chestertn

I am talking about old papers that might not be widely known (i.e., have few citations) but present some useful results that I can use in my research.

In my field, the latest papers are a bit "click-baity". They have interesting titles with many trending words but when you read them it is hard to find either a coherent vision or a single result that one can build on top of.

Of course, I am generalizing. There is great research being done today and low-quality papers in the past. But it is completely true that the need to publish has distorted the goal of research communication.

I tend to use and cite older works because they tend to be better written and reproducible.

I am filtering out because I am tired of Marvel, marvel derivatives, anything with a main character and superpowers.

I do love international films and seeing what different cultures can create. I feel sad when they imitate the lowest that we have to offer in terms of filmmaking.

I understand that you guys want people to be open-minded. But there is so much space in one's mind. In this day an age you have to be selective and filter aggressively.

I saw the trailer. Looks like a Chinese Marvel movie with a wacky premise like Inception or what not. I think I will pass.

I watched Drive My Car recently. That is a good movie!

Unfortunately, having a patent today is not synonymous with being an inventor. Like peer-reviewed papers, it has become something to display in your resume and hence gamified. Research has been taken over by careerists rather than idealists.

Exactly

No, that is a serendipity. Emergent behavior is when the sum is more than its parts.

I noticed that as well. It is scary.

There is this big push in academia to work in AI because funding. Many mathematicians are a bit fed up with AI because the paper of the fields tend to be a bit liberal with claims and they are not subject to the same standard as fields such as statistics or numerical analysis.

Many mathematical researchers I have known have abstained from jumping in the AI bandwagon until they see the name of a well-known professor in an AI paper. Then they cave.

Sorry, oldest university in continuous operation in Asia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_universities_in...

The universities that you mention are ruins. No need for the sarcasm.

This is a very colorful view of history. You can also see that the first university in America was built by the spaniards. The first university in Asia? Also, built by the spaniards.

The earlier ships were a mixture of those "barbarians" as you mentioned, and very learned people.

The concept of international law and human rights started with the discussions in Spain after the discovery of America:

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/school-salamanca/#IusGent...

I think non-ideal is an euphemism. Being negative in American media doesn’t look good.

I think you can buy apartments?

Has anybody read about insuline resistance?

The Nobel prize is 120 years old and I don’t think it can be awarded posthumously.

> but got scooped, which sucks buts that’s how science works sometimes

I work in science. It hasn’t been always like this and it is getting worse. Nobody does basic or risky research anymore.

> I don't mean to trivialize Mojica's work, but at the end of the day if not for the later work of Doudna and Charpentier, Mojica's work on CRISPR would be unknown and irrelevant to 99.9999% of the world population.

And if Mojica had not discover CRISPR...

Anyways. Here's an article if you are interested:

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/nobel-crispr

The point here is that if Mojica (or Šikšnys) instead of professors in a random European university, were supported by University of California, MIT, or any of the big names, they would not be in the predicament they are today.

He did not just "do important work". He discovered and described the CRISPR mechanism. Without CRISPR, there is no CRISPR-cas9.

> showed how to use it as a DNA editing tool

Don't we care about basic research anymore?

> The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race, by Walter Isaacson.

The Nobel prize should have gone to Francis Mojica. Of course, he does not have all the PR machine that Doudna has, the futuristic TED talks and all.

Right! Unfortunately, because the feud between Catholics and Protestants at that time, the later seldom recognize the influences of the former and it seems that there were these “dark ages” until they arrived.

See, for instance, the School of Salamanca: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/school-salamanca/

It is so dumb it might work.

How do you measure your RHR while sleeping?

Spain is not tropical

No, no. To China and the Ottoman Empire as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Discovery

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_world_maps#After_1492

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_international_trad...

It is one of the greatest feats of European civilizations. Don't take that away! Not everything is implicit bias and Eurocentrism.

I have talked about this a bit more in another comment below:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28936345

There are also possible contacts between ancient peoples in Europe and the Americas:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_trans-oceanic_co...

But as I mention, the impact of 1492 eclipses it all (that is why is called Pre-Columbian!)

A nuance here. Why is this important? Slavery was very common back then and the New Laws were revolutionary.

The Ottomans were famous for their slave trade and did capture tons of Europeans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_Ottoman_Empire

Not only that, Aztecs and other indigenous peoples from the americas had Slavery as an institution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_slavery

Indigenous slavery ended with the New Laws

Yes, but they continued the Buddhism tradition (orally). The Vikings did not continue commercing and tell other people... hey! there are humans in this place! its a new continent!

Yes. Meaningless. 1492? Very meaningful.

One of the most important feats if not the most important of what we used to call the Age of Exploration: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Discovery

This led to global trade that changed the face of the earth. It opened philosophical debates about human rights, the legality of wars, etc., which are still important today.

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/school-salamanca/#IusGent...

These debates led to the prohibition of American Indian slavery in... 1542!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Laws

The first recorded christian marriage in current United States was an interracial union in 1565!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_colonial_Spanish_Am...

I could go on an on.

Colombus was trying to find India and he explored the area trying to find proof that he indeed found India.

Furthermore, Colombus brought an interpreter with him, Luis de Torres: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_de_Torres

"Their task was to explore the country, contact its ruler, and gather information about the Asian emperor described by Marco Polo as the "Great Khan". "

There is a lot of effort put today to downplay the importance of what happened. I understand that it makes sense politically. But the fact remains that what happened in 1492, for good or bad, changed the world forever.

There are plenty of valid claims that many other civilizations contacted America: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_trans-oceanic_co...

But it is meaningless since they did not write about it nor they stablished commerce. The fact is that before 1492, most civilizations in Africa/Asia/Europe did not know that America existed and that other humans lived there. After 1492, that changed forever.