Chapter 2 Reprint Preface: The Two Sides of a Falling Apple: Extreme Intelligence and Extreme Imagination
Gong Shuguang. In the early morning of September 8, 2017, he was in Baopulu.
Even we are surprised that the First Push Series has been out for 25 years.
Perhaps, because he is engrossed in the editing and publishing details of each book, he ignores the publishing process of this series, ignores the black hair on his head and gradually dyes frost and snow, ignores the old and new changes of the team editors, and ignores that many readers in the early years have grown into pillars in many fields.
Twenty-five years is indeed a long journey for the publication of a book seriesA quarter of a century is a leap forward in the history of scientific research. The ancients' sense of time of "seven days in the cave, and the world has been a thousand years" is also appropriate and accurate to describe the speed of human scientific exploration. Looking back at these popular science works that we publish year by year, many of the assumptions of those years have been proven, and some conclusions have been falsified;Many of the theories of that year have been incubated, and some inventions have been eliminated ......
No matter which of the disciplines and theories expounded in these works belong to the above-mentioned situation, they all essentially present the purpose and truth of scientific exploration: science is always a process of seeking truth, and the so-called truth is only a phased result in this process. Arguments are ridiculed by imagination, conclusions are provoked by assumptions, and human beings, with their most superior species endowment, wisdom, make the incomparably sharp blade of reason and the incomparably brilliant flower of imagination mutually reinforcing each other. In all kinds of life, there seems to be no field like scientific exploration, which is not only a great intellectual adventure, but also an extreme perceptual aesthetic time and time again. Scientists have dedicated their lives not only to scientific conclusions that we cannot discover, but also to brilliant imaginations that we cannot unfold. In the extremely small and very large worlds that we cannot perceive, without their popular science works that record these great adventures and extreme aesthetics, we will never be able to understand the mysteries of the world we live in, we will never be able to appreciate the beauty of the world that we cannot reach, and we will not be able to understand the mental process of human beings in finding the truth and encountering beautiful scenery. In this sense, popular science is the crystallization of human extreme wisdom and extreme aesthetics, a spiritual text unique to the species, and a carrier of civilization that cannot be replaced by any other creation of human beings, such as theology, philosophy, literature and art.
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After theologians came to the conclusion of "who am I?", the whole of humanity, not only scientists, but also us in ordinary life, tried to break through the iron bars of religious doctrine and freely explore the nature of the world. As a result, time, matter, and origin have become the ultimate place of exploration for human beings, and have become an adventurous journey for human beings to break through laziness, break free from trivialities, and refuse to be attacked. In this journey, we are led by the greatest scientists of that generation. They are the ultimate intellect and the ultimate fantasist, the prophets of truth and the angels of aesthetics.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Stephen Hawking, the author of A Brief History of Time, who was painfully reclining in a wheelchair and talking to me with a specially made voice machine. Listening to the extremely monotonous metallic notes he struck, I was convinced that the wise man who had left only a shrunken torso and a gossamer breath of life was a prophet, a lonely messenger sent by God to mankind. If you hadn't seen it with your own eyes, you wouldn't have believed that those heavenly books that were so profound and plain to the extreme, concise to the extreme and extremely beautiful to the extreme, were actually curled up in a wheelchair by him, with the only finger that could move, one voice at a time. If it weren't for the purpose of guiding humanity, you can't imagine that other people could have other purposes in this journey.
It's no wonder that "A Brief History of Time" is such a bestseller!Since its publication, it has been on the best-selling list of Chinese books every year. In fact, not only "A Brief History of Time", Hawking's other books, and other authors' works selected by "The First Impetus Series", have been selling well for 25 years. Based on this, we believe that these writings do not belong not only to a certain generation, but even to the 20th century. As long as human beings are still troubled by the proposition of time, matter, and even origin, and as long as human beings are still driven by the instinct of seeking truth and aesthetics, the works in the series will be the enlightenment reading that will never go out of fashion, and the guiding light that will never be extinguished. Although some hypotheses in the works will be denied and some theories will be surpassed, the spirit of scientists seeking truth, thinking about the wisdom of the universe, and perceiving the aesthetics of time and space will surely shine with the sun and the moon and become an incorruptible historical milestone in human evolution.
Therefore, at this point in time, 25 years later, we have collected and reprinted this series of books, not only to commemorate the act of publishing itself, but also to highlight the immortality of these works, in order to confess to the new era and new readers: the 21st century needs not only scientific utilitarianism, but also scientific aesthetics.
Of course, we are well aware that not all discoveries bring benefits to humanity, and not all creations bring peace to the world. In an era when science is still being used and even monopolized by political and economic groups, it is not uncommon for scientific public cases in which the original intention and the result are contrary, and the innocent and the guilty coexist. The negative energy that science may bring can only be inhibited and offset by the will of citizens who understand science and technology with the will of the group: choosing the scientific direction to promote human evolution and choosing scientific discoveries that benefit human survival is a responsibility and an appeal that every modern citizen should shoulder and express to himself and the species!In this understanding, we regard popular science reading not only as a personal hobby, but also as a public mission
Newton stood under the apple tree, and at the moment when the apple fell, his epiphany must have included not only the inference of gravity, but also the imagination of the wonderful relationship between the apple and the earth, the earth and the planet, and the planet and the unknown universe. I believe that it is not only a very boring rational deduction, but also a magnificent and extremely sensual aesthetic ......
If truth-seeking and aesthetics are the values that are difficult to evaluate in this series of books, then extreme wisdom and extreme imagination are the inexhaustible charm of this series of books!
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