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Mad Scientists and Boffins

#1
Yazata Offline
Mad scientists: This species seems to represent hubris, scientists who driven by an arrogant lust for knowledge end up crossing boundaries that shouldn't be crossed.


[Image: F57BG87GTGCRAT5.LARGE.jpg]
[Image: F57BG87GTGCRAT5.LARGE.jpg]



The mad scientist has a long history, dating back to medieval sorcery and before that to ancient times.


[Image: 1*Tle-OxZrejeIp5lZPbVusg.jpeg]
[Image: 1*Tle-OxZrejeIp5lZPbVusg.jpeg]



There's also an association with hospitals, places of pain where before the 19th century surgery was performed without anaesthesia (or antisepsis). Literal houses of torture. Places where even today scientists/physicians turn incomprehensible machines and science loose on their victims:


[Image: just-imagine-lab.jpg?w=490&h=325]
[Image: just-imagine-lab.jpg?w=490&h=325]



Boffins on the other hand seem to me to just be what we Americans call science nerds. With them it's more about style than it's about transgression. The British idea seems to be people so involved with  totally arcane theory that they are hopeless in everyday life. They are noted for their being totally oblivious to conventional style and the little behavioral norms of everyday life.

Here's an exaggerated posed version


[Image: boffins.jpg?format=750w]
[Image: boffins.jpg?format=750w]



In an ironic twist of fate, in places like San Francisco the 'nerd' look has become very stylish in the hipper clubs and bars. Thick-rimmed 'nerd' glasses are a style-statement. But the hipsters' version of nerdness is so calculated and carefully put together that it's doubtful that a real nerd would fit into that scene.


[Image: MAIN-SLIDER_VISON-DIRECT.jpg]
[Image: MAIN-SLIDER_VISON-DIRECT.jpg]



You do see plenty of real-life boffins at Stanford University, which is crawling with them. I like to eat lunch in the cafeteria in the ground floor of Clark Center (BioX) which is packed with scientists at lunchtime. The guy in the yellow shirt below is real. He's the guy in charge of the Lokey Stem Cell Core Facility at Stanford. (He's got the hair going, but in California it works. I could imagine this guy backpacking in the mountains or riding a surfboard on his days off.)


[Image: 20101027__stemcell11.jpg?w=400]
[Image: 20101027__stemcell11.jpg?w=400]



Many of them actually fall in lust like normal people, which can result in what would probably have to be called test-tube babies. It might be the white lab coats, a fashion statement that the hipsters haven't caught on to yet.


[Image: Boffin-Web.jpg]
[Image: Boffin-Web.jpg]

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#2
C C Offline
LOL, appropriate choice.

I suppose the Fundamental Fysiks Group might represent the countercultural style of the mad ones during the late '60s and '70s, working outside the academic establishment. (Hippie days: How a handful of scientists changed the course of physics in the 1970s ... What Physics Owed Its Independent Eccentrics ... The Mistaken Assumptions That Changed Physics History)


[Image: hippies.jpg]
[Image: hippies.jpg]



Even years later, and back when Usenet mattered, who hadn't encounted Jack Sarfatti's posts as a wild fixture of certain haunts?

Talk:Jack Sarfatti/Archive 1 - Jack Sarfatti is a frequent poster to certain Usenet groups, such as sci.physics. His contributions, are notable for their originality and imaginative writing. Sarfatti's entry in the net-legends FAQ begins: Can be seen in the sci.* groups and alt.consciousness. A small collection of posts is available. *Not* a "crackpot" in the classic sense; has a Ph.D. in physics and understands the field quite well - but tends to use it to delve into philosophical concepts and outre' theories rather deeper than many other physicists care to read about. Also posts on and off to sci.psychology about connectionism and perception, and the neuro-psychological implications thereof.


And Fred Alan Wolfe was a publishing hotspot in terms of cranking-out one New Agey sounding book of hybrid mysticism and science after another.

~
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#3
Secular Sanity Offline
(Sep 7, 2018 06:30 AM)Yazata Wrote: You do see plenty of real-life boffins at Stanford University, which is crawling with them. I like to eat lunch in the cafeteria in the ground floor of Clark Center (BioX) which is packed with scientists at lunchtime. The guy in the yellow shirt below is real. He's the guy in charge of the Lokey Stem Cell Core Facility at Stanford. (He's got the hair going, but in California it works. I could imagine this guy backpacking in the mountains or riding a surfboard on his days off.)

You know what I thought of? This video on free will. Gabriel Kreiman’s hair is sticking straight up and the guy at the computer, he’s got some crazy hair.


https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/vP9N4HLIMCc



(Sep 7, 2018 03:02 PM)C C Wrote: Even years later, and back when Usenet mattered.

I didn’t know that the name Google was due to a misspelling.

What was usenet like, C C? Did people behave differently?
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#4
C C Offline
(Sep 13, 2018 03:14 PM)Secular Sanity Wrote:
(Sep 7, 2018 03:02 PM)C C Wrote: Even years later, and back when Usenet mattered.

I didn’t know that the name Google was due to a misspelling.

What was usenet like, C C? Did people behave differently?


The behavior of usenet changed radically after the unwashed hordes of Eternal September descended upon it. Many if not all the groups may have been unmoderated in a sense that there was no means to block offenders in the beginning (much "if" there, as I didn't participate in the earliest days).

You can still see usenet on the web version that Google Groups runs, without having to install a news client and configure it with a service. Here's one example forum: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/...philosophy

The usenet groups which aren't moderated have pretty much died and become bastions of spam or off-topic proselytising. Well over a decade ago some ISPs still provided their customers with usenet access, but they all ended it eventually due to the expense as other social mediums became more popular.

~
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#5
Syne Offline
(Sep 7, 2018 03:02 PM)C C Wrote:

[Image: hippies.jpg]
[Image: hippies.jpg]


One of those guys reminds me of Exidor (Mork & Mindy), and another Igor (Young Frankenstein).
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