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the more I read about golden ages the more I'm stunned that we're not obsessing about it all the time during India's Gupta golden age, they invented zero during Baghdad's, they translated Aristotle the Dutch golden age gave us Descartes "capitalism" is maybe half the picture
the real powerful force is a bunch of nerds trying to outdo each other. it's rivalry that drives innovation, IMO, more than prestige, accolades and even financial rewards. it's clapton looking at hendrix and going What The Fuck
Ernest Rutherford, who split the atom, was aided by a bunch of nerd friends – Geiger, Bragg, Wittgenstein, Bohr notice that plaques tend to focus on the individual but it so often takes a team of nerds https://t.co/lH8F4apXcT https://t.co/WxgXIfv4f8
Geiger (L) and Rutherford (R) hanging out https://t.co/fQWQ8VinIL
Max Planck won the Physics Nobel for his discovery of energy quanta he had literal nerd house parties!!! "The Planck home became a social and cultural center. Numerous well-known scienttsts – Einstein, Hahn, Meitner were frequent visitors". They'd play music together https://t.co/2ZgrrOmlCk
Fritz Haber, originated the Haber-Bosch process, responsible for the fertilizer that feeds the world. His dad wanted him to join the family dye company. He didn't. Haber's life is complicated – his genius wife Clara was an important collaborator. Was friends with Einstein &others https://t.co/2Ia0aHKEo8
more on Fritz Haber's complicated legacy – bringer of both the food of life and unimaginable suffering https://t.co/y7UkSiHl34
via Randall Collins’ sociology of philosophies:
@visakanv reminds me ogf bell labs https://t.co/kwgZsppSqe https://t.co/rlWkM6NbD9
