Happy Darwin Day!

Wings of Fire · #1 02-11-2009, 04:15 PM

Today is his bicentennial anniversary and also 150 years since The Origin of Species was published

he made the world a slightly less darker place and was responsible for the second major scientific revolution (First being the realization that Earth was not the center of the universe and third being Freud.

Here's to you Darwin, one of teh best scientists evar!

used:) · #2 02-11-2009, 06:58 PM

Hmm, so that's why we had our test on evolution and taxonomy today!

***Wil*** · #3 02-12-2009, 10:21 AM

Happy birthday, Lincoln!

Hobo · #4 02-12-2009, 11:13 AM

Freud? Third? What the fuck.

Freud took so much cocaine that it is known in some areas as Uncle Sigmund's Nosecandy.

I propose that the wheel and fire were way fucking bigger scientific revolutions.

***Wil*** · #5 02-12-2009, 11:33 AM

Very true except for them not being scientific revolutions.

I would add that the discovery of tectonics is up there in importance and elegance. And then, tied in with both that and evolution is the discovery of Deep Time.

Havoc · #6 02-12-2009, 11:37 AM

Yay Darwin!

Wings of Fire · #7 02-12-2009, 01:55 PM

:

Freud? Third? What the fuck.

Not most important, chronologically.

Galileo took the stars away from religious authority.

Darwin took The Beginning away from religious authority.

Freud freed our minds from religious authority by showing how the unconscious works, minus the sex and Freud's stuff is very good.

Bullet Magnet · #8 02-12-2009, 03:27 PM

I celebrated by thinking on the difference between our culture's fetish for multiples of 10/50/100 anniversaries, and the deification and beatification of a revered individual. I decided that it was the fetish.

***Wil*** · #9 02-12-2009, 03:34 PM

I celebrated by not doing the evolution study I had planned. It was not related to it being Darwin’s birthday. Is was related to the desperate attempt I have to make to salvage my degree.

In that sense it wasn’t really a celebration of it being Darwin’s birthday. It wasn’t really a celebration at all. More like a 24-hour failure.

And now I get to go to bed with that happy thought.

Fuzzle Guy · #10 02-12-2009, 04:04 PM

Goodnight!

Hobo · #11 02-12-2009, 04:13 PM

:

Very true except for them not being scientific revolutions.

Really?

I think no science to science is pretty much as big a revolution as it comes.

Look at me, not making a pun on revolution and wheel. Go me.

***Wil*** · #12 02-13-2009, 05:04 AM

No, they’re mere inventions. Any random observation or trial-and-error usage can lead to the creation and refinement of an invention, whether that’s a wheel or a nozzle used in soap manufacturing. Science is a process of weeding out untruths and working out which of what remains is most likely the truth. The discovery of Deep Time was fundamental in the bringing down of Western essentialism, changing our understanding of the world from superstition to near-actuality. Whatever fire did for our dietary and landscaping ability, it wasn’t a change in our understanding of reality.

Wings of Fire · #13 02-13-2009, 05:21 AM

:

Whatever fire did for our dietary and landscaping ability, it wasn’t a change in our understanding of reality.

And the creation of fire was presumably immediately followed by the declaration that the God of Lightning shined well on their cave.

Which is not scientific inquiry at all.

Bullet Magnet · #14 02-13-2009, 05:38 AM

What's more important: the telescope, or the discoveries they permitted? Or the glass grinding techniques before them? Science and technology are intimately intertwined, and it is useless to trumpet the superiority of one over the other.

***Wil*** · #15 02-13-2009, 06:24 AM

Nobody was, but fair point.

Hobo · #16 02-15-2009, 08:51 AM

Bullet Magnet - For Science! Since 1988.