[The Prometheus Shot – E007 :: Ramanujan’s Math Visions: Will, Intuition, and Mentorship ]
This post is part of the Prometheus Shot series.
Category: Science
[The Prometheus Shot – E005 :: Einstein the Icon: Relativity & Great Imagination ]
This post is part of the Prometheus Shot series.
[The Prometheus Shot – E004 :: Who Invents – Watt: Innovation, Steam Engines, and Industrial Revolutions ]
This post is part of the Prometheus Shot series.
Extreme Imagination and Creativity (as in Sci-Fi and Fantasy) can be practical. They are useful as inspiration, for education, and even as inputs into scientific and engineering processes.
Here are a few thoughts on that.
Do schools and universities really kill creativity?
Misaligned incentives, approximate thinking, and conflicting goals, can explain why the education system is perceived to be a creativity killer.
I wrote a blog post about a few interesting books, including one titled “How the World Thinks”. A reader objected, saying that thinking is done by people… So, does ‘the World’ think?
How much do your genetics and your (cultural/social) background control your destiny?
The answer is ‘A lot!’… but things aren’t hopeless..
What should I read?
With the millions of books out there, seekers of knowledge (and wisdom) will – expectedly – ask the question.. Where should I start?
The answers are usually disappointing. Why should you care about someone’s recommended readings list, after all?
Here’s an attempt to tackle this.
More often than not, evil is not one great shocking act. Mundane evil is the most prevalent form.. and what we come to see as great evil sometimes [usually in retrospect], starts with small tasks, and accumulates simple additions as it goes.
Ironically, I think this summarizes “Oppenheimer” – the events, and the 2023 film.
“The greatest evils in the world will not be carried out by men with guns, but by men in suits sitting behind desks.”
C.S. Lewis
The ‘broadest pattern in history’ is a pattern of diffusion of innovation (cultural and technological innovation). The outcomes of the flow of innovation in culture, political and economic organization, and technology, are what caused – eventually – a giant rift between the ‘old world’ and the new one, and between different political entities.
A discussion based on the book by J. Diamond (Link below).
