have a sufficient book of that sort already; you have the Bible itself and that is all you need. Well, I am taking the Bible as my model. I am taking it because twice in history—first as the Old Testament and then again as the Old and New Testament together—it has formed a culture, and unified a...Folksonomies: civilization idealism
Folksonomies: civilization idealism
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notes
notesAn example of Wells idealism. He envisions a single, unifying book, but his bible is the sum of human literature, and the true story is constantly under revision, but written authoritatively in nature for us to read. He sees a book describing ethical conduct, but again our laws are such a book and we are constantly debating them in the courts and revising them in our legislatures.
21 NOV 2017 by ideonexus
Cosplay as Empowerment
"Cosplay is a form of empowerment for all children and adults," says Stanford Carpenter, president and cofounder of the Institute for Comics Studies, who says that he used to be dismissive of cosplay. But after attending dozens of ComicCons, he witnessed the dress-up affair changing masked heroes indefinitely. "It's about empowerment. It's about the possibility of what you can be or what you can do. And when you see people in underrepresented groups, it takes on the empowerment fantasy of not... 1 notes
notes03 JAN 2017 by ideonexus
A User Interface Can Change the Way We Think
In extreme cases, to use such an interface is to enter a new world, containing objects and actions unlike any you've previously seen. At first these elements seem strange. But as they become familiar, you internalize the elements of this world. Eventually, you become fluent, discovering powerful and surprising idioms, emergent patterns hidden within the interface. You begin to think with the interface, learning patterns of thought that would formerly have seemed strange, but which become seco...Folksonomies: technology cognition
Folksonomies: technology cognition
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notes24 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
Manchester and the Birth of the Industrial Revolution
What was so exciting about Manchester? Disraeli with his acute political and historical instinct understood that Manchester had done something unique and revolutionary. Only he was wrong to call it science. What Manchester had done was to invent the Industrial Revolution, a new style of life and work which began in that little country town about two hundred years ago and inexorably grew and spread out from there until it had turned the whole world upside down. Disraeli was the first politicia...Folksonomies: academia revolution
Folksonomies: academia revolution
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notes19 FEB 2014 by ideonexus
There are "Levels" to Understanding Mathematics
The way it was described to me when I was in high school was in terms of 'levels'.
Sometimes, in your mathematics career, you find that your slow progress, and careful accumulation of tools and ideas, has suddenly allowed you to do a bunch of new things that you couldn't possibly do before. Even though you were learning things that were useless by themselves, when they've all become second nature, a whole new world of possibility appears. You have "leveled up", if you will. Something clicks,...Folksonomies: mathematics levels
Folksonomies: mathematics levels
1 notes
notesAs you learn more and more, your comprehension grows and you see more of the big picture. Conversations with people at other levels change as you rise.
29 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Reality Teaches Us
At birth one may stand at the cross-roads for only a few lal. The adjustments are peremptory. The human mechanism must adjust itself to the new world. If it does,—then life. Sometimes it is necessary to "slap" it. That is "science" giving a first lesson in adjustment. An adequate supply of oxygen for the cells of the body is the first problem man faces when he comes into this world. Every pink pill is not a piece of candy. Science goes to the rescue and re-establishes adjustments. Man tires... 1 notes
notesWe start out trying to figure out the world, and science teaches us the lessons, but when we overbelieve--go beyond empirical evidence--we "may spoil the garden."
27 AUG 2012 by ideonexus
On the Importance of Bacon
The most singular, as well as the most excellent, of all his works, is that which is now the least read, and which is at the same time the most useful; I mean his "Novum Scientiarum Organum." This is the scaffold by means of which the edifice of the new philosophy has been reared; so that when the building was completed, the scaffold was no longer of any use. Chancellor Bacon was still unacquainted with nature, but he perfectly knew, and pointed out extraordinarily well, all the paths which...Folksonomies: discovery natural philosophy
Folksonomies: discovery natural philosophy
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notesBarbarism discovered many useful inventions by accident, but Francis Bacon discovered natural philosophy according to Voltaire.
13 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Columbus As An Example of the Scientific Method
The role of hypothesis in research can be discussed more effectively if we consider first some examples of discoveries which originated from hypotheses. One of the best illustrations of such a discovery is provided by the story of Christopher Columbus' voyage; it has many of the features of a classic discovery in science. (a) He was obsessed with an idea—that since the world is round he could reach the Orient by sailing West, (b) the idea was by no means original, but evidently he had obtai...
1 His hypothesis, his observations, his search for funding, his experiment, his refusal to give up certain preconceptions, and his meager life and failure to be the first.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Herschel Compares Scientific Discovery to Columbus' Explo...
Herschel prophetically implied that electricity and electro-magnetism still hid many secrets, and that their investigation would become the leading science of the new age. This would indeed be Faraday’s coming field of triumph. He summarised (paragraph no. 376) this pursuit in the image of a great and noble sea voyage of exploration. ‘There is something in this which reminds us of the obstinate adherence of Columbus to his notion of the necessary existence of the New World; and the whole ... 1 notes
notesThrough analogies and parallels the scientists finds branches to connect fields of knowledge.
19 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
Technology Manufactures Social Change
The main thing, it seems to me, is to remember that technology
manufactures not gadgets, but social change. Once the first tool
was picked up and used, that was the end of cyclical anything. The
tool made a new world, the next one changed that world, the one
after that changed it again, and so on. Each time the change
was permanent. Using the tool changes the user permanently,
whether we like it or not. Once when I was in Moscow talking
to academician Petrov, I said, “Why don’t you buy Am... 1 notes
notesExamples of technology changing society, unintended consequences.
