Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World
Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World 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 358
Maxwell and The Nerds Empire. Your dominions stretch across the planet. Maps of the world are abundantly splashed with British pink. You preside over the world's leading technological power. The steam engine is perfected in Great Britain, largely by Scottish engineers, who provide technical expertise on the railways and steamships that bind up the Empire. Suppose in the year 1860 you have a visionary idea, so daring it would have been rejected by Jules Verne's publisher. You want a machine that will carry your voice, as well as moving pictures of the glory of the Empire, into every home in the kingdom. What's more, the sounds and pictures must come not through conduits or wires, but somehow out of the air, so people at work and in the field can receive instantaneous inspirational offerings designed to insure loyalty and the work ethic. The Word of God could also be conveyed by the same contrivance. Other socially desirable applications would doubtless be found. So with the Prime Minister's support, you convene the Cabinet, the Imperial General Staff, and the leading scientists and engineers of the Empire. You will allocate a million pounds, you tell them - big money in 1860. If they need more, just ask. You don't care how they do it; just get it done. Oh, yes, it's to be called the Westminster Project. Probably there would be some useful inventions emerging out of such an endeavour - 'spin-off. There always are when you spend huge amounts of money on technology. But the Westminster Project would almost certainly fail. Why? Because the underlying science hadn't been done. By 1860 the telegraph was in existence. You could imagine at great expense telegraphy sets in every home, with people ditting and dahing messages out in Morse code. But that's not what the Queen asked for. She had radio and television in mind but they were far out of reach. In the real world, the physics necessary to invent radio and television would come from a direction that no one could have predicted. James Clerk Maxwell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1831. At age two he found that he could use a tin plate to bounce an image of the Sun off the furniture and make it dance against the walls. As his parents came running he cried out, 'It's the Sun! I got 359
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Maxwell and The Nerds<br />
Empire. Your dominions stretch across the planet. Maps of the<br />
world are abundantly splashed with British pink. You preside over<br />
the world's leading technological power. The steam engine is<br />
perfected in Great Britain, largely by Scottish engineers, who<br />
provide technical expertise on the railways and steamships that<br />
bind up the Empire.<br />
Suppose in the year 1860 you have a visionary idea, so daring it<br />
would have been rejected by Jules Verne's publisher. You want a<br />
machine that will carry your voice, as well as moving pictures of<br />
the glory of the Empire, into every home in the kingdom. What's<br />
more, the sounds and pictures must come not through conduits or<br />
wires, but somehow out of the air, so people at work and in the<br />
field can receive instantaneous inspirational offerings designed to<br />
insure loyalty and the work ethic. The Word of God could also be<br />
conveyed by the same contrivance. Other socially desirable applications<br />
would doubtless be found.<br />
So with the Prime Minister's support, you convene the Cabinet,<br />
the Imperial General Staff, and the leading scientists and engineers<br />
of the Empire. You will allocate a million pounds, you tell<br />
them - big money in 1860. If they need more, just ask. You don't<br />
care how they do it; just get it done. Oh, yes, it's to be called the<br />
Westminster Project.<br />
Probably there would be some useful inventions emerging out<br />
of such an endeavour - 'spin-off. There always are when you<br />
spend huge amounts of money on technology. But the Westminster<br />
Project would almost certainly fail. Why? Because the<br />
underlying science hadn't been done. By 1860 the telegraph was in<br />
existence. You could imagine at great expense telegraphy sets in<br />
every home, with people ditting and dahing messages out in<br />
Morse code. But that's not what the Queen asked for. She had<br />
radio and television in mind but they were far out of reach.<br />
In the real world, the physics necessary to invent radio and<br />
television would come from a direction that no one could have<br />
predicted.<br />
James Clerk Maxwell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1831.<br />
At age two he found that he could use a tin plate to bounce an<br />
image of the Sun off the furniture and make it dance against the<br />
walls. As his parents came running he cried out, 'It's the Sun! I got<br />
359