[FRIAM] projection propaganda

[steve smith]

On 7/8/25 8:16 AM, glen wrote:
> Yeah. OK. After thinking about it a bit, Newton definitely qualifies. 
> I guess I've always felt that he *wanted* to be a private seeker and 
> was too insecure and triggered by criticism ... something I don't 
> think is natural to scientists

> . The old aphorism that highlights the paradox goes something like: If 
> your mind is too open, everything falls out, too closed, nothing gets in.
If your mind is too open, just about anyone can pour just about anything 
into it?
> Newton just seems like he really wanted to be a mystic. But he was too 
> often too correct and made a pesky wake he couldn't ignore. My naive 
> and idealistic understanding of the Good Scientists™ I like are rapid 
> updaters who change their minds all the time when presented with new 
> information, but simultaneously great world-builders such that the new 
> information wobbles into the network of facts organically.
>
> But I guess because he was so thin-skinned, he helped develop the 
> rigor good criticism needs, even if he didn't seem very friendly about 
> it. I guess it's like he didn't believe science (or alchemy) was 
> *social* ... more Platonic. And that just seems anti-science at this 
> point. Math? Yes. Science? No. The "mad scientist" trope goes 
> hand-in-hand with Great Man Theory. But clearly, Musk has demonstrated 
> we haven't matured out of that nonsense yet.

He was definitely a creature of his time...

his reputation as an alchemist (now) exceeds that as a natural 
philosopher/scientist:

John Maynard Keynes, who bought many of the papers, said:

    "Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of
    the magicians."


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