07-17-2016, 05:12 AM
And our tools for science aren't anything special or temples, that's just silly.
Each profession has tools at their disposal which allow them to do what they do in the best manner possible. Scientists publish their findings in a way that can be unintelligible to many readers. A good non-fiction writer will use metaphor, simile, allegory, analogy, symbolism, imagery etc, to describe and compare their subject matter sometimes with the familiar to explain and offer a way to understand the unfamiliar.
That's why we discuss Carl Sagan here, and not one of the thousands of scientists who write scientific papers. Millions of people have seen/read the movie/book Contact. How many people read scientific journals? Millions have viewed the photo known as the Pale Blue Dot. Sagan has the ability to bring the infinite and unknowable to the masses.
Is the Pale Blue Dot really in it's strictest definition, merely a dot? Or an entire planet? Would your imagination be captivated in the same way if Carl Sagan had called it A Medium Size Rocky Planet As Seen From A Distance Of 6 Billion Kilometers, The Actual Blue Color Faded Due To The Gap Between Objects and Photographic Limitations?
“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”
-Joseph Brodsky
Each profession has tools at their disposal which allow them to do what they do in the best manner possible. Scientists publish their findings in a way that can be unintelligible to many readers. A good non-fiction writer will use metaphor, simile, allegory, analogy, symbolism, imagery etc, to describe and compare their subject matter sometimes with the familiar to explain and offer a way to understand the unfamiliar.
That's why we discuss Carl Sagan here, and not one of the thousands of scientists who write scientific papers. Millions of people have seen/read the movie/book Contact. How many people read scientific journals? Millions have viewed the photo known as the Pale Blue Dot. Sagan has the ability to bring the infinite and unknowable to the masses.
Is the Pale Blue Dot really in it's strictest definition, merely a dot? Or an entire planet? Would your imagination be captivated in the same way if Carl Sagan had called it A Medium Size Rocky Planet As Seen From A Distance Of 6 Billion Kilometers, The Actual Blue Color Faded Due To The Gap Between Objects and Photographic Limitations?
“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”
-Joseph Brodsky
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves