文章与日志

Sean Carroll我觉得是个很不错的人，突然看到他在5月3日极度委屈地说自己的永久教职被芝加哥大学拒了，只有回到就业市场，一件令观众如我者很吃惊的事情。
从Sean闪烁其辞的叙述中听得出有些校园政治以及有关宽容性的背景在里面，也许，僧多粥少的大背景也是隐然存在的。
上个世纪第二次世界大战后兴起的基础科学之热，放到整个历史上看，也许恰好是不正常的，原子弹炸出来的嘛。
问题是如果试图以基础科学作为职业的人超过了这个社会的投资需求，那怎么办呢？当然没有慈善家会从这个角度去考虑问题，因为解决的办法最终只能是个人的顺从。只是留下来的反问题是，也许当这个社会可以供养的纯粹思考者的能力越来越强之后，是不是在思维型职场上，本身也具有足够的容量呢？

比方说，就Sean的职业领域，广义相对论或者说宇宙学，我们可以把它目前可能的论题都列举出来，然后看每个论题现在有多少人在做，然后再假设把这个数目乘以10，呵呵，让我们想象那样一个场景，有意思的问题是，下一个爱因斯坦会不会因此而提前出现呢？

考虑到目前已然出现的娱乐大众diy化，也许我们可以认为未来肯定会有一个学术的大众diy化的趋势出来，其实目前比较惹眼的所谓民间科学工作者现象，无非是那个未来趋势的先兆而已，不值得社会主流去大惊小怪或大棒小棒。

于是，接下来的问题就纷纷然变得愈加科幻化了，例如：
科学本身是中立的工具，如果它的创造力被广泛散播人间，那么如何监督其滥用问题呢？恐怖主义的高科技化已显其端倪。
最有意思的问题是，如此的社会趋势，对于科学本身的发展有何作用？我们人类认知的进度是否因此成比例地增长？
另外一个和Sean这个事情有关的问题是，在那样一种情形下，对于多样性和宽容性会有怎样的社会组织形式来适应。

致谢：google提供了复仇性的强大工具-Google Web Accelerator （ http://webaccelerator.google.com/index.html ），终于令我得以访问blogspot.
附录：Sean的日志 （ http://preposterousuniverse.blogspot.com/ ）
Tuesday, May 03, 2005

So the bad news is

The bad news is that I've been denied tenure at Chicago. It came as a complete surprise, I hadn't anticipated any problems at all. But apparently there are a few of our faculty who don't think much of my research. A stylistic clash, I imagine. And a handful of dissenters is all it takes to derail a tenure case. I don't think there are many people in the outside world who believe that the University of Chicago is better off without me than with me, but there seems to be an anomalously high concentration of them among my own colleagues.

So now I am on the job market again. Which is sad, both because of the intrinsically demoralizing nature of the job market, and because I cannot tell you how much I love this city and the friends I have made here. It truly feels like home to me. But I'm hopeful of getting a position at some other great place and flourishing there -- doing well is the best revenge.

In the meantime, though, blogging will likely be a low priority. I'm not going to stop, but my former ambition to put something up every day (no matter how lame) is going to be set aside as I concentrate on other things.

Further updates as events warrant.