I've kept a journal for a long time, but I want to start writing in a bit of a different format - basically more of a project log and a more organized collection of my thoughts on different topics. The main goal here is to capture some of the mental energy that I have and save it for posterity, rather than just letting it vanish in the ether.
On that note, recently I have WAY too much mental energy. Like, my mind keeps thinking about building a battlebot, for no very good reason. Even though I've got lots of work to do and lots of more urgent things going on.
One possible cause is that we went to the maker faire two weeks ago, which was the first time I've actually witnessed a robot fight firsthand. It was badass.
Another contributor might be the fact that we had a long weekend vacation, with just our family. That kind of thing hasn't happened for over a year. So maybe it has given me a bit of an energy boost.
The third possible cause... I've been reading this: The Science of Liberty: Democracy, Reason, and the Laws of Nature
I've never really dived far into the relationship between the development of science and the birth of democracy, although as I'm reading this book the connection seems obvious. Not in the sense that there isn't some really deep material to wade through here, but in the sense that the historical milestones line up so well and the characters are so clearly interrelated that it feels like I should have thought about this before.
It also deals with a lot of the same folks from Neal Stephenson's incredible series: The Baroque Cycle: Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World
. A quick google shows that I really should have bought the cloth-bound collector's edition when it came out... it was $100 at the time, if I remember correctly, and now seems to be going for $800.At any rate, it is inspiring as hell reading about the foundations of modern science, especially in the context of the massive social change it was so intimately related with. Every time I read about the great experimenters and early engineers in particular - Galileo, Boyle, Hooke, and now Spinoza - I'm struck with how inventive they were, and how amazing it must have been to be coming up with novel ideas, left and right, for the first time in history. Of course, they most likely had no idea of the incredible foundations they were laying (although, going by Bacon's quotes, maybe they understood EXACTLY what they were doing). It seems a bit unfair, in some ways, that now most novelty comes in the form of a tiny refinement of an exhaustively well developed concept, or in the application of very understood principles and technologies to previously ignored niches.
That said, thinkers of every generation have probably had similar thoughts. It's easy to look at Leonardo who seemingly sketched out primitive versions of most of our fundamental technologies, or any of the scientists who sketched out incredible new fields of study in a single paper in the early 1900's and wish for those same opportunities. However, I'm not sure that those same opportunities aren't sitting right in front of us today: the things that can be done now by a single nerd with a computer, a few months, and a bit of money represent years of work by a team of draftsmen, engineers, and human computers.
I think we're on the precipice of another golden age of invention and discovery, and at the very least, any one who is motivated to try it can replicate a few hundred years of scientific progress with the investment of a few hundred dollars in hobbiest-level equipment.
Personally, all my thoughts lately about robotics and science and history and politics have got me fired up in a way that I can't remember being since I was a teacher. I miss those times, and especially my favorite feeling: knowing that it was my JOB to build ridiculous science experiments.
No comments:
Post a Comment