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BROKEN_STEM

                                                   May      5, 2016
                                                   November 2, 2016
                                                             
In an online discussion, I once found someone
who claimed he has a scientific background,
but he gave the game away in his (barely
coherent) writing, where he made little
distinction between science and technology.

People with technical backgrounds are positively
*fanatic* about that distinction.

Now myself, I suspect that there's no good
reason to make a rigid distinction between
science and technology-- I think it's an
echo of the mind/body dichotomy of Descartes
and friends, and not really well reflected
in how we really work...

Knowledge of the world enables our ability
to manipulate the world, and our ability to
manipulate the world helps us achieve             Think about how often
knowledge of it.  You can't learn about the       we're stuck using awkward
world without doing things to it, and doing       phrases like "science and
things to the world is much easier if you         technology", or in recent
know something about it.                          years, the acronym STEM.

Nevertheless, even though I know this is a               (A true acronym for
dubious distinction, I can use it as a                   once, not just an
marker of tribal memebership.                            initialism...)

        "Why are you talking about 
         engineering all of a sudden? 
         That's not just another 
         *department* it's another 
         group of buildings on the 
         other side of campus!"


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