> You can't make progress by random wild stabs in the dark, philosophy, spiritual whatever, wild experiments. It doesn't work.
It must be hard for a young grad student to swallow the pill of human mortality and reconcile the disconnect that a lifetime of hard and rigorous science will merely move the needle. Fruits of their labor which might only be tasted centuries after their death. Of course, only through this sacrifice has the needle been moved so much that we have the things we have now. Something something shoulders of giants. Understanding this is a key part of accepting reality and becoming a mature adult, something it seems you've helped many people do, and something many people never do.
> The solution is simple. Fund science and be ok with failure
We also live in a society dictated by political and economic forces. These forces have no qualms rejecting reality and believing in eternal life. Will science ,which has an infinite number of directions to grow and is limited in speed by the rigor of its very nature, ever be fast enough to protect itself? Or is this science just for the sake of science until societal collapse occurs? To really save and protect the billions of lives, I think a new kind of societal advancement is needed outside of science. A vanguard force of sorts. Not political or economic in nature but also not scientific because it can not be bound by the speed of the field.
I think software as envisioned by some people long ago could have been this place. Of course, software has been co-opted by all three groups but I still think there is a chance. Restructure society, reign in political and economic forces, and allow science to do its thing for thousands of years to come.
> It must be hard for a young grad student to swallow the pill of human mortality and reconcile the disconnect that a lifetime of hard and rigorous science will merely move the needle. Fruits of their labor which might only be tasted centuries after their death. Of course, only through this sacrifice has the needle been moved so much that we have the things we have now. Something something shoulders of giants. Understanding this is a key part of accepting reality and becoming a mature adult, something it seems you've helped many people do, and something many people never do.
Totally. It's so much harder in some fields too.
A friend who is a primate researcher describes it as having 20 experiments that he can run in his entire career. I still think about that sometimes.
It must be hard for a young grad student to swallow the pill of human mortality and reconcile the disconnect that a lifetime of hard and rigorous science will merely move the needle. Fruits of their labor which might only be tasted centuries after their death. Of course, only through this sacrifice has the needle been moved so much that we have the things we have now. Something something shoulders of giants. Understanding this is a key part of accepting reality and becoming a mature adult, something it seems you've helped many people do, and something many people never do.
> The solution is simple. Fund science and be ok with failure
We also live in a society dictated by political and economic forces. These forces have no qualms rejecting reality and believing in eternal life. Will science ,which has an infinite number of directions to grow and is limited in speed by the rigor of its very nature, ever be fast enough to protect itself? Or is this science just for the sake of science until societal collapse occurs? To really save and protect the billions of lives, I think a new kind of societal advancement is needed outside of science. A vanguard force of sorts. Not political or economic in nature but also not scientific because it can not be bound by the speed of the field.
I think software as envisioned by some people long ago could have been this place. Of course, software has been co-opted by all three groups but I still think there is a chance. Restructure society, reign in political and economic forces, and allow science to do its thing for thousands of years to come.