“Just as the intellect can’t be quantified in grades, the measure of a life’s worth and purpose isn’t to be found in remuneration figures.” From “Figuring” by Maria Popova
“History is not what happened, but what survives the shipwreck of judgement and chance” “Figuring” by Maria Popova
Written in 1948 (!) Dr. Warren Weaver wrote a beautiful essay on the types of problems that science can solve. He has identified 3 core ones:
* Problems of Simplicity - two-variable problems that gave us such discoveries as telephone, radio and automobile
* Problems of Disorganized Complexity - analytical methods that deal with two-billion variables. Probability and statistics fall into this group. “The motions of the atoms which form all matter, as well as the motions of the stars which form the universe, come under the range of these new techniques.” Extend for any latest developments in Machine Learning.
* Problems of Organized Complexity - probably the most fascinating area and the one that is really hard to handle. Economics, anthropology, politics, city planning, group human behavior, biology all fall into this problem. I would argue that slow progress in NLP is probably language falls into this category and can not be tackled by the strategies from “Disorganized complexity”. Dr. Weaver argues that all these problems are “ just too complicated to yield to the old nineteenth century techniques which were so dramatically successful on two-, three-, or four-variable problems of simplicity. These new problems, moreover, cannot be handled with the statistical techniques so effective in describing average behavior in problems of disorganized complexity. These new problems, and the future of the world depends on many of them”
He concludes that *“Science clearly is a way of solving problems-not all problems, but a large class of important and practical ones… Impressive as the progress has been, science has by no means worked itself out of a job. It is soberly true that science has, to date, succeeded in solving a bewildering number of relatively easy problems, whereas the hard problems, and the ones which perhaps promise most for man’s future, lie ahead.”*
“Yes, science is a powerful tool, and it has an impressive record. But the humble and wise scientist does not expect or hope that science can do everything. He remembers that science teaches respect for special competence, and he does not believe that every social, economic, or political emergency would be automatically dissolved if “the scientists” were only put into control. He does notwith a few aberrant exceptions~expect science to furnish a code of morals, or a basis for esthetics. He does not expect science to furnish the yardstick for measuring, nor the motor for controlling, man’s love of beauty and truth, his sense of value, or his convictions of faith.”
Read the original here: “Science and Complexity”
“The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.” Muriel Rukeyser
How many famous female modernist architects do you know? *Eileen Gray* is the name to be remembered, not because she was female, but because she was a modernist pioneer. Famous for incredibly futuristic and virtuously constructed furniture, she has also designed a very controversial E-1027 House that became a center for the dramatic feud with Le Combusier
Luckily, Bard Graduate Center Gallery at 18 West 86th Street in New York has retrospective of her work. Scheduled till mid-July it will probably be extended till mid year. So as soon as museums will re-open, this will be the first one I plan to run to.
“…arrived the way most transformative things enter our lives - through the back door of the mansion of our plans” from “Figuring” by Maria Popova
Too often we idolize people for their work and ideas, but rarely for their morality. Jørn Utzon was a visionary architect who produced spectacular buildings, but also greatly inspired the people he worked with and was just a beautiful human being. The documentary The Man & The Architect tells a personal and emotional story of the architect who conceived Sydney Opera house, and how many things around the project went wrong, teaching us that it is always so much more than just an idea.
For me, one of his most memorable buildings was Can Lis, where he left a window to trace sunrise across the wall “in order to feel the time pass by”. Bookmarking for future inspiration.
House of the Century, Mojo Lake, Angleton, TX, United States. 1972 Architect: Antfarm (Doug Michels and Chip Lord) in collaboration with Richard Jost. Further reading: http://hiddenarchitecture.net/house-of-century/
“In this troublesome world, we are never quite satisfied”. Abraham Lincoln