We hardly know the age we're in. Most think Modern. Unless of course you are current, then you might say Post-Modern. If you were a 60's child, Nuclear might come to mind. Would that we were. This is the Obscurance.
A new Dark Age of religious fanaticism, corporate feudalism and contracted visions. An age that loses knowledge of rational relationships and where Enlightenment is a heresay memory.
An age detracted from reflection, achievement, individuation. Lost in self-absorptive labor for a faceless master. An age of wars and rumors of what would have been a greater peace if only we had...
This is an age of benighted beings held by undead souls. An age in which we all wish for another life but can only see the past while future swirls around us. An age in which we loose humanity.
This is an age when we no longer know what just passed or why we were there when it happened. An age in which we must keep faith in something we do not know and cannot understand.
Earstwhile once and sometime being quondam upon a rivlet set against a sea of darkness flowing past our window.
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Talking about science
Science seems to lack much of the normal chit-chat of everyday life. The web is replete with political chatter. It goes on day and night blowing even minor utterances into life transforming events. Science gets much less notice - even by scientists. How many times have I been asked, "So what do you do?", only to find it is not easily into words because what concerned me most at that moment might be a miniscule gelatinous pellet with some obscure enzymatic activity? So instead of giving an actual answer, I stammer, "I am trying to create renewable fuels".
If this seems to elicit the slightest interest, it is followed by a flow of concepts or more details that leaves the poor soul staring in wonder. Only then do I realize that no matter how elemental the explanation, it has gone right past one of the few people in this world who actually seems to care.
Maybe this isn't your experience, but most scientists are far more at home with things than with people. Oh yeah, chatting with your lab partner is OK - not a problem. You are both in the same boat, but trying to relate what you do in conversations with others seems more like a seminar than a schmoozing.
Perhaps this is why so many scientists are isolated. There are so few people who actually understand their specialty area that they become detached, disconnected and forget how to communicate. Most scientists I know are solitary creatures. They keep to them selves and talk only to a few close friends. Perhaps this is because they are so absorbed in what they are doing that they forget about people and other distractions.
I have been a scientist for thirty years - fourty if I count the ten years of undergraduate and graduate studies. Perhaps this is enough to be able to comment on the field. Perhaps not. My experience is narrow.
If this seems to elicit the slightest interest, it is followed by a flow of concepts or more details that leaves the poor soul staring in wonder. Only then do I realize that no matter how elemental the explanation, it has gone right past one of the few people in this world who actually seems to care.
Maybe this isn't your experience, but most scientists are far more at home with things than with people. Oh yeah, chatting with your lab partner is OK - not a problem. You are both in the same boat, but trying to relate what you do in conversations with others seems more like a seminar than a schmoozing.
Perhaps this is why so many scientists are isolated. There are so few people who actually understand their specialty area that they become detached, disconnected and forget how to communicate. Most scientists I know are solitary creatures. They keep to them selves and talk only to a few close friends. Perhaps this is because they are so absorbed in what they are doing that they forget about people and other distractions.
I have been a scientist for thirty years - fourty if I count the ten years of undergraduate and graduate studies. Perhaps this is enough to be able to comment on the field. Perhaps not. My experience is narrow.
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