50 ms·

We could try science / engineering monasteries as described by Neal Stephenson in Anathem?

• dr_dshiv 7y ago
  If you go back to the earliest monasteries, it would be the Pythagoreans of southern Italy c.525BC. They conducted the first attested hypothesis-driven scientific experiments -- while pursuing a simple, spiritual and communal lifestyle. Josephus and Philo of Alexandria described the Essenes and Therapeuts as Pythagorean -- and those monastic groups are largely where Christian monasticism emerged from.
• dschuetz 7y ago
  That's an interesting idea. Definitely worth thinking about. An R&D monastery, where the inhabitants support each other by rotating duties and service for day-to-day life, with dedication to science, engineering and philosophy. Sounds great to me.
• rpmisms 7y ago
  That would almost be a regression, as for a long time, monasteries were the intellectual strongholds of the West.
• cat199 7y ago
  this is what the 'univerity' is or was intended to be, at its base. there is a reason universities have 'faculties' (e.g. 'faculties' of the 'body of knowledge') and that key persons are called 'deans'
  • incompatible 7y ago
    They would be somewhat different to a modern university. In the monastery, you don't get paid, you just get free accommodation and food (and presumably electricity, computer and Internet access, in the tech version). The monastery would perhaps also attempt to be self-sufficient as far as possible, by making its own food and electricity, perhaps taking in materials for recycling.