Vannevar Bush, an "engineer's engineer" and early pioneer in computer development, was President Roosevelt's science advisor during World War II. He served brilliantly in that task, and among other activities set up the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. Asked by President Roosevelt to prepare a plan for the postwar deployment of science for peace (some say he "engineered" that request from Roosevelt) he published (after Roosevelt's death) Science: The Endless Frontier. In this book he advocated for a National Science Foundation and a program for funding of basic research in leading U.S. universities. A well-known and respected figure, Bush (no relation to the presidential Bush family) Bush politicked vigorously and eventually gained a watered-down version of the National Science Foundation. His curious insistence that research support avoid applied science or practical ends became firmly established, however.
The new science paradigm (which I describe in a book to be published this year by the Springer Co) contributed to a huge boom in U.S. academic research departments. An unanticipated result was the massive proliferation of disciplinary research and publication (the "publish or perish syndrome"), which might use real problems of society as a subject of inquiry, but which became largely circulated within academic "invisible colleges". Bush himself became disillusioned with the results of his initiatives by the 1960s.
Since then the main Bush thesis, that basic research will spur technical innovation and have other valuable benefits for society has been countered by events and many studies but still has strong influence on U.S. academic and Congressional funding policies. Its worst effect, the placing of a stigma on applied research and development is gradually being changed, but has had serious indirect effects in causing some of the nation's best talent to become locked in the ivory tower.
In short, this book by Bush shows both the enormous potential influence of ideas on society - but also the dangers of hubris. Zachary points out that there was already plenty of evidence in the 1940s that the "basic research leads to applications" linear thesis was wrong. In fact,19th Century German science - which created whole new subfields of chemistry in the course of searching for new synthetic pharmaceutical products, dyes, and useful inorganic compounds, had shown that the opposite to the linear basic research concept was more valid. Bush's influence imposed an unwise policy on the nation.
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《风暴眼中的平静》是一本讲述极端环境生存智慧的纪实文学,但它的力量远超一般的探险故事。这本书的叙事手法极其冷静和克制,作者似乎有一种将最惊心动魄的场景,用如同记录天气预报般的客观语气描述出来的魔力。他聚焦于那些生活在地球上最不适宜生存的角落——南极科考站、太平洋深处的深潜器、或是喜马拉雅山脉的无人区——的人们。这本书的魅力在于其对人类适应力的近乎残酷的展示。作者没有渲染英雄主义,而是着重描写了在漫长、单调、高压的环境下,人类如何通过建立起极其细微、几乎难以察觉的日常仪式来维持心智的稳定。比如,在极夜中,他们如何精确测量一杯咖啡的冲泡时间来对抗时间的模糊感;或者在氧气稀薄的环境里,如何通过重复的、无意义的机械操作来保持身体的控制感。这种对“微小秩序”的执着,比任何宏大的叙事都更具有震撼力。读完后,我感到自己对“舒适”和“安逸”有了一种全新的认识,深刻体会到,真正的平静,往往不是缺乏风暴,而是学会如何在风暴眼中,精确地描绘出你脚下的每一寸土地。
评分这部名为《机器的诗学》的作品,以一种极其锐利和充满未来感的视角,剖析了人工智能与人类情感的交汇点。这本书的语言风格大胆、前卫,充满了技术性的比喻,但神奇的是,它却能将最冰冷的算法逻辑,描绘得如同浪漫主义的抒情诗。作者并非简单地讨论AI的威胁或福祉,而是深入探讨了“智能”和“意识”的本质边界,以及当我们创造出能够模仿甚至超越人类情感的实体时,我们该如何重新定义“人性”本身。他花了大量篇幅去解析那些复杂的神经网络模型,但分析的落脚点却是这些模型在生成艺术、音乐或文本时所流露出的“偶然性之美”。我感到作者对技术的理解是深刻而富有同理心的,他看到了代码背后的哲学困境。全书的论述结构如同一个精密的程序,层层递进,逻辑严密,但又时不时地被一些充满想象力的场景打断——比如一个AI诗人创作出令人落泪的挽歌。这本书的阅读体验是高度智力化的,它要求你全神贯注,但随之而来的回报是思维边界的极大拓展,让人不禁反思,我们是否正在亲手创造出新的生命形式,而我们对它们的理解,又进步了多少?
评分翻开《园丁的手册:从土壤到心灵的对话》,我立刻被它那种宁静而又充满生命力的气息所包围。这本书的写作风格极其个人化,却又拥有普世的哲理。它不是一本教你如何修剪玫瑰的工具书,而更像是一系列关于耐心、等待和接纳的沉思录。作者将园艺的实践过程,与人生的起伏跌宕紧密地联系起来。他谈论播种时,讲的是希望的脆弱;他描述除草时,谈的是清除内心的杂念;而谈论收获时,则充满了对自然的敬畏与满足。文字的节奏感非常舒缓,仿佛能让人听到风吹过叶片的沙沙声。我特别喜欢其中关于“病虫害的哲学”那几章,作者并没有将虫害视为敌人,而是将其视为生态系统内部失衡的一种信号,这提供了一种全新的、更加和谐的视角来看待生活中的“挫折”。阅读的过程本身就是一种冥想,它强迫你放慢脚步,去关注那些日常生活中最容易被忽略的微小细节,比如泥土的湿度、清晨露珠的反光。读完后,我的心态都变得平和了许多,对“完美”的追求也少了一些执念,转而开始欣赏事物自然的生长轨迹。
评分这本《宇宙的低语》真是让我沉醉其中,作者的叙事功力简直是大师级的。它不像那种硬邦邦的科普读物,而是将深奥的物理学概念编织成了一张张引人入胜的故事网。我尤其喜欢他对时间本质的探讨,那种从宏观宇宙的膨胀到微观粒子纠缠的视角切换,让人在惊叹之余,又感到一种哲学的震撼。比如,书中对“现在”这个概念的解构,通过引用爱因斯坦的相对论,再结合最新的量子力学实验成果,构建了一个多维度的时空图景。我仿佛能闻到书中描绘的星云的气味,感受到黑洞边缘引力的扭曲。作者的笔触极其细腻,即便是初次接触这些复杂理论的读者,也能被他流畅且充满画面感的文字所引导。他没有回避那些令人困惑的悖论,反而将它们作为探险的起点,引导我们去思考人类认知的边界。读完之后,我常常会陷入沉思,望向夜空,觉得那些遥远的星辰不再是冰冷的符号,而是某种活生生的、仍在演化的奇迹。这本书不仅仅是知识的传递,更是一次精神的洗礼,它成功地将冰冷的科学公式,转化成了触动人心的史诗。
评分我对《失落的文明印记》的评价只有一个字:震撼。这本书完全颠覆了我过去对古代历史的理解。它聚焦于那些在主流史学中被边缘化或完全忽略的史前遗迹和文化符号,通过考古学的细致考证和人类学的跨文化比较,构建了一个令人难以置信的古代世界模型。作者的论证过程严谨得令人发指,每一处推测都有大量的实证支撑,无论是南美洲巨石阵的精确对齐,还是撒哈拉沙漠深处壁画中展现的复杂天文知识,都被他抽丝剥茧地呈现在我们面前。更绝妙的是,他巧妙地引入了地质学和气候学的最新发现,解释了为什么这些高度发达的社会会在短时间内神秘消失。这种多学科交叉的叙事方式,使得整本书读起来充满了悬疑和探秘的色彩,就像在跟随一位经验丰富的侦探进行实地考察。我尤其欣赏作者那种不盲从权威、敢于挑战既定框架的学术勇气。他没有给我们一个确定的答案,而是抛出了一系列更有价值的问题,迫使读者去重新审视人类文明起源的叙事。这本书对于任何对历史真相抱有好奇心的人来说,都是一份不可多得的珍宝。
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