Important to note that "monster" comes from the Latin word monere, "to warn." Monsters were often seen as signs of divine displeasure, caused by unnatural events or malfunctions of nature. What is Tung Tung Tung Sahur if not also a warning?
'mid-13c., dragoun, a fabulous animal common to the conceptions of many races and peoples, from Old French dragon and directly from Latin draconem (nominative draco) "huge serpent, dragon," from Greek drakon (genitive drakontos) "serpent, giant seafish," apparently from drak-, strong aorist stem of derkesthai "to see clearly," from PIE *derk- "to see" (source also of Sanskrit darsata- "visible;" Old Irish adcondarc "I have seen;" Gothic gatarhjan "characterize;" Old English torht, Old High German zoraht "light, clear;" Albanian dritë "light").
Perhaps the literal sense is "the one with the (deadly) glance, the one with (paralyzing) sight." The young are dragonets (c. 1300). Fem. form dragoness is attested from 1630s. Obsolete drake (n.2) "dragon" is an older borrowing of the same word, and a later form in another sense is dragoon. Used in the Bible generally for creatures of great size and fierceness, it translates Hebrew tannin "a great sea-monster," also tan, a desert mammal now believed to be the jackal.'
My physics BSc honours thesis was on uncertainty in classical mechanical systems, supervised by Michael Berry. It wasn't very good, I fear, barely scraped a pass. Mathematics is the language of physics and my maths wasn't good enough (still isn't).
I'm still interested in uncertainty in mechanical systems, which overlaps with but is distinct from chaos theory. In particular, I focus much of my energy on better definitions of SI physical quantities. For example, I've refined the SI definition of work, which as published continues to be inadequate, indeed inaccurate and abstruse to the point of being both incorrect and utterly useless, to be that 'Work is done by System A on System B that is equal and opposite to the work done by System B on System A when System A and System B act upon each other with equal and opposite forces such that a relative displacement of one or more parts of System A or System B takes place.'
I mention the above because while mathematics is the language of physics, internationally agreed definitions of SI physical quantities, eg the speed of light in vacuo, are formulated and published in British and/or US English, then translated into formal modern French, imposed upon the French Republic by the little Corsican whose family hailed from Genoa.
In other words, we use words in different spoken languages like English and French and conventional modern mathematical symbols in order to try to define as best we can the fundamental properties of the universe.
To unravel the mysteries of the universe, including its darkest corners, we need language — mathematics or otherwise. Moreover, in the process of unravelment, often we ourselves create knots of useless uncertainty — such as the currently useless conventional SI definition of work.
Are these monsters? Or are they just offputting content? When I think of a monster, I tend to think of something that is dangerous to life and limb, not just peace of mind. By framing these things as monsters rather than, say, visions or nightmares, it seems you're overstating their actual power.
>It certainly feels like we’ve come a long way from drawing sea dragons in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Atlantic Ocean had an actual body count -- it sundered ships, drowned people. The algorithm makes people anxious. That's not nothing, but it's also not the same as the dangerous unknown.
Important to note that "monster" comes from the Latin word monere, "to warn." Monsters were often seen as signs of divine displeasure, caused by unnatural events or malfunctions of nature. What is Tung Tung Tung Sahur if not also a warning?
What if dragon was just a word for danger is what I thought the moment I read hic sunt dracones. Off to the etymology chambers!
Well that's an interesting thought! Think I might join you in the etymology search!!
Good catch. From etymonline:
dragon(n.)
'mid-13c., dragoun, a fabulous animal common to the conceptions of many races and peoples, from Old French dragon and directly from Latin draconem (nominative draco) "huge serpent, dragon," from Greek drakon (genitive drakontos) "serpent, giant seafish," apparently from drak-, strong aorist stem of derkesthai "to see clearly," from PIE *derk- "to see" (source also of Sanskrit darsata- "visible;" Old Irish adcondarc "I have seen;" Gothic gatarhjan "characterize;" Old English torht, Old High German zoraht "light, clear;" Albanian dritë "light").
Perhaps the literal sense is "the one with the (deadly) glance, the one with (paralyzing) sight." The young are dragonets (c. 1300). Fem. form dragoness is attested from 1630s. Obsolete drake (n.2) "dragon" is an older borrowing of the same word, and a later form in another sense is dragoon. Used in the Bible generally for creatures of great size and fierceness, it translates Hebrew tannin "a great sea-monster," also tan, a desert mammal now believed to be the jackal.'
My physics BSc honours thesis was on uncertainty in classical mechanical systems, supervised by Michael Berry. It wasn't very good, I fear, barely scraped a pass. Mathematics is the language of physics and my maths wasn't good enough (still isn't).
I'm still interested in uncertainty in mechanical systems, which overlaps with but is distinct from chaos theory. In particular, I focus much of my energy on better definitions of SI physical quantities. For example, I've refined the SI definition of work, which as published continues to be inadequate, indeed inaccurate and abstruse to the point of being both incorrect and utterly useless, to be that 'Work is done by System A on System B that is equal and opposite to the work done by System B on System A when System A and System B act upon each other with equal and opposite forces such that a relative displacement of one or more parts of System A or System B takes place.'
I mention the above because while mathematics is the language of physics, internationally agreed definitions of SI physical quantities, eg the speed of light in vacuo, are formulated and published in British and/or US English, then translated into formal modern French, imposed upon the French Republic by the little Corsican whose family hailed from Genoa.
In other words, we use words in different spoken languages like English and French and conventional modern mathematical symbols in order to try to define as best we can the fundamental properties of the universe.
To unravel the mysteries of the universe, including its darkest corners, we need language — mathematics or otherwise. Moreover, in the process of unravelment, often we ourselves create knots of useless uncertainty — such as the currently useless conventional SI definition of work.
Wow this was fun to read
Are these monsters? Or are they just offputting content? When I think of a monster, I tend to think of something that is dangerous to life and limb, not just peace of mind. By framing these things as monsters rather than, say, visions or nightmares, it seems you're overstating their actual power.
>It certainly feels like we’ve come a long way from drawing sea dragons in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Atlantic Ocean had an actual body count -- it sundered ships, drowned people. The algorithm makes people anxious. That's not nothing, but it's also not the same as the dangerous unknown.