Frothers Unite! UK

Duff wrote:Out of curiosity, has anything important come out of the Humanities in the last decade?

I like to think we've contributed........
http://www.diffordsguide.com/magazine/2 ... n-classics

Facebook? Twitter? Crowdfunding?

Levied Troop wrote:

Duff wrote:Out of curiosity, has anything important come out of the Humanities in the last decade?

I like to think we've contributed........
http://www.diffordsguide.com/magazine/2 ... n-classics

Cocktails... Lovely.... But dangerous.

Any one of them could break my once an hour rule..

Skipp wrote:Cocktails... Lovely.... But.....necessary.

Truth.

Let's be serious with Duff's question.

There have been amazing advances in porn in the past decade. A vagina too far is still far better than discovering matter one can't see, or planets one can't visit.

Edit- Also honorable mention of the Internet Cat Meme.

mcfonz wrote:Facebook? Twitter? Crowdfunding?

Technology based advances (though I question whether any of them are actual advances), so Science gets them.

Those cocktails are a definite tick in the plus column for the non sciences though. Unless they can be classed as chemistry of course? In fact, yeah, fuck off, cocktails are science as well!

I would have to argue that point Duff.

Facebook, twitter and crowdfunding are pieces of software lead by social demand. The tech was already there, there was no use of science in the creation of facebook - only the creators philosophy, not all of the creators had a knowledge of code but what they did have was an understanding of social demands.

I'd say that is why tech is a very tough ground. The creation of the actual tech is science, physics and chemistry, but the use, well that's where it becomes more debatable.

To me it's like arguing the contents of a book is science when the reality is that the book itself required science to be made and the contents of the book belong to humanities.

Thus I tend to think of the internet, and the computer as science but the contents of them as otherwise.

Think of computer games, they are programming but what are they doing? They are telling a story, or directing characters to make choices in the story, much like the old adventure books that ask you to turn to this page or this page.

So I think to dismiss it as pure science is simplistic and dismissive.

And when you think of the way that literature has pushed on, the ease of everyone being able to jot down their thoughts into blogs, that they can be accessed around the world.

In fact I'd argue that the biggest development of science and humanities over the last decade has been the internet. The way it has developed has surely seen more collaborations across the world due to the ease of sharing information and data speeds increasing.

I wonder how much of that is behind those new developments you listed?

Duff wrote:Technology based advances (though I question whether any of them are actual advances), so Science gets them.
Those cocktails are a definite tick in the plus column for the non sciences though. Unless they can be classed as chemistry of course? In fact, yeah, fuck off, cocktails are science as well!

And the concept of divinity was devised as a way to explain then unexplainable natural phenomena... so religion can be classed as science too.

Take that!

I was about to throw that in as well. Belief can be quantified by population and degree of faith, and thus is empirically measurable.

Although isn't Science a process to explain (at least the natural world) and encompasses a belief system, and is thus a religion?

Wow....Religion is fucking brilliant.

Ajsalium wrote:
And the concept of divinity was devised as a way to explain then unexplainable natural phenomena... so religion can be classed as science too.

Take that!

Making stuff up because you don't know the answer isn't science. Well, making stuff up that is contradicted by evidence isn't science, or making stuff up and claiming it to be fact isn't science, so no, religion can't be classed as science. And no, science isn't a belief system, it is a method of investigation, a process that results in conclusions based on evidence and logic, which is continually changing as new evidence is uncovered, nothing more. That's kind of the direct opposite of a belief system, which invariably cherry picks anything it can use to support itself, while ignoring or denying anything that contradicts it. Bit like most disciplines within the Humanities really.