4 ms·
> an earth-shaking discovery made by a man in his fifties who was barely within academia It's stories like these that make me jump with joy inside every time I
by GigabyteCoin 13y ago
> an earth-shaking discovery made by a man in his fifties who was barely within academia
It's stories like these that make me jump with joy inside every time I think about the wonder that is the internet and the possibilities that creates for us as a human race.
The possibility that exists by having things like free 2,000 book encylcopedias (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia%3ASize_of_Wikipedia#Hard_copy_size http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia%3ASize_of_Wikipedia#H...) at the fingertips of nearly every human on earth is just mind boggling.
I won't be surprised if Joe Average discovers the cure for Cancer tomorrow. Or AIDS. Or our fossil fuel addiction.
In fact, I expect those things to happen sooner than most of us might think.
- Ar-Curunir 13y agoNah, I don't think the average person will discover the cure to cancer. While access to freely available knowledge is increasing, this knowledge is mostly broad, not deep. So we can have information on a lot of topics, but these topics aren't covered in very much depth. Also keep in mind that Zhang was very much within the fold of academia when he discovered the 70 million upper bound on the separation of primes.
- thaumasiotes 13y ago> While access to freely available knowledge is increasing, this knowledge is mostly broad, not deep. So we can have information on a lot of topics, but these topics aren't covered in very much depth. This has bothered me quite a bit. I want to go to wikipedia and be able to find, to use Feynman's term, a map of the cat. I don't understand why it's not there.
- crassus 13y agoPrecisely the reason to push for free and open academic journals that anybody can read.
- rimantas 13y agoI expect nothing like this will ever happen. You underestimate effort and amount of work (and training) needed for such breakthroughs. Also the cost of the research. I am afraid most of the low hanging fruits are already gone. You don't find cure for cancer just by reading a scientific journal over the evening tea and then dreaming up the formula.
- velis_vel 13y agoI don't think that you can really call a professor with a PhD 'Joe Average'.