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> I struggle to think of any collective project that spans centuries, that isn't fundamentally a religious enterprise. Certain parts of mathematics and scienc
by NeoTar 3y ago
> I struggle to think of any collective project that spans centuries, that isn't fundamentally a religious enterprise.
Certain parts of mathematics and science may qualify.
Yes they have practical outcomes (as do certain religious projects - building a cathedral will employ craftsmen), but isn't the pursuit of 'pure' mathematics a collective project which serves no purpose apart from intellectual satisfaction.
- lloeki 3y agoMaths has a constant "next step" which makes it very iterative though whereas a pyramid or a cathedral is only complete or not-complete, and it's not-complete over these decades/centuries. > religious Probably the most enduring meme.
- NeoTar 3y agoI think I respectfully disagree almost entirely. Maths requires a huge amount of creative effort and there often is no logical next step. There was a reason that it took three hundred years to go from an idea that a^x + b^x = c^x has no integer solutions when x is greater than two, to a proof of that, and it involved some crazy twists and turns of thinking. However, while a pyramid may have a definite endpoint, cathedrals have historically been in a near constant state of flux - a bishop wants to show his influence and rebuilds a tower higher, a burgher of the town want to show his power by adding a side chapel. New windows are installed, a porch is demolished and replaced with something more beautiful. For the cathedrals which took five hundred years to complete, it wasn't that they were abandoned building sites during that time - they just took that long to reach the state that we see as final today. Maybe in-between there was a wooden roof instead of a stone roof, or a tower was capped at thirty meters tall rather than fifty!