Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
The main reason true (but not necessarily “good”) engineers flail so badly and turn into crackpots when they try to do philosophy or physics is they have an agency drive hardwired into firmware so strongly they cannot help but see the world exclusively in terms of ways it is “wrong” and can be “improved”
2 replies
0 recast
1 reaction
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Though I’m an engineer by training I’m mediocre at it aptitude-wise, but more importantly I’m not particularly “true” to the spirit of it. Seeing the world in improvability terms is *not* natural for me. I think I’m equally mediocre at physics and philosophy but more true to those orientations.
1 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
The orientation of physics is sheer curiosity. You want to know how things work regardless of whether you can improve them by design. Since 99.9999% of the universe is not improvable engineers are typically bored by it. It’s rare for an engineer to get into astronomy for eg though many like space tech.
1 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
The orientation of philosophy is essentialism. What is the true nature of reality beneath the layers of words, concepts and constructs we use to attend to it? Again, not an improvability orientation. It’s less broadly curious than physics but cuts deeper once physics exhausts curiosity.
1 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Example: take the idea of chirality (“handedness” or mirror-asymmetry). Engineers don’t give a shit about it. Use symmetry when it is useful for balance or aesthetics. Use handedness where necessary for orientability of parts or unavoidable like in screw threads.
1 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Physics goes *much* deeper. Symmetry is fundamental to organizing the curiosities of physics. Mirror-asymmetry is catnip. Particle spin, CPT-conservation, polarity of molecules…. Philosophy goes deepest. I knew a philosopher once who was trying hard to analyze the very essence of chirality.
1 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Mathematics is orthogonal to these three. There are engineering, physics, and philosophy styles of doing math. I’m pretty mediocre at math too, but it’s a tell that I’m most attracted to “philosophy math.” The discovery/invention of the hat aperiodic monotile fascinates me.
1 reply
0 recast
0 reaction