I have a friend who is a paleontologist.
Actually, to be more accurate, I once had a friend who is now a paleontologist. I haven't seen or heard from him since we were young. Although we shared an interest in herbal recreation at the time, he was dedicated to his future, which I was not. He became an internationally recognized expert in the area of paleontology and his wife is a respected microbiologist. I'm a Land Surveyor, sigh.
Oh yeah, I once had classy friends. Now I just hang around with other folks as silly as myself and studiously ignore the advances in my field.
I just read about a discovery in paleontology that suggests that all mammals that nourish their young through a placenta evolved from a single rat-like species. This is big in paleontology and I'm sure my old friend, though long-retired, is studying the theory with fascination. He is staying abreast of new ideas in his field.
I started writing this to contrast my old friends' excited acceptance of new ideas with my own curmudgeonly rejection of all that is new in Land Surveying, and I felt sad that, while, in my friends field, there are new ideas, in my field there are new technologies.
O.K., that is not entirely true. Both fields have new ideas as well as new technology. Let's not confuse technology with ideas, though, because our incredible new technical abilities do not make us better surveyors.
That probably didn't need to be said again, I just felt like saying it.
Don
> I started writing this to contrast my old friends' excited acceptance of new ideas with my own curmudgeonly rejection of all that is new in Land Surveying, and I felt sad that, while, in my friends field, there are new ideas, in my field there are new technologies.
Actually, the land surveying equivalent of the new theory in the field of paleontology would be something along the lines of someone finding an original corner that sheds light on the original locations of many surrounding tracts.
I would imagine that the technologies that paleontologists now use in their work are as radically different from what was in use forty years ago as is the case in surveying. Likely more so.
When we start identifying original monuments by DNA analysis, then we can talk.
"I would imagine that the technologies that paleontologists now use in their work are as radically different from what was in use forty years ago as is the case in surveying. Likely more so."
Undoubtedly.
It was the dearth of new ideas in Land Surveying that I was contrasting.
Don
> It was the dearth of new ideas in Land Surveying that I was contrasting.
For "idea" substitute "discovery". The two fields are similar in that both are trying to reach into the past to describe how things were at some earlier date.
I'd think Land surveyors discover more about the past in a week than paleontologists have in the last twenty years. It just doesn't reach back eons ago. I'd say that the challenges land surveying sometimes presents are substantially more difficult than working out the origins of particular species, the reason being one of limited available evidence more than anything.
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I thought this excerpt from the Wikipedia definition of Paleontology describes a glaring similarity with Land Surveying:
As a "historical science" it attempts to explain causes rather than conduct experiments to observe effects
I guess when I'm trying to piece together my survey evidence; instead of deriving what I call a "hunch"....I should start calling it a "hypothesis".
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I would love to be sitting around a kitchen table with you guys, Paden and Kent, Karoly would probably show up, Fleming possibly, Mike Berry, many others. I would like to be there, to discuss and b.s and just be drinking, laughing, talking with each other.
Don
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> I guess when I'm trying to piece together my survey evidence; instead of deriving what I call a "hunch"....I should start calling it a "hypothesis".
Huh? You mean you don't already think of possible explanations as "working hypotheses"?
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Kent,
At my age, most of my conscious neurological processes involve only one and two syllable strings of thought...;-)
But hey, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet"...
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> I would love to be sitting around a kitchen table with you guys, Paden and Kent, Karoly would probably show up, Fleming possibly, Mike Berry, many others. I would like to be there, to discuss and b.s and just be drinking, laughing, talking with each other.
Can we sit at a long table with the beer away from you and Dave?
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> At my age, most of my conscious neurological processes involve only one and two syllable strings of thought...
There is probably a textbook or two to be written about how surveyors manage to juggle multiple hypotheses in the process of working some of the really tough problems we deal with on a regular basis.
I mean, any surveyor worth his or her salt should be able to come up with at least two explanations first jump out of the box. The real work is in thinning the herd of possibilities with observable facts and evidence.
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> I would love to be sitting around a kitchen table...
Sound like a good time. Probably need a BIG kitchen table to round out the guest list. West coast folks, east coast folks, midwesterners, wry gentlemen from the great state of Oklahoma whose wits and sensibilities were sharpened on the same whet stone of stark open spaces, wind and rawness as Will Rodgers’, and Kent who is from, umm, is it Texas? Never met the fella, but I’ll vouch for him ‘cause I’ve known loads of Texians and for all the world they’re like other humans, eat like 'em, look something like 'em, and drink a good deal more like 'em.
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> Can we sit at a long table with the beer away from you and Dave?
Berry will have started early, so we needn't worry about him.
When we start identifying original monuments by DNA analysis, then we can talk.
I heard of a local court case (2 surveyors) in the 80s that was won by carbon dating a wood post to prove it's age.
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I'm in.... I actually studied a bit of palentology back in the day, before I got hit in the head by a front end loader and decided I wanted to be a Land Surveyor...
One of the better decisions I ever made.
