> Be fair, now: if you're a theoretical physicist, it's
> a diversion from your "real" work to write popular books for
> nonprofessionals. It's a noble career, granted, but if all
> physicists took the time to be popular writers, nobody would
> have time to do "serious" work in physics.
Who's talking about *all* physicists taking so much time writing popular books they can't do physics? A few books by a few physicists isn't going to bring physics to a halt.
> Specialization will necessarily create people with specialized
> knowledge and language. Outsiders won't get it. This is
> true of any discipline. Upside: in-depth analysis, people
> less likely to get sucked in by dubious, common-sense
> arguments. Downside: elitism, faked profundity possible.
What specialists do in their own circles is their business; whether they are really contributing to the world's stock of knowledge or just spinning their wheels is often difficult for the outsider to tell. The problem comes when they write for the public, supposedly, but using the same impenetrable jargon they are accustomed to amongst themselves. One gets the impression that they have spent so much time out of contact with the rest of the world that they no longer know any other way to speak or write. As I said, there used to be a tradition of specialists writing in clear, simple terms for working-class people with little or no formal education, but this seems to be rapidly dying away. There seems to be a wide-spread assumption that the educational level of the public is so high now that there is no need for such "writing down," but I think it's obvious that that is by no means the case.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________ Rob the average man of his life-illusion and you rob him of his happiness at one stroke. (Henrik Ibsen, "The Wild Duck")