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H.G. Wells is suffering from the modern scientific Fact-Cult when he believes we can reunify knowledge by his plan of a "world encyclopædia." He seems to think that the gathering and systematic presentation of data confers upon the scientist a Godlike wisdom, that facts are cold figures, and the human mind is like an adding machine, and that if you put all the facts into the machine, you will automatically draw out the correct, infallible answer and the world will then be saved. The folly of this conception is beyond belief. We are suffering not from lack of facts, but rather from too many and from lack of judgment.
https://archive.org/details/wisdomofchinaand035380mbp/page/571/mode/1up
7 months ago
[1] https://archive.org/details/wisdomofchinaand035380mbp/page/571/mode/1up
Hi smokey, thanks for suggesting Roadside Picnic! I read the foreword and it is right up my alley. I will give this book priority on my to-read list. :-) I look forward to your log on this topic. · 7 months ago
The question of whether human beings are or will be able to understand any and all information we receive from the universe is one that most science fiction, riding on the heady tide of scientism, used to answer with an unquestioning Yes. The Polish novelist Stanislaw Lem called it “the myth of our cognitive universalism.”...
his use of ordinary people as the principal characters was fairly rare in science fiction when the book came out, and even now the genre slips easily into elitism—superbrilliant minds, extraordinary talents, officers not crew, the corridors of power not the working-class kitchen.
some juicy bits from the aforeward that are directly relevant · 7 months ago
Hey ben I just got into reading 'roadside picnic' science fiction novel (the one that the S.T.A.L.K.E.R games are based on) and I think you would appreciate it alot, what was said here about HG Wells and the scientific fact cult is touched upon in the foreward section.
I recommend you download the book and give the foreward a read http://library.lol/main/A3B148ED71341B93849A4A49F4A18679
Honestly this topic is something ive been wanting to write a log about for awhile, still thinking about it. · 7 months ago