Re: The Awesomesauce of Science
Reply #38 –
Those that continually use the word to the point of being over the top and weakened the expression are not of my world and thank heavens for that.
I might agree with you on this point, Howie… "Awesome" is a word whose meaning has lapsed into banality. (Somewhat like Scotland has become the stepchild of England: lost and forlorn! If only it could have become a Soviet Republic, way back when!) Why -do you think- has the concept of awe become so incredibly difficult to understand in today's world?
I'll suggest a reason:
Science has so often succeeded, and provided so much prosperity and so many "creature" comforts, for so long that there is hardly anyone left who remembers a time when "progress" wasn't presumed to be the norm…
Yet most people have little (or nothing!) to do with making this happen.
You yourself seem to use a computer (of sorts) and, yet, I doubt you've ever built -let alone, designed- one. (Don't feel that I'm picking on you personally: I've never "built -let alone- designed" a car or TV… 
) But don't you too take such things for granted?
Younger people are not as impressed by "progress" as you or I would be… But -in that- they are not being very different from us.
(Remember "indoor plumbing"? What a God-send!*)
Okay. Now, to the topic:
What the heck does Apollo 13 have to do with Science?
I know, the impetus for such missions was exploration, and scientific knowledge… (If you want to be non-confrontational!) But the failures of that particular moon-shot were technological. And human ingenuity overcame them — just barely.
It hadn't anything to do with good or bad science.
There was nothing about Science that came under scrutiny — except for the few individuals who said, "You're spending money that WE NEED!"
(Isabella probably had to deal with such…)
I assume -when Belfrager called this topic one he'd like to pursue- that he meant the implication(s) of its title. (But I may have taken him wrong…). Myself, I would like to discuss how Science continues the human sense of Awe!
Is it merely the "we're such wee meaningless accidents of blind evolution"? I don't think so. (Feel free to disagree…) Is it that most of what we think we know is now incomprehensible — by the great majority of us? Again, I think not. Perhaps it is…that we and reality seem to persist, together.
(Someone: Call a Philosopher!)
The more we learn about our "surroundings" — the more confused we become. And yet our confusion offers our peculiar way of persisting openings through which we might learn more. And, perhaps, glean enough…
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• Many years ago, in discussion with a Punjabi proprietor of a liquor store, the topic of hygiene came up. Specifically -although I have no idea how (perhaps he'd read a magazine article…)- he asked me, "How did your early settlers wipe their butts?"
Having never considered the question before, I blurted out: Leaves?!
He said, "Ha! Uncivilized."
"Well," I said, "How did your ancestors…?"
He said, simply, "We washed!"
I gave it a few moments' thought and said: "That might explain the frequent out-breaks of Cholera…"
(He never spoke civilly to me again…)
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(There was a poem -almost done- that I'd wanted to post — but it's gone! Oh, well.)
Topic: The Awesomesauce of Science (Read 25598 times)
