Isaac Newton is now known as a physicist, but in life he was much more an alchemist. His work in science is inseparable from his work in protoscience and the occult because, at the time, those were all the same thing. He was also a really weird guy, probably because of mercury poisoning.
OK besides this below and DEVO coming out of the Kent State massacre, what are other facts you have about the evolution of art / music /etc that wouldn't be obvious if you didn't know but, retroactively, explain and/or illuminate a LOT ?
I’m pretty sure all the famous scientists from history had at least one esoteric interest that would get them laughed out of modern universities. But what if we just let them be weird little guys, girls, and variations thereupon?
I think we should let all academics just be wierdos, with esoteric interests. I think it would help us produce the best educational and research outcomes at Universities
I unironically agree. All the greats had all kinds of weird interests and eccentricities. They had fun with it, and that’s where their inspiration came from. Modern science forces everyone into small boxes which they’re all but forbidden to stray outside of. It makes everything so much less.
Indeed, I wanna be a wierdo legal academic, talking about wierd little shit in art and culture that feed into my pet subjects in Law. along with lounging about in a velvet jacket, is that too much to ask for society
When I was still a postdoc, I was sorely tempted to take all the dead computers in that one cupboard in my office and hook them together into a supercomputer. I was also planning to start making solar cells out of moss and had a plan for a solar powered vertical wind turbine.
Similar to Darwin. He spent more time studying earth worms than he did on evolution. He also turned the stairs of his house into a slide for his children. If he didn't have ADHD I'd eat my hat.
Weirdly I don't have a problem with people who are long gone. Not a fan of armchair diagnosis of living or recently departed famous people. Darwin was definitely different from the typical. I'm also very sure that's why I've always been fascinated by him.
My son is autistic and every time someone gives him a look for stimming in public or a kid is mean to him for being different I have to fight the urge to lecture them on how the world wouldn't be how it is without neurodiverse people.
