It's that time again. That’s right, it’s time to take a week off the grid. If you’ve never done it, I highly recommend it. And by recommending it to you, I’m also recommending it to me because for a while now I’ve been terrible at taking my own advice. Friday-to-Friday it’s going to be books and games and movies and my family. It’s going to be nice.
If you need me, though, I’m still a text away. I mean I’m not mad enough to completely shut off my phone!
For those who celebrate, it’s also time to eat too many sweets, share gifts with those you love, and try to keep the focus on what matters most. Hopefully you have found a way to make this year’s holiday special in its own way. For those of us being careful in the winter climes, we don’t even have the option to see those we love outdoors. We will see them soon, though. We will!
Testing…testing…Door Dash…1, 2, 3…
The Consumption
I was reminded recently of a video game from my youth: Lode Runner. This game led to countless hours of running and digging (press ‘z’ or ‘x’) and running and digging on our Apple II clone. I particularly remember trying to create custom levels, which was a real ground-breaking thing. (My levels weren’t ground breaking. They were terrible.) It was a fun time!
A great discovery is that you can play Lode Runner online and it is wonderful. If someone could make similar implementations of Montezuma’s Revenge and Drol I would greatly appreciate it. I mean, maybe archive.org counts? Games there don’t seem nearly as playable to me, though.
Where Have All the Science Lovers Gone?
When I was growing up in rural Minnesota it felt like science and education was revered. We were taught about science and the importance of progress in school. It wasn’t only important to learn about scientific facts and procedures. It was also critical to be exposed to the context in which science matured. What were the world events? What advantages did science give some societies over others?
Scientific advances on the world stage certainly came with their challenges. The image of a mushroom cloud is burned into my brain for a reason. Questions around the morals of these events were raised even though I lived in the “winning” country. While hundreds of thousands dead is not defensible, at least I lived in a society that could question its own morality.
Education was also an important priority for a vast majority of families in our schools. Countless friends of mine were the first to finish college. Their parents worked incredibly hard to help them get to that position. Their families were very proud of the achievements of their graduates.
I look around and wonder how we got to where we are now. Was I naive and unaware in my youth? Were there this many people who actively ignored science and despised education? Did people always think their opinions should be weighed equally to the opinions of subject matter experts? Or is the degradation of our belief in knowledge and expertise a new phenomenon? Perhaps none of it is as bad as it seems and it’s just that the minority views get amplified to maintain an influencing corporate and political power?
Science is always changing. The on-the-ground goal of science is to discover new things, often disproving the theories of those that came before them. When this is happening, science is working! Science has a beautiful methodology. It is disheartening to see many among us argue against scientific consensus by looking for and propping up that one scientist who disagrees.
I have to believe that the world has not actually changed in such a short time. I have to believe a majority of people still want a solid education for their children, even if the manner of that education is always evolving. I have to believe a majority of people want this country to provide educational opportunity for all of its citizens. I have to believe a majority of people want this society to have a healthy balance of scientific funding that leads to discoveries that greatly benefit the society itself, and by extension benefit the wider world. I have to believe.
Here are couple of lovely quotes to take you home. First, Blaise Pascal:
All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone
And William Wordsworth:
What we have loved, Others will love, and we will teach them how.
Happy holidays!
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