Posts tagged “History”

Progress in our ideas of progress

Way back in 2016, Ada Palmer wrote an essay on progress and historical change. It’s well worth reading in its entirety, but I especially wish more of my colleagues were familiar with the history of science and philosophy of Frances Bacon she describes in section two. Science has philosophy and history, and to be ignorant […]

Hildegard von Bingen was born about 1000 years ago. She was sickly and had “visions.” Based on her drawings and writing, a few scholars now believe she had migraines. Looks like in an environment where auras were interpreted as mystical visions, she did pretty well, becoming > a German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, Christian […]

So you think you’re a bad collaborator

This guy Dollard was holed up in a stockade trying not to get his ass kicked by the Iroquois Confederation when he had the brilliant idea to light up powder keg and toss it into the enemy. Unfortunately, he missed and dropped the damn thing in the stockade, blowing allies and his own men and […]

So you think your PhD is a waste of time

This guy Frobisher goes the Arctic to find the Northwest passage and totally fails, but he finds some rocks that he thinks may have coal or gold or something in them. So he brings them back to good old England and somebody tells him they do indeed have gold in them, so he goes back […]