So I’ve been reading Longitude, about the 17th century search for a reliable way to navigate the seas, and I’ve been having some thoughts.
Looking back on some of the things they did for recognition back then, it all seems so ... easy. Charting 300 stars of the southern hemisphere got Edmund Halley into the Royal Society. And I thought, “It hardly seems fair.”
Then I got to thinking... I bet there’s a lot of work being done right now that will seem that way someday, just the same. The key is figuring out what the next big thing is, basically.
And I decided that I’m going to start reading up on quantum computing, finding out as much as I can about what is going on there... Get into the algorithms, and all of the weird physics involved (maybe more the algorithms than the physics), and just play around with it in my free time. This, too, fits into my theory that the high standard of living in the US is here to serve a purpose, to make it possible for us to do things to make the rest of the world better. Almost all the academics back then were like Christiaan Huygens, “the landed son of a Dutch diplomat”. And the US is a country full of such privileged people, in the context of the rest of the world.
Time to pull my weight...
Looking back on some of the things they did for recognition back then, it all seems so ... easy. Charting 300 stars of the southern hemisphere got Edmund Halley into the Royal Society. And I thought, “It hardly seems fair.”
Then I got to thinking... I bet there’s a lot of work being done right now that will seem that way someday, just the same. The key is figuring out what the next big thing is, basically.
And I decided that I’m going to start reading up on quantum computing, finding out as much as I can about what is going on there... Get into the algorithms, and all of the weird physics involved (maybe more the algorithms than the physics), and just play around with it in my free time. This, too, fits into my theory that the high standard of living in the US is here to serve a purpose, to make it possible for us to do things to make the rest of the world better. Almost all the academics back then were like Christiaan Huygens, “the landed son of a Dutch diplomat”. And the US is a country full of such privileged people, in the context of the rest of the world.
Time to pull my weight...
- Current Mood:ambitious
Comments
I was thinking the same thing about how they ancients had it "easy", since I was thinking of what I needed to do for my thesis. But maybe back then, charting 300 stars was difficult. They didn't have the support infrastructure we have now for building instruments and tools. Schools were very different - they mostly taught classics instead of practical math/science. Plus, a lot of the mathematical tools we have now they didn't have - in the 17th century, calculus was just being invented.
Some Americans may have the resources to sit around playing with academic questions, but not all do, and I wouldn't assume that other first (or second) world countries are less good at it... I know what you mean, but it sounds a little bit like you're saying we're superior to anywhere else in our ability to do science. (We may have more money available for big science than a lot of Western European countries, but they do a huge amount of really top work.)
I thought that book was great. :)