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Towards a new kind of science and technology

Reading the history of science and technology, one is struck by how important two branches of physics are: electricity and magnetism, and thermodynamics. The former is mostly how we conveniently pi…

Before the invention of small electric motors, for example, machine shops or printing presses were powered directly by thermodynamics and mechanical connections: usually leather belts driven off a line shaft. None of the doofus “looking into the mind of God” crap we’ve been afflicted with since the 20th century brought public relations to the physics community: just hammer and tongs science by the men who actually created the modern world. I don’t think anything useful came of these efforts; in part because it was long on qualitative stuff, fiddling with differential equations and interdisciplinary work, and short on trying to make something in the world of matter function properly, unlike thermodynamics and steam engines.

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