Week 1: Two Cultures

Week 1: Two Cultures

4/5/2024

Tristan Ngo 

After reading this week’s material, I gained a profound understanding of the intersection between art, science, and technology. Specifically through Prof Vesna’s insightful article “Toward a Third Culture: Being in between,' I learned of the long standing divide between science and humanities and how technology can be a key in reconciling those differences and finding a common ground where both can benefit from each other. For instance, Vesna states “Artists using technology are uniquely positioned in the middle of the scientific and and literary/philosophical communities and are allowed poetic license, which gives us the freedom to reinforce the delicate bridge and indeed contribute tt the creation of a new, mutant third culture” (Vesna 122), demonstrating the impactful role that artists can have in translating the complex scientific knowledge to the realm of humanities. A similar sentiment is echoed in C.P. Snow’s article, “The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution” where he acknowledges that there is a gap in understanding between the literary and scientific cultures stating “Between the two a gulf of mutual incomprehension—sometimes (particularly among the young) hostility and dislike, but most of all lack of understanding. They have a curious distorted image of each other.” (Snow 4), illustrating that the first step in bridging this gap is to have an open dialogue where both sides can hear each other out and gain a deeper understanding of the other.

 

                                        Brainwonders. "Guidance to choose Arts vs Science", https://www.brainwonders.in/blog/career-guidance-to-choose-arts-vs-science. Date accessed 5 April 2024

As a linguistics and computer science major, I couldn’t help but be reminded of “The Third Culture” described in Kevin Kelly’s essay “The Third Culture” as my major is a fascinating hybrid of computer science and the study of human language. Kelly states “The third culture creates new tools faster than new theories because tools lead to novel discoveries quicker than theories do” (Kelly, para 9). While taking both computer science and ling classes, as well as other GEs, I explore both the North and South campus and see the clear divide as majors such as engineering, math etc, are physically separated from english, sociology, and ling majors.

                              Tak, Nitya and Justin Jung. “A Campus Divided.” Prime from the Daily Bruin, 2021, https:// prime.dailybruin.com/justinnorth&southcampus. Date accessed 5 April 2024.

 

While the major is often viewed as the “easier” version of CS, I agree with Elyse Foreman’s view of the benefits of this major who states, “ Understanding computational linguistics is an even bigger draw” (Foreman) . Essentially, understanding computer science can also give me insight into programming fields such as speech recognition which intrigues me.
 

While it may not be obvious linguistics actually helps you become a better coder as well. As Doug Wintemute puts it “Linguistics teaches you about the rules and patterns of language” (Wintemute), which in a very structured, field like computer science where there are multiples languages each with their own unique syntax, can definitely prove to be useful.
 

                    

             Raginsky, Alexander. "From Linguistics to Computational Linguistics" NLP People, 2013, https://nlppeople.com/from-linguistics-to-computational-linguistics/ Date accessed 5 April 2024. 

Essentially, I don't have to make a choice between the arts and science. Through my major as well as this week's materials, I know that I can dapple in a bit of both, which will enable me to a multifaceted view of such contrasting fields.  

Sources:

Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.” Leonardo, vol. 34, no. 2, Apr. 2001, pp. 121–125, https://doi.org/10.1162/002409401750184672. Accessed 5 Apr. 2024.

Kelly, Kevin. “The Third Culture | Edge.org.” Www.edge.org, 27 Feb. 1998, www.edge.org/conversation/kevin_kelly-the-third-culture.

Snow, C P. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution ; the Rede Lecture, 1959. Cambridge England, University Press, 1962.

Wintemute, Doug. “Linguistics and Computer Science: A Surprising Connection.” ZDNET, www.zdnet.com/education/computers-tech/linguistics-and-computer-science/. Accessed 5 Apr. 2024. 

Foreman, Elyse. “Not ‘Real’ CS: I Don’t Regret Majoring in Linguistics and Computer Science.” Her Campus, 2 Mar. 2023, www.hercampus.com/school/ucla/not-real-cs-i-dont-regret-majoring-in-linguistics-and-computer-science/.


Images:

Brainwonders. "Guidance to choose Arts vs Science", https://www.brainwonders.in/blog/career-guidance-to-choose-arts-vs-science. Date accessed 5 April 2024

Tak, Nitya and Justin Jung. “A Campus Divided.” Prime from the Daily Bruin, 2021, https:// prime.dailybruin.com/justinnorth&southcampus. Date accessed 5 April 2024.

Raginsky, Alexander. "From Linguistics to Computational Linguistics" NLP People, 2013, https://nlppeople.com/from-linguistics-to-computational-linguistics/ Date accessed 5 April 2024.

 


 


 

 

 

 

 

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