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A temple to the Western Mind On the recommendation of a friend, this afternoon I went to see the IMAX 3D movie Space Station. I expected to enjoy it but I did not think I would be astounded by it. 3D filming sure has come a long way!
The experience was made even better by the entirely suitable venue of the IMAX cinema, which is the superb Science Museum in Kensington. After seeing the show, I wandered around and looked at the exhibits.
If you want to see the glory of what Islamic culture can produce, go visit the Alhambra in Spain. But if you want to see and understand the glory of what secular western culture can produce, go to the Science Museum and see the making of the modern world. This place is more than just a museum, it is a temple to the western mind and what makes us what we are. It is gallery after gallery of astonishing achievements, dead ends and curiosities. If you would know what you are then understand where you came from.
This is your heritage.
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Quite so Sir.
This is why I have just voted for I.K.B. in the BBC’s “greatest Briton” thing. A bit of silly contest I admit – but I.K.B. deserved a vote (he was the only man on the list who actually built anything).
Paul Marks.
Paul, could you clarify who I. B. K. is for those of us outside Britain?
Perry, You’re quite right about the amazing power of the rationalist secular tradition which was created in Europe. The volume of science and engineering marvels we have produced in the past few hundred years has dwarfed everything that all societies had acheived prior to that.
Islamic society was very successful in astronomy (and presumably other things) during the first few hundred years of its existence, but then they sort of tapered off into a bunch of oppressive religious dogmas which in this century have given rise to the Taliban and the Islamists in Iran (as only two examples).
Given all this, I’m sort of unclear on why so much of modern social scholarship is violently anti-western. Yes, western society is flawed in many ways, but it’s the least flawed of a long list of alternatives.
P.S. I saw this film in 2D when I was in Seattle a few years back, and I was pretty blown away by it then. I can’t imagine what the 3D version was like.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Back in the day when “engineer” was truly an admired profession.
Good post. I have been to the same 3-D show about the International Space Station and it was first-class. The Science Museum is one of the great glories of London. A must-see.
“Engineer” is frequently still an admired profession, but civil engineering is not as difficult or as creative as it once was. Pharmaceutical engineers, biotech engineers, and computer engineers are respected professions, but their work is a bit more abstract and less tangible. Thus the public doesn’t notice them as much, but the power of western science and industry continue to affect people’s lives in amazing and novel ways.
I’ve a lot more respect for someone who is willing to work on interesting problems for little money than I do for someone who works on boring problems for a lot of money, so my sympathies tend to lie with pure scientists. Of course I’m somewhat biased, and engineers serve a much more valuable short-term role for society (which is why they get paid more).
Perhaps I always ought to clarify the British context.
Engineers are no longer *sexy* as they were in Victorian Britain. After all, IKB was a celeb.
IKB was the greatest British man since Newton!
I’d probably have to say that Maxwell or Faraday are the greatest scientists or engineers in British history since Newton. IKB built some very impressive buildings and bridges, but their work in electricity was the basis for most of modern society’s marvels. Perhaps it’s not sexy, but methinks it’s had a greater impact on society.