Why is science uncool?

Discussion in 'General Science & Technology' started by Mickmeister, Aug 20, 2007.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. sniffy Banned Banned

    Messages:
    2,945
    I did say 'was' o foolish one.
     
  2. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. geekzilla Banned Banned

    Messages:
    123
    personally i find science great...i think people find science uncool/geeky because they picture it hard or maybe designed for intelligent people. Science is for everyone.
     
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2007
  4. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. Atom Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    928
    it can't be that uncool ..even the most inanae of teenagers commonly describe every piece of trivia they collect as a 'meme'.

    Just google it..all I got were shot of Paris Hilton and Emokids...thanks! LOL.
     
  6. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. Nasor Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    6,231
    No, he wasn't. There are all sorts of myths about Einstein being a poor student, and all of them are false. All historical records indicate that he was a fantastic student. In fact, his academic ability was so impressive that he was accepted to a prestigious college in Switzerland when he was only 17, a year younger than the normal acceptance age for the school.
     
  8. psikeyhackr Live Long and Suffer Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,223
    Einstein was a somewhat lazy student who wouldn't be a good NAZI like the instructors of the time expected students to be. Consequently once he graduated he couldn't get recommendations from his professors and that made it impossible for him to get a job in academia. That is how he ended up as a patent clerk.

    http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1921/einstein-bio.html

    psik

    PS - Yeah I know, NAZIs hadn't been invented yet. It's the social-psychology that matters. You have to have the right environment to create them in the first place.
     
  9. Mickmeister Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    812
    I think you are right on track with that answer. I think most people believe it takes a highly intelligent person to understand it, when it does not. Heck, I can hold my own with some of the best ones. An acquaintance of mine works as a physicist at Oak Ridge Laboratories. He is a member of the same high iq society as myself, but is a lot smarter than I am. I can still hold my own with him when it comes to discussions we have on physics, and I am in now way an expert in that area.
     
  10. Tht1Gy! Life, The universe, and e... Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    780
    What I mean is: Joe Bully picks on Jim to boost himself in his, Joe, mind. It very likely Joe's parents are lacking in parenting skills, either they belittle him, or they smack him around a bit, or they ignore him. Maybe they have alcohol/drug issues. Some combination of all?
    Why do Joe's parents do this? Cuz that's how they were raised... It takes a lot of intestinal fortitude to break the cycle.
    Joe has to first want to change the behavors. That doesn't happen in Grade school, or Jr High, maybe by High school.
     
  11. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,690
    Decompose the phenomenon from the opposite perspective. Amos has low self esteem so he bullies his son Ben. As a result, Ben grows up with a self esteem problem and he bullies his son Clyde. Clyde then grows up with...

    In fact, for the two or three generations that social workers have been studying the issue, they have consistently found that most men who are imprisoned for violent crimes were beaten by their fathers or father-figures.

    I believe the same holds for verbal abuse, which in our modern culture can be just as demeaning and damaging as physical abuse. (E.g., the people I've met who were verbally abused the worst do not want that information widely known, the same pattern as physical abuse.) My father was a tyrant who raised me with no sense of self esteem. As I grew up I behaved the same way toward others. Fortunately the world had changed and wives no longer felt obligated to stay with men like me, so I did not end up having any children to pass the trait on to. I can only hope that by dissipating my abuse among a larger circle of less intimate companions, and only starting in my 20s so I was not dealing with impressionable children, the damage was minimized.

    So I broke the cycle and after forty more years of learning from many caring people, I am no longer abusive. Not everyone is as lucky as me, nor as the people who were never born to endure me.
     
  12. geekzilla Banned Banned

    Messages:
    123
    people might also think science is uncool because they are influenced by friends who dont find the subject that interesting. They are then pressurised in believing so..and try and fit into the "gang" by agreeing with them..?? (Peer Pressure)
     
  13. Tht1Gy! Life, The universe, and e... Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    780
    You take jokes kinda seriously, huh?
    'Sides, that would be: 'computer science'.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

    I think.
     
  14. Tht1Gy! Life, The universe, and e... Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    780
    ...And this is different from what I said...?

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    Seriously, though, Kudos on making the change in yourself. It takes a pair of stones. (inside the body/ovarian or outside the body/testicular) The abuse messes with one's sense of what is an appropriate response to any given situation.
    It's tough, I know, I got the shit beat out me by a step-dad for a couple of years.
    And the schools, still allowing corporal punishment at the time, had little tolerance for an intelligent smart-ass who wouldn't 'stop asking questions' to which they didn't know the answers.
    Or be like 'the other kids'. (If only I had understood what that meant...)
     
  15. guthrie paradox generator Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,089
    I thought there were several very obvious reasons science is uncool amongst large sections of the populace.

    Firstly, a popular culture which frequently denigrates science, and encourages non-scientific behaviour, the exaltation of feeling over thinking, lack of application, etc.
    Secondly, poor teaching, although that is a problem in all subjects, not just science.
    Thirdly, at least in developed post-industrial countries, although the fruits of scientific research surround us all, people usually do not know anyone involved in scientific research, because it is a minority activity. With the destruction of industry in these countries, there is much less opportunity for children and teenagers to know someone who is involved in science, however tangentially. Therefore it becomes a distant occupation, something that they have no direct knowlege of and therefore are all too easily swayed towards thinking it uncool.
     
  16. Enmos Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    43,184
    Tht1Gy! and Fraggle Rocker:

    Ok, i see what you guys mean. I may have been confusing bullies with the people that join them in order to avoid being bullied themselves.
     
  17. Tht1Gy! Life, The universe, and e... Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    780
    Can you say Fundi?
    Now, now,
    Let's all say it together "Balance-Balance-Balance".
    emphasis mine.

    And the brain drain from "the industry of destruction" on basic research, and universities...
     
  18. guthrie paradox generator Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,089
    HHmmm, methinks we might be talking about similar things...
     
  19. Tht1Gy! Life, The universe, and e... Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    780
    ! (Yes, I think so.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

    )
     
  20. River Ape Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,152
    Yep, science is uncool.
    There's nothing quite so pathetic as the cult of "cool".
    By the way, it's French for arse!
     
  21. Chatha big brown was screwed up Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,867
  22. guthrie paradox generator Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,089
    It would be great if it helped.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page