When I learned that the Oxford Dictionary had identified ‘post-truth’ as the Word of the Year 2016, I really felt like I was slapped in the face. For somebody with a passion for science and knowledge, it just hurts. But it is true, the one new concept that dominated public discourse in 2016 was that thing […]
Where did growth come from?
15 Dec 2016 by 2 Comments
… or more precisely, where did the idea of growth come from? That’s one of the questions I’ve been fascinated with for a long time. And reading Joel Mokyr’s recent A Culture of Growth, I feel like getting closer to an answer. Before and after the Industrial Revolution With the benefit of historical hindsight, and at a […]
On the freedom and responsibility of science
26 May 2016 by 4 Comments
The freedom of science is a highly valued and widely appreciated principle. Or so I thought – until Andy Borowitz reminded me of the contrary with his recent news satire in The New Yorker, in which he mocks the growing anti-knowledge attitude in some parts of the U.S. political establishment. Thus triggered to think twice, I’ll dwell a little […]
Three days, three breakthroughs
14 Dec 2015 by Leave a Comment
Wow, what a ride! Just between 10 and 12 December 2015 –within the blink of an eye– three events occurred that we will likely consider breakthroughs in a couple of years: the Paris Agreement, the launch of OpenAI, and the first successful run of Wendelstein 7-X. While one of those events is widely agreed as historic, the other two currently […]
Innovation landscape & adaptive cycles – Part 2
22 Oct 2015 by 1 Comment
In the previous post I’ve investigated the relation between two of the major concepts that I had discussed earlier: the innovation landscape on one hand and the adaptive cycles on the other. I focused on the part of the innovation landscape that is defined by known problems, i.e., the business as usual quadrant and the research quadrant. Together, with some overlap, those […]
understanding innovation 