I found this essay inspiring and important. The pace of progress in science and technology has slowed, for reasons we partly understand. We also know some factors that appear to accelerate them. Learning more, and applying it, is urgent.https://twitter.com/patrickc/status/1156261933202325504 …
-
-
If you wanted to learn anything about language during that period, you had to do it in the psychology or sociology department. But they had their own narrow methodological shibboleths, and there was no field that broadly addressed the phenomenon.
Show this thread -
“We already have a field explaining sci/tech progress” would be more plausible if advocates cited one of them, rather than eight. It would also be more plausible if those fields advocated practical, concrete actions that would accelerate progress…
Show this thread -
I am an interested layperson, not an academic, but I’ve read many hundreds of papers in the history & sociology of science, technology, & development economics. It’s fascinating stuff with real insights. It doesn’t seem to have the answers
@patrickc &@tylercowen seek.Show this thread -
As
@iwelsh points out in a reply
, these fields frequently work to support political agendas, rather than to figure things out. “History of technology” is often just “Technology: horrifying threat or global menace?”https://twitter.com/iwelsh/status/1156979029511159811 …Show this thread -
Realizing, in the mid-20th century, that the Myth of Progress was an eternalistic quasi-religion, and asking pointed questions about “cui bono” and “why should we believe this,” was hugely valuable and necessary. It’s now a lazy trope, suitable for mindless mechanical MPUs.
Show this thread -
When people with billions of dollars say “we want more research on problem X,” researchers with something to say about X might think “hooray, new funding source!” rather than “oh hell, they’re probably going to expose the vapidity of our discipline, better shout at them”
Show this thread -
I’m rather skeptical of a new field of Progress Studies, because every “X Studies” field turns into another rote paper generator. Rebooting research on how to do science and technology better, ignoring discipline boundaries—that seems urgent & with huge leverage for benefit.
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
Yes. A member of my extended family stopped working on his PhD in linguistics for this very reason.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.