(Draft)Technology and Courage
[ Draft in progress: Revisit once again to see new updates to this blog post] Dr.Ivan E.Sutherland is a pioneer in computer graphics, ACM Turing award winner and also an amazing researcher who knew what it means by research and how to do it inspite of all hardships. I was reading his “Technology and Courage” essay again these days. As it does to every person who reads it , the essay has left me spell-bounded at the depth, rich pragmatics and message it emnates. This talk seems particularly relevant to all of us, technologists, at this time in the space of history. I’ll quote some of my favorite passages from the paper:
What is courage? Courage is what it takes to overcome fear. Fear is an emotion appropriate to perceived risk. Thus, to exhibit courage one must both perceive a risk and proceed in spite of it. Suppose a child has fallen through the ice on a lake and could be saved if reached. A person who walks out on the ice believing it to be very thick requires no courage because he perceives no risk even though others may think him courageous. A person who correctly perceives that the ice is thin and stays off it likewise exhibits no courage: rather we call his action prudent or cowardly, depending on whether or not the ice is, in fact, too thin for safety. Courage is required only of a person who proceeds to rescue the child in full knowledge that the ice is thin.
In addition to the risk to reputation and to pride, the very nature of research poses its own special risk. In research, we daily face the uncertainty of whether our chosen approach will succeed or fail. We steep ourselves in elusive, mysterious, and unnamed phenomena, and we struggle to unravel very complex puzzles, often making no visible progress for weeks or months, sometimes for years. We strive for simplicity and clarity in a cloudy and often baffling world. The special risk of research starts with the high probability that any particular attempt will fail and follows from the resulting experience of repeated failure. Research carries a specialrisk of discouragement. I, for one, am and will always remain a practicing technologist. When denied my minimum daily adult dose of technology, I get grouchy. I believe that technology is fun, especially when computers are involved, a sort of grand game or puzzle with ever so neat parts to fit together. I have turned down several lucrative administrative jobs because they would deny me that fun. If the technology you do isn’t fun for you, you may wish to seek other employment. Without the fun, none of us would go on.