I like the idea of science being made by living people of the world for living people and the world. This is different from making science “because otherwise what?? we don’t make science?!“,  and from making it out of fear of being  invaded by dummies.

I like the idea of science meaning both we acknowledge, we appropriate and we update humanity’s best understanding of the world. This means at some point, when a scientist has digested the science of her elders, she must throw it all away. It’s her time now.

An elder of mine called François Robert once wrote to me one of the most beautiful things I been told since I became a researcher. He must have written it as a response to me telling him how much my PhD thesis fell in the continuity of his work, and how much I doubted I had payed satisfactory tribute to it in my thesis. I cited his response in the acknowledgment section of my thesis:

[. . . ]  je vous prie de vous sentir tout à fait libre vis-à-vis de lui et de moi [. . . ] le fait que vous vous en soyez nourrie est le principal, inutile de vouloir précisément rendre compte de ce que vous y avez utilisé, la référence bibliographique suffit : les enfants et petits enfants vont de l’avant et n’ont pas à se sentir débiteurs vis-à-vis de leurs parents ou grand-parents. . . qui sont eux surtout très heureux d’avoir de la descendance qui à son tour construit sa vie en s’alimentant à des sources diverses.”

François Robert

In short, he was giving me his benediction to do my thing and not worry about being fair to him. It was my turn to make science now. And I agree.

Science is where science is being made. It’s not something that grows old with us.  What grows old eventually  retires. So at some point every aspiring scientist must burn the science she’s diligently digested to make room for her own thinking. The quality of science depends on it, critically.

I want to talk more of Burning Science…

I’m a computer scientist. I practice the most sensualAnalytic:= like a typical academic or encyclopedic article, technical research report or grant proposal, including the more graphic material presented in figures.   Non-symbolic:= anything else that is just as accurate and complete, no more illustrative and metaphorical, but less linear, usually less verbal and more sensual. Typically, non-symbolic information is delivered through a sensual (visual, auditory,. . . ) experience. It expresses in a compressed form specific pieces of understanding, concepts or ideas that otherwise might need to be delivered by way of lengthy analytic descriptions. More and fundamental of sciences: the science that studies how communicable meaning translates into tangible portable form. While the old sciences are still fighting to repel religion and stuff to impose their better idea of the creation,

computer science is quietly proposing something else,uncluttered, more subtle, more local, about experience, exploration and communication… Something that allows us today to substantiate a new concept of Burning Science at the intersection of In Case of Peace and of Burning Man.

The Burning Science concept is about bringing together “thinkers” and “makers”. At the beginning, thinkers are mostly academic researchers. Makers can be designers, acrobats, carpenters… anybody trained or experienced in giving non-symbolicAnalytic:= like a typical academic or encyclopedic article, technical research report or grant proposal, including the more graphic material presented in figures.   Non-symbolic:= anything else that is just as accurate and complete, no more illustrative and metaphorical, but less linear, usually less verbal and more sensual. Typically, non-symbolic information is delivered through a sensual (visual, auditory,. . . ) experience. It expresses in a compressed form specific pieces of understanding, concepts or ideas that otherwise might need to be delivered by way of lengthy analytic descriptions. More form to ideas. Burning Science takes the opposing approach to vulgarisation and illustration (see this post about the risks of colourless languages like mathematics). The canvas to make that happen is presently being developped and tested as part of both project In Case of Peace and of my current DFG funded project at the Freie Universität, Berlin on Causality, Time flow and Abstraction in Networks.

Now, as I mentioned, it’s not called “Burning Science” for nothing. There’s a lot of intersection with the philosophy of Burning Man as I am about to demonstrate by paraphrasing the 10 guiding principles of Burning Man.

Inclusion. In the context of science-making there are 2 things I can think of this relates to. ★ The first is the obvious one: science is democratic. It should not be erecting a wall of knowledge separating  the population between the haves and the have-nots. It should be facilitating understanding. This is also where I’d like to mention that science is like running. Some people are trained to run faster and better and they must be appreciated as such. But let’s not pretend we need a diploma to practice running. Let’s instead simply avoid suggesting non-experts had better sit. ★ The second is that science must incarnate an anti-thesis of group thinking: rigorous dynamic adaptive thinking. To ensure this, room must be made for all the sorts of minds to contribute to the organic challenging of science. It’s one thing to have school favour the most exclusively analyticalAnalytic:= like a typical academic or encyclopedic article, technical research report or grant proposal, including the more graphic material presented in figures.   Non-symbolic:= anything else that is just as accurate and complete, no more illustrative and metaphorical, but less linear, usually less verbal and more sensual. Typically, non-symbolic information is delivered through a sensual (visual, auditory,. . . ) experience. It expresses in a compressed form specific pieces of understanding, concepts or ideas that otherwise might need to be delivered by way of lengthy analytic descriptions. More minds that respond well to academic teaching. It’s another to make do without the minds that aren’t comfortable in present-day academia. Science critically needs other minds than the coarse competitive alpha-type that forwardly confronts itself to reality to firmly answer either “Yes.”, “No.”, or  “It depends.”. Science needs the slower, the intuitive, the sensualAnalytic:= like a typical academic or encyclopedic article, technical research report or grant proposal, including the more graphic material presented in figures.   Non-symbolic:= anything else that is just as accurate and complete, no more illustrative and metaphorical, but less linear, usually less verbal and more sensual. Typically, non-symbolic information is delivered through a sensual (visual, auditory,. . . ) experience. It expresses in a compressed form specific pieces of understanding, concepts or ideas that otherwise might need to be delivered by way of lengthy analytic descriptions. More, the delicate, the hesitant minds too, the ones that will shyly wonder “Is that question informing more on reality than it is defining it for us?”.

Gifting. A job in which you are paid to produce something no-one really wants is difficult. We propose to bring back gifting in science – gifting together with the gift of someone’s sincere interest in receiving.  We propose to bring individual practitioners of science closer to other people alive and cultivate meaningful encounters  between them that will bring scientists to experience the pleasure of gifting through their practice of science (not through their results, or not necessarily). In another context we might be advertising this as “accountability” but it still would be accountability that is dissociated from peer-pressure and rivalry, from administrative inquisition and from academic strategics. And its not critical and episodic and heavy-going in the way publishing papers is. On the contrary, as it is meshed naturally with daily work-life, it is comfortable, forgiving and happens organically. And it is gratuitous: it’s a simple gesture representing someone’s acknowledgment of someone else (not so much acknowledgment of what someone else represents nor so much either of anybody’s work per se: just acknowledgement of someone else). So it looks more like gifting then anything else, and we’ll be encouraging scientists to see it that way. In Case of Peace’s solution also restores gifting  in peer review (which now looks more like self-sacrifice and therefore critically stakes the quality of the review) and peer collaboration (which now looks more like exchange of commodities).

Decommodification: Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?

Self-reliance/deinstitutionalisation: Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?

Self-expression: Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?

Communal effort: Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?

Civic responasability: Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?

Leaving no trace; Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?

Participation: Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?

Immediacy; Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?