group query

[jporter]

dpknauss says, amongst a whole bunch of other things:

"...... its pretty ironic that discoveries in physics
>have affected pop culture and literature before the other sciences have
>decided to get with it since they seem the logical first..."

I gotta say, with all due respect for the singleminded visciousness of the
techno-military elite, and the paranoia their thirst for power and control
engenders, the literary culture, starry-eyed, luddite, pockets full of hope
'n all, is so far out ahead of where "the scientific" culture is struggling
to get to- with their attempts to "prove" a Theory of Everything" or
Unified Field Theory, etc.- that I can't help but believe it's literature
(and all the arts, philosophy, etc.) that sets the stage and course for the
formalizations of scientific discovery and canonization.

I think Pynchon and p-modern artists of like caliber have restored among
some of the intelligentsia the awareness of the pre-eminence of the arts in
providing a meaningful context for the progression of scientific behavior.
This should become even more apparent as the boundaries between living and
"artificially" reproducing  systems gets thinner. Been there, done that.

I find the angry flak which scientists like Tipler (right or wrong) have
attracted from among their own ranks, by REcognizing what artists have been
suggesting, pointing out, ironically denying, etc., for years, to be
indicative of just how clueless the unconscious worshippers of science
really are. (Note: not all scientists are likewise unconscious.)

I think a pretty good case can be made for "literature" having set the
stage for all the major scientific/technological discoveries of which the
west is so proud (ashamed?).

jp