Science

[Clinamenic]

Presently intoxicated.

I would like to gauge the perspectives of science, among our members.

Namely:

@sufi

@luka

What comes to mind alongside the word science?

Dig into it. Perhaps when you get the opportunity to drink.

If we, at this forum, had control of the global apprehension of this term, what conditions would you impart upon our verdict?

I seek to cleanse and reoperationalize the term, within the gnostic framework of this forum, and align us on its direction.

As an extropian, I love science.

I stake myself upon every word of the previous sentence. A deviance would constitute a death.

Symbolically, of course.

 

[Clinamenic]

From Wikipedia:

Science (from Latin scientia 'knowledge')[1] is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.

 

[Clinamenic]

I urge distinction between science and scientists.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Luka failed science at school and had some science teachers with bad clothes and bad breath, so he'll tell you all science is fake and all scientists are evil soulless Nazis.

Sufi will tell you the entire enterprise was created by evil white men so they could dominate the world.

There you go!

 

[HMGovt’s Glorious Return!]

Science was great until it was corrupted by money, now it's just another means of managing decline and asserting control. Thoroughly corrupt. There probably is great science being done, but I doubt it pushes through to prominence very often. Sad.

 

[luka]

tea is more or less right there.

 

[luka]

as regards my feelings

 

[martin]

Joke subject, like maths and music. Cure for rabies, cancer, AIDS? No: but look how you can shine a light through a prism to recreate that Pink Floyd cover.

Mind you, I don’t blame scientists: like in the art world, it’s probably easy to scam a science grant to mess around on some daft lab project, like investigating whether geraniums can grow in whiskey. Why do meaningful work if you can avoid it?

Laboratories are so depressing. Bright, sunny day… people cycling past the windows, laughing, enjoying the sunshine, heading for the waterpark…and you’re in some dark, stinking lab, being told to dissect a frog. Why, to what end? Harming one of God’s innocent creatures so that one day we can make a super-duper telescope and spy on Pluto? Infect bats with flu?

Some teen hooligan waved a bunsen burner at my face when I was 14 – a few inches closer and I could have been hideously scarred for life. What could the teacher have done to prevent that? Nothing: he was on the other side of the lab, reading the football results. But pressure equals volume over time, so all’s well with the world - the men in the labcoats tell us.

 

[WashYourHands]

 

[sufi]

science was a highly successful conspiracy by medieval arabs to poison western crusader consciousness with toxic rationality

 

[Clinamenic]

Fair points about the corruption and rigidity of the institutions of science, and the people thereof.

There is a ton of interesting work that goes on, but we shouldn't ignore that the funding comes from somewhere, and not impartially.

 

[Clinamenic]

I personally find endless inspiration across science, but only after having salvaged it from its banal classroom handling.

 

[Clinamenic]

'Astronomy on Tap" is an international academic tradition where, pre-covid, astrophysicians and cosmologists would go to bars and give public seminars under a mild influence. Today, thes are handled as webinars and panels where everyone is encouraged to have drink.

Caltech has had my favorites so far.

 

[Clinamenic]

The Allen Institute for Brain Science has published an open source atlas of the human brain, an extensive database that scientists across the world, citizen or professional, can use to support their research. Also non-human brain data.

Brain Map - brain-map.org

portal.brain-map.org

Free download of their brain explorer: https://human.brain-map.org/static/brainexplorer

 

[yyaldrin]

i feel like we already invented all the things we need and that we should just stop from now on.

 

[luka]

and maybe de-invent a few things

 

[Clinamenic]

I would argue we still have a ways to go, in terms of meeting even our basic needs. Beyond that, any needs to be addressed will be more about personal fulfillment and psychic advancement most broadly.

But yeah, many of us have our basic needs met already. But also many of us, myself included, derive great meaning from science as an end in itself.

 

[Clinamenic]

I think one solution to the rigidity of scientific thinking is to bring in some more poetic types, gnostic types, etc.

 

[Clinamenic]

We can't have a multipolar world order of humanist democracy without a strong global scientific community.

 

[Clinamenic]

Just this week I've started thinking in terms of a multipolar world order, rather than a unipolar one.