The Unknown Newton

An anonymous reader writes "The unknown Newton -- The genius who gave us three laws of motion wrote even more about the Apocalypse and the Whore of Babylon. Eventually, all of his work -- about 10 million words -- will be on the Web. Quote from the article: 'Yet if we go by sheer word count, physics was only one of Newton's intellectual priorities. He devoted more time to what we would now regard as non-scientific topics such as theology and alchemy, writing treatise after treatise on early church history and biblical prophecy.' An interesting note on Pythagoras and religion too. Should we consider ourselves 'Natural Philosphers' instead of Scientists?" Neal Stephenson fans may find this article a nice adjunct to Quicksilver.

Comments

Why?

[Tweakmeister]

Every person has their own thoughts on various topics. I wonder if it would "cheapen" our view of Newton by releasing these documents, or would we just discount them due to their age?

Re:Erm..

[gad_zuki!]

>A combination of a good mind and a A-type-personality often makes someone excel in many areas.

Yeah sure, in business where social networking, dealing, etc are paramount, but most techies are introverts of some sort. Its these unsung heroes who really get the work done.

Then the coporate structure markets their work. There are exceptions of course, but a coder does not a good CEO make. Its the classic Jobs/Woz dynamic. There's a reason Ballmer is the CEO of Microsoft and not Bill anymore. He's just a better businessman. He's a better speaker. He's a better socializer. He's a better schmoozer. etc

So yes, the grandparent is quite correct. Someone can excel at one thing and be poor at everything else. Arguably, being a specialist is a gamble of sorts. You can excel at one thing, but if you don't do well or if the market drops out you're screwed, but if you're so specialized that only you can do something or come up with a new way of doing things then there are rewards to be had.

How many people view Chomsky's work on lingustics as groundbreaking but couldn't care less about his politics? How many Cerebus fans share Dave Sim's attitude regarding women? How many people, at the time, though Bucky Fuller's "beef only" diet was a good idea? etc

pr0n & Newton

[ergean]

If i remember corectly Newton's first book Principia was published by a pornogrphy publisher, who could print it at a lower cost with money from Edmund Halley. All of this because the Royal Society had spent all the money in that year, for a nice fish ecyclopedia.

So \.-ers if you consume pornography you help the human kind to evolve.

Porn is good!

What was crazier to think at that time?

[ArcticCelt]

When you are a pioneer in science and discovery you need to go on roads that sound crazy and that maybe will get you nowhere. What was crazier to think at that time:

That it was possible to change lead into gold?

Or that in 300 years from then a bunch of strange libertarians will be discussing about the nature and validity of is work by using emitting light boxes connected by cables going thousands of kilometers around the globe and some time passing information through thin air?