Metaphor: in a moving train, if you’ve ever peeked through the gap in the vestibule connecting cars, you see the track sleepers running rapidly below your feet. That’s the present. If you look out of the window, ahead or behind, that’s future and past. Sideways=adjacent possible.
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Note to self: do not use words as thread macguffins. Derails thread into isntthisjustism.
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Grokking in the original Heinlein sense comes pretty close. Insight but into something outside of yourself. Except as the result of steady, patient effort. A gradual dawning of a light via a systematic uncovering of a path rather than a sudden enlightenment.
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‘Study’ is probably the best simple English word if you don’t want to get too weird.https://twitter.com/epithetos/status/1310695313322184704?s=21 …
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Paulo Coelho’s Alchemist gets at an aspect of the scientific sensibility that is often lost in modern views. That sense of a gradually dawning, cleansing, purifying light as you get closer to the essence of a thing. I especially like the alchemy connotation.
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It’s no accident that early scientists were often also astrologers and occultists. Not only is that acceptable within the scope of the verb I’m circling, it’s necessary. Superstition is inseparable from this kind of questing and not only not a threat to it, but possibly an aid.
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If you see a strong distinction between science and superstition that must be policed to keep the former “pure” and “uncorrupted” you’re paradoxically being superstitious about the essence of science. Overanxious policing of science/superstition boundary is bureaucratism.
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The Hindi/Sanskrit word saadhna is another useful one with no English equivalent. Learning/study as a mindful spiritual quest. It’s often applied to learning the fine arts. The alchemist’s pursuit was saadhna. Sciencing as a developmental journey similar to learning music.
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And this is why I need a mansion. To do science, one must have money, and a mansion of one’s own.
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End of conversation
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