Dear Tao,
I am sorry that this article offended you and provoked such a vehement
response from you. I sincerely apologize for such is not the intent. I
merely thought Dyson was following the trendsetting of another great mind,
William James in his 'The PhD Octopus' written about 100 years ago.
As far as I know, Prof. Dyson is not someone who could not finish his phd
but someone who has achieved the mark of a phd and beyond while doing his
graduate studies. As such, his contribution to science was his original work
satisfying his phd requirement and he became a professor right then and
there. This is quite different from one who cannot finish but does great
work anyway and then make his attack on the 'redundancy' of a phd degree and
intellectual experience.
I guess at the end of the day, this remains a commencement speech and as
such, it is really to provoke students from their state of apathy than
showcasing evidence or scientific proof. I thought the housewife kit for
genetic engineering is really funny as this was my first hearing of such
ideas but it sure ignited the designer in me! As the wise Guicciardini once
said the devil is less ugly than he seemed so we probably can let this case
rest until it really comes to pass.
All this said, I would like to comment on two points you made. One is that
you thought he was too eager to stick his nose into other discipline's
business. I think he was merely being intellectually curious and speculated.
Given his stature as someone who has made interdisciplinary contribution in
mathematics and physics, I don't think one can say that such a habit is
excessive or irrelevant. Secondly, you labeled the content of his speech as
"BS". If I understand you correctly, that is basically saying that all that
he has said (including his fable), has no meaning at all and thus not
valuable. I think there are still good insights there and won't go so far as
to say that it is all BS. And of course, one cannot define a fable as BS per
se anyway.
Like yourself, I guess he is entitled to his strong opinions too.
J
--
View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Doctor-dropout-article-followup%3AProfessor-Dyson-Whom--t1384813.html#a3719896
Sent from the PhD Design forum at Nabble.com.
|