The fact that rocket science was developed in part by Werner Von Braun in an attempt to blow up my grandparents does not mean that every space probe will come veer off towards London. Nor does the development of nylon to replace silk parachutes to invade Germany mean that it is forever more a patriotic material.
Jim heartfield ---------------
Well, yeah, but that wasn't really quite the point. What is selected to study, what is selected to develop, what direction those choices take, and finally how we decide among equal scientific truths, which is more important to know, are all determined through the history and socio-political context. And of course all that is driven by cash flow. Right?
The post was directed at Rahesh's attempt to spout the science party line.
So, for example, why we even have such a thing as rocket science was configured in the contexts of nationalism and war. After all rockets are basically worthless as a tool for knowledge and barely qualify as physical science. On the other hand, once you are directed to develop rockets, then all sorts of pieces of physics, chemistry, mathematics, and mainly engineering gets done.
But in any case, you can be sure that rockets will veer off toward somebody, because that's how they were conceived in the first place, and that is what they do best. We can quibble over London or Bagdad.
As for nylon, I am not so sure about the lack of patriotism in nylon either. I mean, it was developed to avoid a dependence on foreign imported materials--a complex craft and trade system in China, right? Well, so who makes nylon nowadays--the US petro-chemical industries, right? So, if you want silk, linen, or wool, you have to import them and there are hardly any domestic production systems left that depend on using these materials anymore. Everything is made with some variation of petro-chemical fibers. Where the hell did the goose down sleeping bag go?
So, I think nylon sounds pretty damned patriotic. I mean wouldn't you toss and turn at night if you knew our boys and girls in uniform were all out there wearing silk underwear. Sounds pretty scary to me. They and we are much safer in good old american nylon-cotton drillies.
Chuck Grimes