Thread by @yoginho

This is the complete #BeyondNetworks playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=….

We had our last discussion with the Uni Vienna MSc students today.

A little reflection… 👇🏻 /1

It’s been an incredible journey. Very wide-ranging, but also very compressed & intense. Deadlines are the only thing that forces me to overcome eternal procrastination due to excessive perfectionism. I’m still a bit dizzy (and exhausted) from the experience. /2

The product is far from perfect. I consider it like a demo tape. Something you produce before you sign up with a label to record a more professionally produced album. It’s raw in many spots. But I think the story it attempts to tell is shining through clearly enough. /3

It is a call to scientists (especially biologists) to reflect on what we are actually doing & what the big questions in our field currently are. I think that it is a shame we have forgotten about many of them lately. Biology is at heart about life itself, about living beings. /4

Peter Medawar famously remarked that “science is the art of the soluble.” Many central questions in biology are not quite soluble yet. But if we forget about them, we lose context. We start to forget just how little we know. We fall for the illusion that we understand nature. /5

I strongly believe that a lecture like this, reminding us of the things we *don’t* know, grounding our thinking in philosophical principles, should be part of any science curriculum at the undergraduate & graduate level. /6

Unfortunately, very few scientists today learn about philosophy. Few are encouraged to reflect on what they are doing. Instead we rush to produce, to publish, to go for the low-hanging fruit. We are trained to become very high-level technicians. /7

I hope, most of all, that this series of lectures encourages people to think more, reflect more, to take their time, to long after wisdom, not just facts. The academic system we have built is killing this. We need a better system. /8

Contemporary academia has trapped itself in a monoculture with a very low diversity in perspectives. We life in a time where the future is more unpredictable than ever. We need more diversity, not less. You never know, which perspectives will be useful in the future. /9

My lecture is a call for you to explore! This is what basic science should be all about. As René Thom put it: “At a time where so many scholars are calculating, is it not desirable that some, who can, dream?”

You can! And ou don’t need a Fields Medal for it. /10

I would like to thank all those who have followed me on this journey. I hope it inspired you.

I would like to thank all those who have provided feedback. It means a lot to me.

I am more determined to go on with my journey. It’s been a struggle, but it’s never dull. /11

We need to find our purpose back in academic research. We need to tackle the big questions with courage & abandon. We need to escape the constraints of the system. You can’t do this alone. But we can do it together.

So, stay in touch. Let’s discuss. And let’s move forward! /12

One day, I'll turn #BeyondNetworks into a book & will popularise its contents, because we should have this discussion across society.

In the meantime, it will remain available here. Pls share it & the ideas expressed in it!

Enjoy the ride! I hope to see you along the way. /13