From: Robin Hanson (rhanson@gmu.edu)
Date: Wed Jun 18 2003 - 08:19:14 MDT
At 08:12 AM 6/18/2003 -0400, Harvey Newstrom wrote:
> > > There are many things that I do not like about academia, but on this
> > > point I have internalized the academic priority given to intellectual
> > > modularity. In academia, different people work on different
> > > topics, and hope to combine their results later. ...
> > Deliberately strive for modularity? In a consilient universe?
> > This is one of the reasons why I am not an academic...
>
>I am not sure this is really academia's strategy. More likely, I think it
>is simply a side-effect of the ever-increasing amount and complexity of
>technology. There is too much information for us to be able to know it all.
>The Renaissance Man is dead.
I agree a division of labor is required of most any community that wants to
make substantial progress. Academia is just one such community.
Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu
Assistant Professor of Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
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