Capital Frontiers Of Science Using Archimedes’ Principle
Considering the all-to-real risks of Promethean adventurism.
Swimming in myth and ancient philosophy much of today’s scientific capitalism has its roots in the distance past. Thousands of years of noodling through a cloudy aurora of observed phenomena without the means to measure critical elements with precision. Frustrated by primitive illusions of silvery-white radium; a spectrum of colour singing to those who can’t hear. Basic tools like the microscope, telescope, or the hypodermic needle literally hundreds of years away and yet these were learn-ed, cultured people(s). With time and curiosity to spend it on.
They built museums, temples to the Muse, and massive libraries. Timeless stone monuments if not to science than to the pursuit of truth and knowledge and through these rudimentary principals forged the foundation of what would come. Our modern scientific capitalism and all its wonderful benefits. Freedom through measured political science and productive economies based on real numbers and a sincere desire to see the world better tomorrow than it is today.
Archimedes famously said, “Give me a lever and a place to stand, and I’ll move the world.”
We still celebrate the enduring genius of great thinkers like Archimedes of Syracuse. (Died:c. 212 BC ) Or Marcus Aurelius (Died:c. 180 BC) who on a political level is known as the last of the 5 Good Emperors setting the gold standard for collaborating at scale by famously sharing rule with co-emperors.
Yet without computers and satellites or even the relatively simple light bulb the influence of their work continues to illuminate. A year doesn’t pass without some young mind sparkling in a library over Plato’s Republic (380 BC) thinking how does it apply now? How do these ideas function in today’s society? Questions, which through scientific appreciation of philosophical contributions, we learn to focus broader strokes toward fresh opportunities. This is how we can discover new capital frontiers in almost any market. A sort of magnetic attraction between principle and something practical through its timeliness.
Consider the Archimedes’ principle which states:
“The upward buoyant force that is exerted on a body immersed in a fluid, whether fully or partially submerged, is equal to the weight of the fluid that the body’s displaces and acts in the upward direction at the center of mass of the displaced fluid.”
“Eureka! Eureka! I have found it!” Archimedes exclaimed!
Even at its inception this sublime principle was used to combat fraud. One could determine a false crown or a coin through the volume of the displaced water when tested. And what a wonderfully inexpensive test relying on density rather than weight. No mailing a sample away and waiting 6 weeks. Just pour some water in a container large enough to hold the object and voilà.
Kingmaker. That’s what they might have called the one who reveals the true crown. Hail, Science!
…Archimedes’ principle is a law of physics fundamental to fluid mechanics (which we now recognize as physical law of buoyancy).
Still used every single day even now. Invaluable. Worth more than any video game. There is no movie that will generate more return. If you could calculate the global capital contribution of Archimedes’ principle it would make Disney look like a lemon-aid stand. Counting in mere billions. Pfff!
Imagine it. A practical formulation of observed phenomena preceding the precise discovering of its underlying causes. Some unpredictable mixture of requisites compensating for anything it lacks in understanding why it does what it does. Yet it remarkably builds thousands of years of boodle in the interim. Spectacular! A good idea rolls on cultivating wealth. Generation after generation playing the same tune on new instruments. The anthropic principle of every industrious species, every cell, collaborating in a tapestry of productive life.
When a good idea presents the applications are boundless. Limited perhaps by lack of precision but far from worthless. When we finally add new precision we get new applications so if nothing else we know that a pursuit of precision generally pays dividends just as generally. This is a constructive understanding of the progress achieved by just one good idea from the ancient world. How many do you think are still out there? Waiting for someone to sparkle over?
Ocean liners built on it. Nuclear submarines, holding a belly of radiation, couldn’t exist without it. Oceanic pipelines sustained by it. Millions of tourists a year scuba diving in the wake of history without even knowing it. Fish float because of it. Where’d we be without fish!?! Oh and one final thought for those of you who like a toast to the good life. The wine making process uses a hydrometer which is based on Archimedes’ principle.
Icy meteors paint with rays of snow, but there are limits to the naked eye.
It takes The Scientific Method to secure a commonly acceptable explanation. Yet, where our ancestors lacked precision they supplemented with rigger and reputation. Grinding through the unknown like a hacker searching for UFO files on a NASA server.
Where there was no pharmacological market to fund research they put their own personal wealth or the wealth of their households to the purpose. The Academy of Plato in Athens. The Lyceum of Aristotle. Gifts to the world destroyed by the acid rain of authoritarianism in 86 BC. Yet, rejoice! The impact of their curriculum is tautological in its appraisal. Prometheus has taken fire from Zeus and there is no giving it back.
They lived well and we live well in part because of them. We should be grateful. Though flawed they were useful. The ancient philosophers used the tools available to push the landscape of understanding forward even in the absence of new facts. We have a responsibility to continue that journey and carry those ideas into new territory where maybe things play out differently than they have in the past. Maybe we find something new and useful, too.
“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.” — Marcus Aurelius
Take a moment to realize how incredibly lucky we all are that just a basic understanding of capitalism gives us all a place on that ship of enterprise. We can do what Archimedes did with imperfect knowledge we can still move the world. We can formulate practical solutions. Apply new technologies to old problems and old ideas to new technologies.
If you’re a scientist or science enthusiast then it’s not enough to “activate” you have to captivate. You need to punctuate. Take your vitamins and quantize that idea you’ve been sucking on for the last couple years. Write that paper. Absorption is the name of the game. Capitalization. Compositional capacity and opportunity pushing back the entropy of exploitation.
Because there is another side, my friends. Forces that wish to consume and destroy our achievements. To erode our investments and undermine our sacrifices. Fraud is always there waiting to consume profit like a fire creeping through a wood stove with too much creosote.
Archimedes illustrates the very real risks of Promethean adventurism. One man making a choice for the rest of the world. Murdered in his home by a soldier who didn’t even know who he was. There are so many ways to say it. When one lets the Jinn out of the bottle it can grow to immense proportions beyond all manageability. If one doesn’t accept the collaborative nature of production one can quickly be consumed by the fire of their own creation. The fall of Rome being one of many examples throughout history.
Follow me to a darker place as I close out this mind meld. One last subtle lesson for today’s reader from yesterday’s author. That a good principle is a curse and a blessing because ignorance is bliss and we are no longer ignorant. That while capitalism unlocks the potential to move the world it also places the blood of this earth firmly in our hands. Our choices have to reflect the responsible acknowledgement that we are not in this alone.
We are the genes and our creative works are the DNA of our hydrogen laced Sol system. We’re building an ecology of imagination from the bones of every idea anyone’s ever had. If you want to be a part of that then you have to ask yourself. Do ya wanna be a consuming virus… or a productive organism?
