What can be done to forever kill off this evil, dangerous, and slanderous
meme that scientific rigor isn't beautiful? The idea that there is a
conflict between rational thought and creativity is common in our
culture, but anyone who is capable of both knows what hogwash it is.
This idea must be rooted out and exposed before it kills off the
future of rational thought in future generations.
Are the stars less wonderous to me because I understand nuclear fusion?
Is a rose less beautiful because I understand how a high-phosphorous
fertilizer and a good drip system made it that way? Is a Feynman
lecture any less a great work of art than a Wagner opera? Who are you
to ridicule the intense beauty I find in an argument as finely crafted
as any Michaelangelo sculpture?
I /am/ an artist, dammit, and not because I have a few silly poems on
my web page, but because I see the beauty in a mathematical proof, the
inspiring integrity of a rigorous philosphical argument, the fine
craftsmanship of a good statistical analysis, the impact of a carefully
tuned paragraph. I pity those who only see art in trinkets of shape
and color when the true miracles of the human mind are so much more
powerful and further-reaching.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC