Reply To: T-shirt designers unite and take over

[Tasmodevil44]

Lets take for example, the two German scientists who discovered uranium fission. They were convinced that a neutrally – charged particle like a neutron may have the best chance of triggering nuclear reactions when absorbed into a nucleus. So they systematically bombarded every chemical element in the periodic table……and failed.

At least, that is, until they came to uranium……the heaviest element found in nature. But what if they had been closed – minded pessimists and decided to prematurely call it quits, just because most atoms simply won’t fission ?

Examples like this demonstrate conclusively that maintaining the open mind of an optimist……combined with persistence and long – suffering perserverence……does indeed play a valuable role in our critical thinking……that it does indeed occasionally pay – off real big in increasing our physical understanding of the world around us. Even if such open – minded optimism often results in far more ” misses” than the occasional direct ” hits “.

So do I think that open – minded optimism plays absolutely no role in our advances in science and technology ? Not for one minute do I think such a thing ! ! ! To think otherwise is pure bunk, because the history of science and invention itself bears out all too clearly how visionaries like Henry Ford used this positive – thinking mindset to their advantage. You sometimes have to keep plugging away at ” hit or miss ” preposterous crackpot notions, tossing most of them out one by one……until you eventually get it right. If anything, the process of elimination tells you something about what will not work, narrowing it down to the few things that might work. It’s what you call basic research.