Neil deGrasse Tyson AMA #2 | Hacker News Reader

Neil deGrasse Tyson AMA #2

reddit.com

49 pointsMithrandir12 comments

I found his AMAs to be the two most interesting things I've ever read on reddit, I think. It's as if the whole community collectively attempts to behave just so they don't fuck it up. The memes are kept to a minimum, etc.

For an incredibly candid interview done by out-of-character Stephen Colbert, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXh9RQCvxmg

It's extremely worth it and mentions a lot of the same points he makes in the two AMAs.

Reddit is really a horrible medium to do an AMA. Just trying to read through that thread is incredibly inefficient and annoying. I wish better alternatives like AnyAsq would catch on.

Do you have any better ideas? No other popular venue has the same kind of community upvote/downvote system to automatically filter out the "best" questions.

I mean it could be HN, but the system and UI have similar usability, right?

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ngd5e/i_am_neil_degras...

Impact of finding Higgs at LHC NDG: To discover something you expect to be there does almost nothing to advance physics.

This is exactly what I have been saying: finding something that we know is there and likely to fill in the last missing piece does almost nothing to advance physics. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3343661

I think it's wrong to encourage students to major in science.

People should think for themselves and pursue whatever career interests them most.

The word 'encourage' is key here. They're still free to go into retail, office or plumbing (and those fields are fine) but if they're not exposed to science and its way of thinking they won't be inclined to take it up.

One of his main points in his two AMAs is that children are born curious but if they don't get taught how to be scientifically literate they won't pursue science and waste their potential. Thus we should encourage students to pursue science from an early age so that we have more and more people who didn't get put off of all the memorization and boring math.

Are students receiving equal encouragement to become game designers?

Game design is a lot more rewarding than scientific research.

>Game design is a lot more rewarding than scientific research.

Doesn't this directly contradict you first comment?

>People should think for themselves and pursue whatever career interests them most.

Not really.

Ideally, people should think for themselves without enouragement.

But if you are going to allow encouragement in science, then should also allow equal encouragement in other fields.

There are certain skills that are considered to be necessary over others. Literacy is a good example. Math is another.

There are other skills that might have less of an impact than literacy, but have a direct impact on society and the quality of life for everyone. History and science are good examples here. History because being knowledgeable about the politics of yesterday helps in framing political decisions today. Science because our lives have been affected by (and improved by) science for the past few hundred years.

Having a populous that's informed about the benefits of science and technology and how they affect all of our lives should help everyone make better decisions regarding the two -- from a mom who mixes ammonia and bleach to clean her floor to the congressman who brushed off Vint Cerf's testimony during the SOPA hearing with a comment about nerds.

So, while we should encourage people to follow their passions and explore interesting topics, I'm comfortable saying that we should encourage certain things like math, reading, science, and history over game design, running a business, or basket weaving.

No one stops you from encouraging.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com