The Helpful Gardener
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Posts: 7491
Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
Location: Colchester, CT

Science doesn't have to make you a Vulcan.
You're right. But it does have a tendency to if you don't watch it.

E.G., we were blasting right over OL's head in rocket ships while she was still trying to figure things out. Our knowledge did her no good at all until we distilled it down to some simpler memes. There is a big event at Harvard every year where people present the topics of their paper that they have slaved over for years in a fairly concise fashion, and then give a six word non-scientific presentation. It is pretty laughable, but also informative, because it makes them break it down, put it in context, and suddenly I can suddnely understand what the polysyllabic goop they were just talking about means.

Science forgets itself in this higher order of language somtimes, forgets that for much of science to truly have meaning it must become a socially accepted meme. The climate debate is a fine example of where the scientific community is falling on its collective keister, being drowned out by money with megaphones. The necessity of a shorthand of technical terminology should never override the greater necessity of communicating your thought to the rest of the species.

I am glad we have scientists, and I don't want them to stop doing what they are doing. But I am glad we have Masonobu, and Sepp, and Ruth to tell them to stick it in their eye and show them some new stuff too. Both paradigms hold great value, equal in my mind... They should work together more...

My 2 cents...

HG

paul wheaton
Full Member
Posts: 53
Joined: Thu Apr 09, 2009 4:32 pm

I think all progress would be accelerated by a factor of 20 if we embraced what I like to call "the language of the engineers" (could be "the language of the scientist" too). Basically, qualifying statements and eliminating fallacy and exaggeration.

Fukuoka and Holzer are innovaters that look five or six big leaps. Fortunately they did do some level of documenation.

I would like to say that Fukuoka and Holzer are following in the steps of Einstein.



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