Thursday, July 07, 2005

The California Institute of Science

music

I am despondent.
In the past years, I have observed - science, research, and the labours thereof. I have discovered no new science. I have built no new machine. I'm more than two-thirds of the way to my PhD.
However, I can now give an expert report on how scientists do what they do.
One difference between Caltech and that other institute of technology: MIT has OpenCourseWare, Caltech does not. Still, I believe that there's only one.caltech more than I believe in God.
I started re-reading Feynman's "The Meaning of it all" yesterday. A central theme of the little book is uncertainty, a core value in science. Science, then, precludes fundamentalism. (Science fundamentalists, for instance, should check their science.)
Some damaged people bombed London today. Their belief matters that much to them.

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