Great Genius and Profound Stupidity

That is the name of a documentary film by Benita Raphan that seeks to explore the origin of creative ideas.  You can watch the film on the Sundance Channel.  In describing the creative imagination of scientists the narrator asks: if man did not envision the fascinating world of astronomy prior to the invention of the telescope, why would man have invented the telescope in the first place?

What do you think?

Comments

[Fred]

Telescopes were invented for commercial purposes. If you could stand in your tower overlooking the sea and identify first what ship was returning from the Orient with its cargo of riches...

[liberty]

Also: curiosity.

[Greg Ransom]

Here's part of the story. Galileo developed the first truly powerful telescope, and he did immediately use it for scientific purposes.

http://cnx.org/content/m11932/latest/

[Richard Ebeling]

The July 2009 issue of "National Geographic" (p. 125) has a photograph of Galileo's first telescope, which is in a museum of science in Florance, Italy.

Richard Ebeling