Reflection is Destructive
So long as scientists and philosophers remain a caste, even the problem of morality, that is, of behaviour, will remain for them one of cognition and not of activity, a subject for study and not for practical application, something that just happens rather than something that must be done and, furthermore, done not by individuals but collectively. So long as scholars are not prepared to become a Commission for the elaboration of a plan of common action (and without this mankind cannot act a...
notes Friedrich Engels Funeral Oration for Marx
Just as Darwin discovered the law of evolution in organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of evolution in human history; he discovered the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of ideology, that mankind must first of all eat and drink, have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, religion, art, etc, and that therefore the production of the immediate material means of subsistence and consequently the degree of economic development attained by a given people ... notesMarx discovered the law of evolution in human history, how memes took over from our genes if social circumstances allow for it.
The Goal of Any Science is to Become Trivial
Whether we like it or not, the ultimate goal of every science is to become trivial, to become a well-controlled apparatus for the solution of schoolbook exercises or for practical application in the construction of engines. notesTo become so well-known it is taught in a gradeschool textbook.
Self-Described Otaku
I was an “otaku.” I know that term has come to mean a great many things to a great many people, but for me it simply meant “outsider.” I know Americans, especially young ones, must feel trapped by societal pressure. All humans do. However, if I understand your culture correctly, individualism is something to be encouraged. You revere the “rebel,” the “rogue,” those who stand proudly apart from the masses. For you, individuality is a badge of honor. For us, it is a ribbon of sh... notesThe term "Otaku" carries horrible connotations in Japanese culture, so it seems highly unlikely that a Japanese male would describe himself as such, but in Max Brooks' book, he has such a character. Posted here for the fascinating definition of Otaku that bares little relation to the actual definition.
Science Must Have Practical Application in Ordinary Life
Though the parallel is not complete, it is safe to say that science will never touch them unaided by its practical applications. Its wonders may be catalogued for purposes of education, they may be illustrated by arresting experiments, by numbers and magnitudes which startle or fatigue the imagination but they will form no familiar portion of the intellectual furniture of ordinary men unless they be connected, however remotely, with the conduct of ordinary life. notesThe wonders of science won't hold in people's minds unless they also touch their daily lives.
Study Nature for Truth, Not Usefulness
It must be for truth's sake, and not for the sake of its usefulness to humanity, that the scientific man studies Nature. The application of science to the useful arts requires other abilities, other qualities, other tools than his; and therefore I say that the man of science who follows his studies into their practical application is false to his calling. The practical man stands ever ready to take up the work where the scientific man leaves it, and adapt it to the material wants and uses of ... notesPractical people will take the truth and make something productive of it.
Wonder of the Natural World
Sun's nature as revealed by modern science
far more wonderful: no mere angels or gold coin, but an enormous
sphere into which a million Earths could be packed, in the core of
which the hidden nuclei of atoms are being jammed together,
hydrogen transfigured into helium, the energy latent in hydrogen
for billions of years released, the Earth and other planets warmed
and lit thereby, and the same process repeated four hundred
billion times elsewhere in the Milky Way galaxy?
The blueprints, deta...
1 Scientific explanations are so much more enchanting than supernatural.
Mathematicians Do Math for Its Own Sake
4- As an example, consider the practice of mathematics. Mathematics is in the first place a language in which we discuss those parts of the real world which can be described by numbers or by similar relations of order. But with the workaday business of translating the facts into this language there naturally goes, in those who are good at it, a pleasure in the activity itself. They find the language richer than its bare content; what is translated comes to mean less to them than the logic and...
1 They work the art as if it were poetry, much of it without practical application, but for the beauty of mathematics.
Fundamental Names in Computer Science
Consider some fundamental names: Turing (computation theory and programmable automata), von Neumann (computer architecture), Shannon (information theory), Knuth, Hoare, Dijkstra, and Wirth (programming theory and algorithmics), Feigenbaum and McCarthy (artificial intelligence), Codd (relational model of databases), Chen (entity-relationship model), Lamport (distributed systems), Zadeh (fuzzy logic), Meyer (object-oriented programming), Gamma (design patterns), Cerf (Internet), Berners-Lee (WW... notesThe author uses this list as proof that computer science can be an inductive discipline, but a list of successes is useless for this argument. All of these "fundamental names" are such because their theories were proven in the real world. It's a selective list. We need to see a list of all theorists and then gauge how well induction works versus empiricism.
It does make a good list of big names and their contributions.
