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"Thinking about these communities reminded me of Lovecraft’s earlier interactions. In some ways, amateur journalism and epistolary circles of Lovecraft’s day were not unlike the blogs and webpages that Less Wrong and the chemtrailers use. (Yes, I know the dangers of cross-temporal and cross-technological comparisons.) Still, I think there is much to explore about how such groups produce and distribute their knowledge against the background of an epistemic status quo. If scientists have their journals—as Alex Csiszar has been exploring—the laity have their amateur journalism and their blogs. And such spaces give historians of science and technology and STS scholars a chance to examine and probe the practices of epistemic subcultures."
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Historians know that early scientists were—and, indeed, prided themselves on being—amateurs. I am more interested in lay circles, like Lovecraft’s, that persist(ed) well after the professionalization of science and technology. Some scholars have already touched on this theme. The historian of technology, Susan Douglas, has noted the importance of amateurs in shaping the initial stages of technical change in objects such as radios. We can also think of Sophia Roosth’s work on garage science. Yet, much remains to be said about the perseverance of amateurism.
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Recently, I have been a great deal about two communities that have put forward idiosyncratic ideas about the world. Less Wrong claims to be “a community blog devoted to refining the art of human rationality.” Eliezer Yudkowsky, a proponent of the singularity, began the blog in 2009 and used it as a space to broadcast his views on, well, just about everything but primarily artificial intelligence, epistemology, and ethics. Yudkowsky and the Less Wrong community often base their speculations on ‘rationality’ on research in cognitive science, behavioral economics, and related disciplines. I’ve also been interested for some time in chemtrail conspiracy theorists, a community that is more decentralized. Chemtrailers believe that contrails, or lines of condensed water left in an aircraft’s wake, are in fact, um, chemtrails, chemicals sprayed into the atmosphere by the government or some other malignant group. Chemtrail theorists have carried out their own experiments to verify their intuitions. And they have become the scourge of those proposing research on geoengineering
Thomas J. Johnson, the creator of the modern Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and the founder of Celestron, died early this morning (March 13, 2012), according to Celestron president and CEO Joe Lupica. Johnson was 89.
He ranked among the most important figures shaping the last half century of amateur astronomy.
"Today we face (but largely ignore) a major historical anomaly. From our nation’s birth all the way until the end of the Vietnam War, America's chief approach to dealing with danger -- both anticipated threats and those that took us by surprise -- was to rely upon a robust citizenry to quickly supplement, augment and reinforce the thin veneer of professionals in a relatively small peacetime warrior-protector caste. Toward this end, society relied primarily upon concepts of robustness and resilience, rather than attempting to anticipate and forestall every conceivable danger."
"Hawley-Dolan and Winner had asked the art students to compare paintings by abstract artists with paintings made by a child or by an animal. In 67% of the cases, art students said that the painting by a renowned artist is better. I compare this with the winning probability of the chessplayers of different ratings. I conclude that the great artists score on the level of class D amateurs. "
"Because most socialization/assimilation research focuses on employment as the primary membership role in groups and organizations, the accompanying models have failed to consider the unique characteristics of voluntary membership. In addition, those models have been criticized for being too linear and based on concepts of organizations as containers. Using principles of the bona fide group perspective and a case study, this paper develops a model that emphasizes the unique characteristics of the socialization of voluntary members. The multilevel model also examines how membership in various other groups, such as work and family, influence and interact with individuals' voluntary memberships. With a focus on communication, the model emphasizes the fluid process of voluntary associations in organizations with ambiguous boundaries. "
"There is an incorporeal translation, effected by the mobilisation of the enthusiast, from an object and set of objects that appear to be a ‘problem’ into the object and set of objects that belong to the enthusiast proper as the objects become part of a ‘challenge’. The movement from ‘problem’ to ‘challenge’ is not necessarily a transformation of the object in any normative sense, it is part of the event of enthusiasm. The tangibility appreciated by the enthusiast is a direct result of the appreciation of objects according to the challenges they pose as invitations to mobilisation. Enthusiasts ‘read’ objects according to a semiotics of force and affect. A car enthusiast can ‘read’ how much ‘work’ has gone into a car, how many hours or effort have been required to properly massage a body panel or build and test an engine or even merely to clean a car properly. "
Includes links to some very talented astrophotographers.
"WELCOME to Leisure Studies Association [LSA] Home Page
The LSA, established in 1975, provides a unique multi-disciplinary meeting and communication forum for researchers, practitioners and students involved in all areas of leisure studies and its many directly and indirectly related areas of interest. "
" During the twentieth century, American amateur astronomers attempted to form national organizations with structures and intents similar to the British Astronomical Association (BAA), an amateur organization dedicated to the advancement of astronomy and widely admired by American amateurs and professionals alike. The Society for Practical Astronomy (1910), the American Amateur Astronomers Association (1935), and the National Astronomical Association (1945) were each intended to facilitate amateur scientific contributions in BAA-like topical sections, but each of these societies failed. Founded in 1911, the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) and the American Meteor Society (AMS) provided an alternative for amateur astronomers who were interested in those specific topics. However, it was not until 1947, when the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO) formed, that another large segment of amateur astronomers found a home for their interests. A second mode of national organization succeeded at mid- century and grew to include most avocational astronomers. Founded in 1947, the Astronomical League consists of regional associations of local societies, and is oriented largely towards recreational astronomy. The League sponsors annual national and regional conventions, but contributes little to scientific programs. This study concludes that avocational astronomy cannot simply be compared with professional astronomy, and instead must be viewed on its own terms as a complex and variegated field. Although the failure of American amateurs to form a BAA-like organization was at first disappointing, the specialized associations of observers, together with a separate and larger organization devoted to recreational astronomy, have served the American astronomical community well. Professional support for both types of activity was facilitated in this mode of organization. The style in which professional support is rendered appears to be important, with strong volunteer member leadership more effe
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