清華大學美國社會與文化課件scienceandtech_24050585

1、Science and Technology in American Culture Alexis de Tocquevilleanother Frenchman writing about America, in the era before the Civil War he tried to explain “why the Americans are more addicted to Practical Than to Theoretical Science.”In modern, terms, why are Americans more addicted to technology

2、than science.He said in a democracy, American value “every new method which leads by a shorter road to wealth, every machine which spares labor, every instrument which diminishes the cost of production, every discovery which facilitates pleasures or augments them.”to put it another wayAmericans admi

3、re an inventor/businessman like Steve Jobs more than they do Albert Einstein.3 American scientists/inventors/culture heroesFranklinEdisonJobsBenjamen Franklin Franklin (1706-1790)first internationally famous AmericanWorking class familyfather a candle maker; soap makeronly attended school two yearsa

4、fter that worked as a printerat age 21, he founded a association of working men devoted to mutual education; a few years later he established the first “subscription library” in America. founded the American Philosophical Society which later merged with the American Society for Useful Knowledgecontr

5、ibutions to scienceOceanographydemographymeteorologyrefrigeration electricitydemonstrated lightning is electrical(received the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London for this work on electricity and elected a fellow of the society Oxford University awarded him an honorary doctorate.)Inventions

6、lightning-rod (it is claimed he was the first but I am not convinced) bi-focals (evidence for this is circumstantial) Franklin stove urinary catheter no patents: . as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours

7、; and this we should do freely and generously. Thomas Edison, 1847-1931 “He was a poor student. When a schoolmaster called him addled, his furious mother took him out of the school and proceeded to teach him at home. Thomas Edison said many years later, My mother was the making of me. She was so tru

8、e, so sure of me, and I felt I had some one to live for, some one I must not disappoint. At an early age, he showed a fascination for mechanical things and for chemical experiments.” http:/ inventions of Edisonimprovements to the telegraphphonographdevelopment of a practical light bulb along with al

9、l the other elementsdynamo, current regulators to maintain constant voltage, commerial power stationto create the electrical industrynot just one INVENTION but an entire SYSTEM.Backed the wrong current thoughsee video.motion picturesheld over 1000 US patentsmajor business successesfounder of the com

10、panies that became ConEd, power company for NYCdespite arguably an inferior electrity.founder of General Electric, one of the largest companies in the world stilland of course his own laboratory complex in Menlo Park, where he was able to pursue multiple projects, working on whatever interested him

11、at any given moment. The first “industrial research laboratory” or “industrial research park.”At one point the Edison employed 10,000 people in his labs, shops, and factories.and while the research and design for an Edison patent came from the groupthe patent was in his name only.the Wizard of Menlo

12、 Park Willard Gibbs (1839-1903) Meanwhile, very few Americans had heard of Willard Gibbs, who contributed to the development of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, physical optics and vector calculus. Received first PhD in Engineering awarded by Yale, the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of Lond

13、on, and was a corresponding member of the Prussian and French Acadamies. Max Planck said Gibbsnot only in America but in the whole world will ever be reckoned among the most renowned theoretical physicists of all times.” Albert Einstein called Gibbs “the greatest mind in American history.” In 1906,

14、the German scientist Walther Nernst came to Yale to give a lecture and asked to see where the Gibbs memoraial was. Astounded to find there was none, he gave his fee to order one for Yale. Almost of all Gibbss work theoretical. Edison/GibbsClearly the model of university trained scientists working in

15、 laboratory settings along with engineers is a high successful way of both developing scientists and introducing practical innovations.But the American imagination is more captured by the Franklins, the Edisons, and the Jobs.It fits the “American Dream” better.Furthermore, Edison inventions seem imm

16、ediately practical.And Edison, like Jobs, gets rich.Steve Jobs, 1955-2011 you all know this from the interview, but briefly-working class family background.father taught him basic electronicsgrew up in what would become Silicon Valleyworked as a technician in the emerging industrydropped out of Reed

17、 College but audited classes(Wozprobably the better person technicallydropped out of Berkeley after one year)businessesco-founder of APPLEleft itcame backNeXtNeXt spins off Pixaryou see from the interview that APPLE was his “Menlo Park”Apple LISA Steve Jobs interviewWhat was the source of Apples suc

18、cess?factorslocationencouragement from teachers formal and informalmeeting Wozlove of work by him and his teamwork as funyouthbrand new fieldgeneral creativity of the periodreadiness to investigate and learn outside his fieldand what he called the “l(fā)iberal arts spirit”-what Johann Huizanga in Homo Ludens called “play theorynot in interviewthe rise of Venture CapitalJobs as culture heroWhy Jobs?Woz was probably the more or