Week 1: Two Worlds

C.P. Snow in his essay “Two Cultures and The scientific Revolution“ refers to contemporary scientists as “The Third Culture”; a culture that originates from the collision of two different groups of intellectuals specialized in the sciences and literature. As an Applied Math major student, I have witnessed how these academics - which were taught to be different and far apart from each other- interact and complement themselves mutually.

The idea behind a design in Robotics is a mixture of
arts, humanities, and sciences such as technology.
The arts and humanities give physical appeal and purpose,
the sciences build it. 

The Third Culture as Snow sees it, marks the beginning of a revolutionary educational era in which the main idea is to implement a not too specialized and well-rounded education were the sciences, art a literature intertwined. Although this idea was launched years ago,  reality shows that we still live in a society where the sciences are portrayed as more relevant, job- inclined and better paid than arts and humanities. I used to think that majors like sociology and humanities were not as interesting or well recognized in today’s world, therefore they were not worth to be interested in them.

 Animation is an excellent example of  Snow's
    "Third Culture", mixing art and media design. 

With time the concept of  “rethinking education” as multidisciplinary academics changed my point of view. Like Snow comments in his second essay “The Two Cultures: A Second World”, this Third Culture is the merging bridge for both academies. In high school, I used to be the Electrical Captain of the Robotics Club where I frequently worked with circuits and mechanical parts of robots; but when designing the robot I was often faced with aesthetic, historical and social challenges that were the essential part of the designing process. There was where I realized that it is more than necessary to specialized in both.

Although this idea has shaped education in the twenty-first century, the line that separates the sciences from the humanities does not always tend to blend well, it is crucial for the scientist of this new era to think outside the box and mix their ideas with the arts and the humanities in order to convey more technological and innovative ideas.

3D printing is another example of the collision of the arts and the sciences.

Sources:

Adell, Alexander. "Human Face with Wire Frame Animation.                                       

https://cel.sfsu.edu/sites/default/files/images/programs/animation/Alexander-Adell.jpg

Snow, C. P. “Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” Reading. 1959. New York:             Cambridge UP,1961. Print.

Snow, C.P. "The Two Cultures and a Second Look". 1963. Print.

Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.”  2001. Web.

Wilczynski, Vince. "First Robotics: Behind The Design". Rockport Publishers. 
2015. Print.