4 ms·
I have an issue with it and I am not sure that my stance is correct. The problem as I see it is that making things casual feels like it’s taking the discipline
by S_A_P 6y ago
I have an issue with it and I am not sure that my stance is correct. The problem as I see it is that making things casual feels like it’s taking the discipline out of the discipline of science. I also just think that slang is not necessarily long term speech. I mean some words hang around and enter the lexicon (e.g. cool started at least 60-70 years ago and seems to still be acceptable to say) but others are very generational and transient. (23 skidoo, rad) On the other hand, I would likely be saying hellabyte in my best Del The Funky Homosapien accent. He’s from the Bay Area and throws at least 5 “hellas“ in every interview.
But seriously I think maybe a middle ground from overly clinical sounding and overly casual sounding should be the aim...
- Apocryphon 6y agoTrue, but that's already been the case in biology. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unusual_biological_names https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unusual_biological_nam...
- semi-extrinsic 6y agoWeird that this list does not include the "sneaky fucker strategy" - or perhaps this omission is indication that biologists don't find that term unusual.
- stock_toaster 6y agoOr they just omitted it to be ... sneaky.
- ian-g 6y agoI don't think you're wrong to be cautious about making science too casual, but I don't think everybody will immediately look at the word "hellabyte" and think "Oh, somebody from the Bay named this" I can't say it sounds any more silly to me than zettabyte or yottabyte
- koliber 6y agoI represent the perspective parent supposed. Hellabyte sounds as reasonable as any other prefix. Sometimes science is top down. Sometimes it’s bottom up. I welcome a balanced mix of both approaches. Let popularity (in an extremely broad sense of the word) decide which prefixes suggested by the masses win, as well as who gets to sit on committees that will dictate new prefix suggestions and approve them. When you look around, this is just how the world works.
- psyc 6y agoThe various quarks would like a word.
- spullara 6y agoWhen Truth and Beauty were in the mix, I agree. I guess we still got Charm and Strange.
- vmception 6y agoI disagree because I think discipline is only necessary because something was once less accessible. And then after it becomes more accessible, discipline really just elitist gatekeeping. So I'm not at all worried about the "casual way" people conceptualize and convey 10 to the 27th power, or the "precedent" that would set.