True Human Progress
STEM stands for Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. It’s all the rage in the Western World,
because too few are willing to study it so they say with negative consequences
for future competitiveness and technological progress.
HSTEM stands for History,
STEM. One should not relegate history to be a pure elective when studying STEM.
It ought to be a requirement to be offered and promoted.
Why History?
History is the glue to
understand how these fields have developed over time and to understand how much
they have in common. It is critical to understand that science and engineering
are fields that require constant trial and error and that there is no gain
without taking risks. It is also critical to understand that government should
not and cannot control or steer the outcomes of science.
History helps to understand
how concepts have evolved over time. I would venture to say that mathematics
becomes much more interesting or fascinating if you see how it has evolved over
time and around the world.
The history of science is
littered with human follies and hubris. Many once great theories promoted by
the greatest minds of their time ended up in the dustbin of history. This ought
to be a humbling experience. As king Solomon said so presciently in
Ecclesiastes almost 3,000 years ago “What has been will be again, what has been
done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the
sun.”. E.g., the current Global Warming hysteria stoked by hundreds of so
called scientists is such a folly.
It is my sincere conviction
that if we all were better educated in the history of STEM we would not so
easily be fooled and taken for an expensive ride by self-professed scientific
doomsayers and their fellow traveling politicians.
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