At first it was the word, they say, but immediately the cliché came to light.
The topics are as old as our prejudices and many are still in circulation today.
Since ancient times we have classified people according to the molds of the stereotype: the femme fatale, the grumpy wife, the quack doctor, the barbaric foreigner, the brainless hunk, the distracted and clumsy scientist for real life.
In Greek civilization, where philosophy allied with science was born, the caricature of the absorbed and absurd researcher already proliferated, in force for centuries, until it led to the misfit and hilarious protagonist group of the series
The Big Bang Theory
.
In one scene, microbiologist Bernadette warns neurobiologist Amy, "I don't think you can turn skin cells into functional neurons."
To which she, partner of the extravagant physicist Sheldon Cooper, replies: "If I have turned 'this' into a functional boyfriend, everything is possible."
The parody of the lunatic sage is ancient.
There were mocking anecdotes about Archimedes about his absent-mindedness: he forgot to light the fire to get warm and eat because he preferred to draw geometric figures in the ashes of the hearth.
People roared with laughter at him and his useless abstractions, but when his native Syracuse was besieged by the Romans—a small city facing a mighty empire—the stunned Archimedes devised machines that struck terror into the fleet. invasive
The historian Diodorus Siculus narrates that he managed, in an early antecedent of our solar panels, to project light through mirrors on enemy ships, causing fires or blinding the crew.
Today those who enthusiastically choose professions with no apparent practical application, lacking immediate economic returns and —therefore— the approval of the markets— also feel surrounded.
Ideas with no promise of profit are seen as the whim of dreamers, a wasteful waste of time and talent.
Against the humanities weighs the presumption of uselessness.
What are they for?
Perhaps to have the courage to ask ourselves what we consider valuable and think about our goals.
From this perspective, Hypatia was a humanist, who built a scientific community in a context of sectarian clashes.
It was the inventor of X-rays, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, who gave up patenting his discovery precisely because he glimpsed its immense medical utility and preferred to leave it available to everyone.
In our fast-paced and uncertain world, it is impossible to guess whether the thesis of pragmatists or the self-absorbed dreams of those who draw geometric figures in the ashes will prosper.
the british series
Years and Years
explores the life of a family in a future that is so dark, hectic and convulsive.
One of the protagonists, Celeste, studied accounting because her parents assured her that she would always have a job.
With the technological revolution, she falls into unemployment: a robot now takes her place.
Too late, Celeste discovers that decisions guided by calculation are not always the wisest.
Archimedes, the stunned mathematician, thought all the time about his curved lines, his cylinders and his spheres.
Plutarch wrote about him: "He only wished to devote himself to the beautiful and the excellent."
Immersed in a permanent spell, many made fun of his anthological absent-mindedness and his useless geometric abstractions.
In the long run, however, the practical applications of his work were incalculable.
His achievements were essential for Copernicus or Kepler, and allowed perfecting the orientation and direction of ships according to the stars, opening up unimaginable possibilities for travel, exploration and trade.
As the philosopher Alain said, when Archimedes studied conic sections he was not remotely looking for the path of future navigators.
He wasn't looking for her, and maybe that's why he found her.
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