19 Comments
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Niccolo Soldo's avatar

I have several more interviews in the pipeline. Please hit the like and share buttons, and comment on this interview if the mood strikes you.

And please consider becoming a paid subscriber to keep me cranking out material like this.

SubLiminalOrder's avatar

Needs to bridge the butt stuff with the dark astral plane

truth's avatar

Much like I believe all women, I also believe all scientists.

I couldn’t get past that first sentence.. Women and scientists lie all the time..

Niccolo Soldo's avatar

I am a woman and science believer

Feynmanovic's avatar

I don't know about this Langlan guy, but I'm starting to think Fisted by Foucault is actually NOT an erotic post-structuralist fanfiction blog.

Red's avatar

Was the Arkan photoshop his doing/his answer?

CarolinianSkunkApe's avatar

This interview made me feel stupid, but in a good way, like when dad would throw me down the stairs for getting a C in math.

schnides14's avatar

lol my brother's friends did the same to me, only they'd yell "GOTTA TOUGHEN YOU UP FOR FOOTBALL!!!" I thank God every day for this instruction.

Top work as always on the interview, too.

Suhaib's avatar

Great interview — lots of topics covered, and tonnes of stuff linked (some of which I have read, some not). Have to disagree with "Can China science?" since they already are producing great science, if not at the Laureate level (simply because their infrastructure/ecosystem is much newer than US/EU). Already, a significant % of top-tier talent (in the United States) in areas like biotech, batteries, AI/ML, even fields like signal processing IS Chinese. So it kinda felt odd for that question to be there, not to mention Scott has this very Eurocentric view (which may have some truth to it) that the Chinese aren't "creative". Also, Terry Tao isn't really a scientist, he's a pure mathematician :)

dd's avatar

Well, in terms of the mass American dumb-down....I take it all of you are now familiar with the latest Scientific American brouhaha.....???? Among the delicious things, a PhD (in nursing) from UCal San Francisco who wrote a ghastly column on EO Wilson apparently didn't know what a normal distribution is....Here is a primer on the incident:

https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2022/01/19/our-attempt-to-correct-the-record-about-e-o-wilson-a-joint-letter-to-scientific-american-which-of-course-they-rejected/

Brian Boru's avatar

Your description of the undercurrent/aura in California was spot on. Having not been in the sunshine state since the early 90's, the strangely unpleasant energy flowing just under the surface of an otherwise beautiful place struck me at the time. Perhaps all the divorcees and ex-hippies with their energy crystals, chakras, etc. were on to something? Probably not, but even narrow minded failed Catholics like myself recognized that feeling you described.

Brian Boru's avatar

Apologies, Golden State, my east coast bias slipped through

Niccolo Soldo's avatar

I am still yet to articulate it properly.

Fast Fashion's avatar

You always begin your interviews with quite the BANG, and I don't mean the pre-workout energy drink. Excellent work!