Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World

THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD
many more nerds among scientists than among backhoe operators
or fashion designers or traffic wardens. Perhaps scientists are
more nerdish than bartenders or surgeons or short-order cooks.
Why should this be? Maybe people untalented in getting along
with others find a refuge in impersonal pursuits, particularly
mathematics and the physical sciences. Maybe the serious study of
difficult subjects requires so much time and dedication that very
little is left over for learning more than the barest social niceties.
Maybe it's a combination of both.
Like the mad-scientist image to which it's closely related, the
nerd-scientist stereotype is pervasive in our society. What's wrong
with a little good-natured fun at the expense of scientists? If, for
whatever reason, people dislike the stereotypical scientist, they are
less likely to support science. Why subsidize geeks to pursue their
absurd and incomprehensible little projects? Well, we know the
answer to that: science is supported because it provides spectacular
benefits at all levels in society, as I have argued earlier in this book.
So those who find nerds distasteful, but at the same time crave the
products of science, face a kind of dilemma. A tempting resolution is
to direct the activities of the scientists. Don't give them money to go
off in weird directions; instead tell them what we need - this
invention, or that process. Subsidize not the curiosity of the nerds,
but what will benefit society. It seems simple enough.
The trouble is that ordering someone to go out and make a specific
invention, even if price is no object, hardly guarantees that it gets
done. There may be an underpinning of knowledge that's unavailable,
without which no one will ever build the contrivance you have
in mind. And the history of science shows that often you can't go
after the underpinnings in a directed way, either. They may emerge
out of the idle musings of some lonely young person off in the
boondocks. They're ignored or rejected even by other scientists,
sometimes until a new generation of scientists comes along. Urging
major practical inventions while discouraging curiosity-driven
research would be spectacularly counterproductive.
Suppose you are, by the Grace of God, Victoria, Queen of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and Defender of
the Faith in the most prosperous and triumphant age of the British
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