The Beauty of a Flower
I’m currently reading “The Pleasure of Finding Things Out” by the astounding Richard Feynman. The opening page has a wonderful quote from him, regarding the perception of men of science by solely right-hemisphere dwellers.
I have a friend who’s an artist and he’s sometimes taken a view which I don’t agree with very well. He’ll hold up a flower and say, “Look how beautiful it is,” and I’ll agree, I think. And he says - “you see, I as an artist can see how beautiful this is, but you as a scientist, oh, take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing.” And I think that he’s kind of nutty. First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to all other people and to me, too, I believe, although I might not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is; but I can appreciate the beauty of a flower. At the same time I see much more about the flower than he sees. I can imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside which also have a beauty. I mean its not just a beauty at this dimension of one centimeter, there is also a beauty at a smaller dimension, the inner structure. Also the processes, the fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting - it means the insects can see the color. It adds a question: Does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms? Why is it aesthetic? All kinds of interesting questions which shows that a science knowledge only adds to the excitement and mystery and the awe of a flower. It only adds; I don’t understand how it subtracts.
This draws parallels with a frequent perception of those that create software and games (particularly programmers) as very dry, technical people lacking wonder. For me, I feel the same way as Dr. Feynman, that the study of certain aspects of phenomena that we try to reproduce (whether its the way that light interacts with our environment, or the emergent behavior of ants and other creatures) provides you with an enhanced appreciation of the world around us. In addition it facilitates taking it to the next step, allowing you to apply this understanding of the building blocks of a feature or phenomenon that you have studied to create something entirely new, something alive that you can touch and interact with. Perhaps this applies less to those making hugely abstract software such as spreadsheets, but when you are trying to simulate or create dynamic situations or scenes, or prepare interactive challenges or games, the joy of creation is a wonderful feeling.
