The Two Cultures - The Rede Lecture - C.P. Snow

[@Houshalter]

Basically every prediction this guy made was wrong. But he somehow won, and the world is now run by people like him and his ideas.

[@DF-ss5ep]

Of this article? He's wrong about everything? Ever heard of emerging markets? China?

[@user-rx162r]

@@DF-ss5ep Oh man, predicting China would become more powerful? Amazing.

[@DF-ss5ep]

@@user-rx162r This was written in 1959... You might want to pick up a history book or browse Wikipedia or something. And it's not just China. Go fetch some graphs with GDP of so called emerging economies, they all have huge climbs in the past century. So not only were his predictions correct, they were not obvious.

[@DF-ss5ep]

Even Russia! Which is much more on par today with the western economies than it was in the final decades of communism

[@DF-ss5ep]

What he got wrong was that education had anything to do with it

[@goyonman9655]

This records the birth if the "nerd" as we understand it today.

[@psikeyhackr6914]

And the "literary intellectuals" all carry smartphones today. They use Einstein to navigate their cars. 🤣

[@Astavyastataa]

As an Indian raised in America, I can definitely tell that I have absorbed the prejudices of the literary intellectual against the scientific one, probably for three reasons: 1) environment, 2) religion, 3) current overreach of the biomedical establishment. Oddly enough, I also loathe the current literary academic class, but part of that is probably born more out of envy than incomprehension. Lastly, I’m not sure I share speakers optimism in general, though I think in India’s case it’s plausible.

[@DF-ss5ep]

I don't think it has anything to do with America, or with living in America, at least. I'm in Europe, and noticed this division since at least 17 years old at school, among classmates

[@particleman5893]

43:52 HA! The generality in scope of American education is nothing but wasted resources, and it has absolutely no effect on the intellectual segregation of the specialized. Nothing except for the innate curiosity of the experts themselves will ever bridge these gaps. But grass is always greener I guess.