On data
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The power and the problem of interdisciplinary queries
Bush, 1945
There is a growing mountain of research. But there is increased evidence that we are being bogged down today as specialization extends. The investigator is staggered by the findings and conclusions of thousands of other workers—conclusions which he cannot find time to grasp, much less to remember, as they appear. Yet specialization becomes increasingly necessary for progress, and the effort to bridge between disciplines is correspondingly superficial.
via theatlantic.com
Berners-Lee, 2009
The power of being able to ask those questions, as a scientist — questions which actually bridge across different disciplines — is really a complete sea change. It’s very very important. Scientists are totally stymied at the moment — the power of the data that other scientists have collected is locked up and we need to get it unlocked so we can tackle those huge problems.
via Ted
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“Interesting data is relationships.” – 7:06
via ted.com
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“What are the scientists to do next?”
Vannevar Bush, 1945
Bush wrote on behalf of his own tribe of scientific technocrats.
“Tribes are what matter now.” – Seth Godin
Bush gets a lot of credit for predicting the Internet, and the desktop computer, and other things. But his article attempts to draw outsiders into engagement with his tribe, explain how they hold civilization hostage by serving as the engines of progress, and demand a machine to support the growth of their culture.
It is the physicists who have been thrown most violently off stride, who have left academic pursuits for the making of strange destructive gadgets, who have had to devise new methods for their unanticipated assignments. They have done their part on the devices that made it possible to turn back the enemy, have worked in combined effort with the physicists of our allies. They have felt within themselves the stir of achievement. They have been part of a great team. Now, as peace approaches, one asks where they will find objectives worthy of their best.
Of what lasting benefit has been man’s use of science and of the new instruments which his research brought into existence? First, they have increased his control of his material environment. They have improved his food, his clothing, his shelter; they have increased his security and released him partly from the bondage of bare existence. They have given him increased knowledge of his own biological processes so that he has had a progressive freedom from disease and an increased span of life. They are illuminating the interactions of his physiological and psychological functions, giving the promise of an improved mental health.
Science has provided the swiftest communication between individuals; it has provided a record of ideas and has enabled man to manipulate and to make extracts from that record so that knowledge evolves and endures throughout the life of a race rather than that of an individual.
And so on …
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