I liked the quote by Paul Ginsparg (who is one of my heroes) to the effect that “qualitatively new forms of academic effort” are being created.
But how likely is it that these “qualitatively new forms of academic effort” will be welcomed?
Reaching into my database of quotes, I find this zinger from Stephen B. Johnson’s The Secret of Apollo: Systems Management in American and European Space Programs: “The extreme environment of space exacted its toll in numerous failures of extremely expensive systems. Those funding the race demanded results. In response, development organizations created what few expected and what even fewer wanted — a bureaucracy for innovation.”
This leads us to ask: “What is it that young scientists and engineers want, and what are they likely to get?”
For sure, the answer cannot be: “A community of mathematicians, scientists, and engineers that embodies the traditional values and social mores of the present community, but with 20X as many jobs.”
The reason is that academic enterprises are undergoing a transformational increase in scope and scale that is (in its own way) as dramatic as the increase in scope and scale of the Apollo Program.
This suggests that even under the most favorable scenarios that we can presently imagine, the global community of mathematicians, scientists, and engineers in the year (say) 2050 is likely to take a form that (in Stephen Johnson’s phrase) “few expect and even fewer want.”
The point of the above is not to express pessimism … because the dystopian future of a planet with ten billion people on it does not bear contemplation. The point is instead to express the optimistic view that we may even find that we like our future … once we get used to it.
"Any real sketchbook is full of misfires, false starts and stumbles, with a few successes sprinkled here and there. If you were capable of doing a perfect drawing every time, you wouldn't need to carry a sketchbook! But the quickest way to learn how to do perfect drawings is to do a lot of crappy ones first...and learn from them. So don't view […]
"I conclude that there are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult. It demands the same skill, devotion, insight, and even inspiration as the discovery […]
"And that's why Chess and Go remain as enduringly popular as they are, and why soccer is the most popular game on earth. Robustness and elegance are the key driving forces here, and they are in direct opposition to the brittleness and complexity, the defining traits of story. " […]
Remarkable survey of the cutting edge of surfing. We see the origins of tow-rope surfing (where surfers are pulled by jet skis into waves that are too big to paddle out to), the use of hydrofoil designs that put the board a foot or two _above_ the wave, and even the use of weather stations to monitor conditions out in mid-ocean, looking for giant waves. […]
The story of the 2002 mayoral election in Newark, New Jersey. Scrappy idealist underdog Cory Booker attempts to unseat long-time mayor Sharpe James. Striking in part because it shows just how James built an image and a feel around his administration, quite disconnected from facts. […]
James Cameron's documentary about the real Titanic. Interesting both for the historical angle, to get a sense of what Titanic was like (much like his film, it seems), and also for the technology used to explore the ship. […]
An experiment in democracy, as we see the election for class monitor in a grade 3 Chinese classroom. We see extraordinarily raw self interest expressed in very different ways by all three candidate. How different are adults? Unpleasant, but memorable. […]
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I liked the quote by Paul Ginsparg (who is one of my heroes) to the effect that “qualitatively new forms of academic effort” are being created.
But how likely is it that these “qualitatively new forms of academic effort” will be welcomed?
Reaching into my database of quotes, I find this zinger from Stephen B. Johnson’s The Secret of Apollo: Systems Management in American and European Space Programs: “The extreme environment of space exacted its toll in numerous failures of extremely expensive systems. Those funding the race demanded results. In response, development organizations created what few expected and what even fewer wanted — a bureaucracy for innovation.”
This leads us to ask: “What is it that young scientists and engineers want, and what are they likely to get?”
For sure, the answer cannot be: “A community of mathematicians, scientists, and engineers that embodies the traditional values and social mores of the present community, but with 20X as many jobs.”
The reason is that academic enterprises are undergoing a transformational increase in scope and scale that is (in its own way) as dramatic as the increase in scope and scale of the Apollo Program.
This suggests that even under the most favorable scenarios that we can presently imagine, the global community of mathematicians, scientists, and engineers in the year (say) 2050 is likely to take a form that (in Stephen Johnson’s phrase) “few expect and even fewer want.”
The point of the above is not to express pessimism … because the dystopian future of a planet with ten billion people on it does not bear contemplation. The point is instead to express the optimistic view that we may even find that we like our future … once we get used to it.