- Academic Evolution
- “Academic Evolution is a blog dedicated to discussing where the new media is leading higher education, publishing, and teaching as the traditional institutions for producing and communicating knowledge are both enhanced and challenged in the digital age.”
- Question: What’s an anagram of “Banach-Tarskiâ€? Answer: “Banach-Tarski Banach-Tarski”
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That Academic Evolution link is wonderful.
It seems to me that there is a hierarchy of revolution.
Mathematics: no revolution … the business of mathematics has been and remains theorem-proving.
Physical science: modest revolution … the business of physical science is to discover basic physical laws, of which we now know plenty.
Engineering: radical revolution … advances in mathematics and physical science have made model-based engineering orders-of-magnitude more effective, both as a radically effective technical tool and as an even more radically effective social tool.
Humanities: revolution so profound as to threaten complete academic collapse … what the heck are the academic humanities nowadays, anyway?
John, thanks for your thoughts on differences in changes to education across disciplines. As I’m in the humanities, I wrestle with your final question most (though I’m trying to track other disciplines, too). See my series on changes to humanities publishing (http://tinyurl.com/7w3p3a). I’d like to know what you mean, though, by advances making “model-based engineering orders-of-magnitude more effective.”