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Patrick • 09/27/04 • 4:59 PM:

It’s also the kind of quote that inverts your expectations. “Useful” is good, right? Wait a minute! It’s bad!

I’m curious where Hardy went from here. To saying that Dyson’s science is not useful?

David • 09/27/04 • 8:55 PM:

This quote reminds me of the many quotes I use in class to inspire thought and discussion. I use the quotes at the start of different units/chapters/sections. Only problem - I’m the only one who gets them or finds them even remotely interesting. So these quotes have collectively become known as the ‘Long, boring quotes that nobody understands’. I continue to use them - in hopes of getting one or two of the kids to think a little bit. Who knows. I’ll probably end up using this one at some point - seeing as it addresses the connections between science and technology and society (topics I try to incorporate into class often).

I had to read the quote two or three times to see how I felt about it. Useful is still good to some - only the outcome of that usefulness is bad for most. It also reminds of how strongly Einstein regretted being a part of creating the atomic bomb. I guess that means that science isn’t the bad guy - but rather its use and implemenation (technology = applied science for the benefit of humankind?). Whose benefit?

Patrick • 09/28/04 • 1:00 AM:

OK, now that I’ve read Dad’s other entry, I understand that Dyson is trying to disprove this Hardy quote. Maybe the problem is that once science becomes “useful,” it must be funded (heck, before it becomes useful, it must be funded), and funding does not come from the poor and marginalized and exploited. Funding comes from those who have money, and they’re never philanthropic about funding science. They want a return on their investment. Also, as soon as science becomes “useful,” it catches on, falls into the wrong hands, so to speak. Scientists are not manufacturing goods, that’s done by businessmen, who have all sold their souls; it’s a part of the MBA second-year course of study.

But the same could be said of anything, I guess. We’re driven by self-preservation, which too easily becomes self-aggrandizement and competition and keeping others out of the way. It’s not like the rich deliberately set out to exploit the poor (well, except maybe banana plantation owners and coal mine owners), but the poor are unorganized and uneducated, and they’re in the way not of my survival, but my next yacht! How dare they!

I like to think I’m an optimist, but I doubt that solar energy will make much of a dent in the status of the world’s poor. Some idealists will volunteer to install the things, and some corporation will get a tax write-off to donate the apparati, and, sure, it’ll make a difference to this stranded starfish, but c’mon.

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