Re: Barbarians vs All Blacks 1973

Martyn Winters wrote:

This doesn't get away from the basic argument that artistic endeavour is undervalued compared to the science robots' achievments.

So more people know who invented the Internal Combustion Engine than know who wrote "Imagine", do they?

Da Vinci, Brunel, Einstein - died richer than Elton John, did they?

Sorry big M - but in a world of rock'n'roll gentry and seven-figure movie deals, where university science departments are closing because no-one sees a future in a laboratory, this postulation is utterly daft.

As to the "robot" slur, I'll just wheel out the old chesnut. When a scientist goes home, he reads a book, or listens to music, or goes out to see a play. Scientists consume, enjoy and discuss "art" all the time. Conversely, when was the last time a poet or painter solved an equation?

I'm not a scientist, by the way. Used to be one, wasn't good enough. I could console myself that they're all soulless morons who wouldn't know Shakespeare from Sinatra. Thankfully I know the truth; that they appreciate Shakespeare and Sinatra just as well as I do, but unlike me, they can *also* do equations. And while I sit humming "Strangers in the Night", one of them is closing in on the cure for Cancer. Even though he'd be better off singing in a boy band.

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