There are many famous historical examples of multiple people making the same discovery nearly simultaneously (calculus, natural selection, the telephone, etc.). Is this because inventions are inevitable and are “going to happen sometime soon” once all of the necessary pieces are in place? Or, do individual researchers shape the technological future by making discoveries that would not otherwise have happened if that researcher were never born?
We discussed scientific progress and stagnation back in May 2022, but this time, we will discuss the inevitability of scientific discoveries. (Doesn’t have quite the same alliterative ring as “inevitability of inventions” but oh well).
SUGGESTED READING
As always, feel free to come even if you haven’t done the reading (or have done only some of it). This is just a starting point for the discussion and is meant to provide some background and context.
- “Are Inventions Inevitable?” by William F. Ogburn & Dorothy Thomas
- “Being Together in Place as a Catalyst for Scientific Advance” by Eamon Duede, Misha Teplitskiy, Karim Lakhani & James Evans
- “Why did it take so long to invent X?” from Roots of Progress
DATE & LOCATION
Date: Saturday, 7/6 @ 2pm–4:30pm (roughly)
Location: South Loop Strength & Conditioning – upstairs in the mezzanine
645 S Clark
Chicago IL 60605
Note: Todd owns this gym so that’s why there’s a Rationality meetup at a gym 🙂
If you have trouble finding us, please DM Shane on the Discord or post in “meetups”.
RESOURCES:
Email list and discussion topics archive » https://chicagorationality.com
Discord » https://discord.gg/eDHq3TXrH3
Events Calendar »
General: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=info%40chicagorationality.com&ctz=America%2FChicago
iCal (e.g for iOS): https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/info%40chicagorationality.com/public/basic.ics
