Science & Technology Quotes

Much of Western society, even in the 21st century has tended to distrust logic, reasonng and emperical research unless there was some kind of philosophical, religious, ethical or idological corroberation. Often science is rejected or ignored if its results do not conform with Westrern society's traditional values. Climate change and evolution are two of the more dramatic example of the continuing influence of the transcendentalists and religious fundamentalists.

Most environmentalists worried about the global warming problem have one basic solution they want the world to adopt. Reduce the carbon footprint by reducing the amount of fossil fuels that we use. However, there are other techniques that are possible and are looking increasingly cost beneficial. But those worried about climate change tend to want to steer public discourse away from other solutions. They worry that if technologists like Myhrvold propose other solutions that may be credible, that will give the politicians of the world a rationalization for stopping the progress on reducing use of fossil fuels and political momentum would be lost with no certainty that these other technologies would be effective or worse whether the politicians would ever appropriate the moneys to give them a try and we would be left with nothing changing and the world warming with all the negative consequences therefrom.

On a much smaller and less damaging scale, there were some government American officials tried to intimidate, censor and if thosoe failed, ruin and discredit scientiosts who did not agree with their view of the dangers of nuclear weapons and the various policy options. Although they drove Oppenheimer and some other scientists out of government and to this day have produced scientists who will not work on government research, the laws, Constitution and checks and galances and cmittment to the Constitution be most Americcans limited the damage somewhat and unlike Russia who assassianted scientists who did not follow the Party line, the few American officials just asassinated their character and patriotism.

This is a classic technique used by politicians of the left and right when they are faced with scientific findings that do not comport with their ideological, religious, or political view of the world. Namely to point out that the science is not settled and the field is still in flux. Therefore, they are, that it si too early to make public policy on the basis of that. And they have little trouble finding that the scientists themselves who did the research that they do not like are the first ones to say that the science is in flux. For ALL SCIENCE IS IN FLUX and new findings are being introduced literally every day in most scientific fields. That very rarely does the new knowledge contradict the older science in huge and dramatic ways. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity turned the field of physics and mechanics upside down but it did not change the calculations that engineers and scientists would make in over 99 percent of their measurements. Within a few decades of Einsteins theory being published, it was demonstrated to be wrong—not completely wrong, but inadequate to measure the mechanics of tiny partials like electrons adn quarks. Quantum mechanics was born. And every week or so these days there is more knowledge that makes slight changes in the way we understand quantum mechanics. No science has ever remained settled for 1000 years since the beginning of scientific inquiry, By the 19th century most science did not remain settled for 100 years. In the 20th century “settled” science rarely lasted more than a decade, and in the 21st century, few are stable for even a year.

The English Language has been in use for over 1000 years. English and English Speaking scientists have been active througout that time. Yet at the time that Wulf pointed this out, the actual word "Scientist" had been in use for less than a century.

Russia was very backward scientifically at the Russian Revolution. Stalin and other of the new Communist leaders realzied that they had to have Russians emprace and gain competence in science but at the same time they were worried that scientists examining Marxist so called "Scientific" analysis of economics and history might reach different conclusions and undermine the party line.

There were a number of hyper conservatives at the time who actually believed this. They either tend to ignore for ideological reasons, the incredible role that local, state, and the Federal government has played in many of the great innovations in our nation. It was a Federal Contract that allowed Eli Whitney to develop the technique of manufacturing with interchangeable parts. The Erie Canal, the greatest and most innovative engineering project in the world at the time was built by the New York State government with State money, It was a Abraham Lincoln Federal contract that produced the research to make the telegraph feasible. Under Theodore Roosevelt, a Federal Government grant made it possible to control Yellow Fever. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had the Army and the Treasure Department fund and operate the Manhattan project which not only developed the atomic bomb but also innovated the tools and methods for nuclear energy production. Most of the early computer programs in America were written by Government employees or by people who were working under government contracts. It was the Army that not only financed but also provided key staff in DARPA which produced the Internet. The Decoding of the Human Genome was the joint innovation of a private group and a Research Laboratory of the National Institutes of Health, and the majority of medical innovations (including pharmaceuticals) in the last 50 years were produced by Government Scientists or Financed by Government Agencies. There are literally thousands of others, a;; of which must be ignored to claim that Government curtails innovation. There has also been a great deal of important innovation that has occurred by independent individuals and private companies without the help of government. The great innovative success of America has been because both the private and public sectors, sometimes working independently and sometimes together has produced a steady production of important innovations that are the envey of the world.

This is a classiic instance of how a scientific breathrough, once achieved, makes continuing and followup activities very easy. In this case, Pryor and his colleagues developed a method of creating a single lens that would correct for chromatic aberation of ALL colors eliminating the need for multiple lens elements in any kind of lens and also enable the lenses to be "printed" using nanoparticla techniques.

The ancient Russian community of Chersonesos near Sebastopol had been rebuilt upon, land that had been graverobbed, and looted of materials of value. However, the Countess and other Russian and world intellectuals lobbied the Czar for Royal Protection of the archeological site. Not unlike the dilemma faced by national and local government even today, the Czar protected the site which is the only reason we have this marvelous resource still as a rich laboratory today. However, the Czar like more modern political leaders acted not from an intellectual conviction of the value to the archeology or the “treasures” which might be found, but from the avoidance of world reputation as “barbarians.”

An employee had issued a 10 page "manifesto" in which he asserted that women in the company were not as capable as the men in the technical fields with which Google was involved. The company had a very strong tradition of free expression for its employees as well as an equally strong tradition of requiring all employees to contribute to a hospitible climate for all other employees. Sundar returned from vacation and issued an e-mail to each employee. This is a quote from that e-mail

The technology that came out of WWII was amazing: In addition to the Atomic Bomb, there was radar, computers, that would break code, antobiotiics, rockets, jet planes and coutless others. In reality, it was technology and the ability to produce it in large scale that determined the result of WWII. It was truly a war of the wizards.