[lit-ideas] Re: Shaming, Shocking Editorialising Etc.

  • From: cblitid@xxxxxxxx
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2012 08:14:07 +0100


On 29-Nov-12, at 7:34 PM, Omar Kusturica wrote:
What would happen if someone suddenly invented perpetuum mobile, any theories ?
A long time would be spent 'proving' that it wasn't 'really' a 'perpetuum mobile.'
Then a lot of text books would be thrown out. How long erroneous theories in physics would keep being taught in universities (here I will not entertain a guess) and high schools (here I will say, based on past experience, decades) is an interesting topic for discussion (of which the repercussions re tenure of individual professors would be part).
In the meantime there would be a flurry of trading of stocks in energy companies, submissions to patent offices - and editing action on Wikipedia.
On a related (just how is left as an exercise for the reader) topic: it is interesting to note that seventy years ago this (or last, depending whether your calendar puts it at the beginning or the end of the week) Sunday (i.e., 2 Dec., 1942), scientists led by Enrico Fermi initiated the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in the experimental nuclear reactor Chicago Pile-1. 

Chris Bruce,
savng discussion of sustained
nuclear fusion reactions for later,
in Kiel, Germany
--



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