

The Scientist as Rebel - poindontcare
https://books.google.com/books?id=Jhr8AwAAQBAJ&lpg=PT15&ots=MreY2f8eEg&dq=scientist%20as%20a%20rebel&pg=PT15#v=onepage&q&f=false

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mathgenius
Wow, this actually looks really great.

I just got through reading Edward Frenkel's book "Love and Math", which was
excellent up until he started to make claims about how mathematics would save
the world, triumph of objectivism, etc. etc. And just prior to this he wafts
over Godel without even mentioning incompleteness.

So I'm heartened to read Dyson talking about incompleteness as a failure of
"reductionism". And then throwing Einstein into the same dumpster. (But we all
love uncle Albert anyway.)

------
fitzwatermellow
“In the history of science there is always a tension between revolutionaries
and conservatives, between those who build grand castles in the air and those
who prefer to lay one brick at a time on solid ground.” -Freeman Dyson

~~~
noobermin
I keep looking for these revolutionaries, because all I seem to find are
people who rather we tow the party line, study popular theories and methods
that will win grants, are more busywork than difficult since they are doable
but are tractable and easily fundable with low risk since they are but minor
adjusting of the skirt of the already established theory.

~~~
jamesrcole
To me the question is, how can we structure things so the incentives aren't
biased so strongly towards what keeps bureaucracies happy, and so there's
greater incentives for more innovative work? The current system seems to make
it very difficult for anyone to do innovative work.

~~~
Kalium
The problem is doing so without funding crackpots that look identical to
revolutionaries from the outside.

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eli_gottlieb
Ok, I'm _really_ liking this. Finally, someone writes about science as if they
_get it_ , or at least get _me_ , rather than as if it's Really About the
snarky comments peer-reviewers make when you have the appalling rudeness to
try and publish!

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FD3SA
This needs to be shouted from rooftops. Emotional ideologies run strong in
mankind, and a big dose of empirical thinking would solve nearly all of our
species' problems.

Technically, most of our problems are surmountable. However, our collective
behaviors due to our evolutionary instincts are leading us to ruin.

I often find that if a young student's first teachings are in science, they
will forever grow up to be empirically minded. Sadly, our education systems
are more about indoctrination in national propaganda than any kind of quest
for knowledge. Such is the sad state of mankind [1][2].

1\.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1cNaFG1VII](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1cNaFG1VII)

2\. [https://youtu.be/WnAQQ4StnEg](https://youtu.be/WnAQQ4StnEg)

