Why should we read science?
To me, this question begs yet another one: why are we here, in MSRA?
Approached by your managers, company VIPs, external journalists etc., the followings *should* be your standard answer: we are the research army of Microsoft, we innovate, we do world-class research, we write software that changes the world (for the better). Etc. etc.
But that’s not exactly true.
I believe we are here because we are the bunch that is drawn by curiosity, by the incurable itch to explore, to discover, and to experiment. We don’t know, and that’s precisely why we want to know more. At the end, we find what we don’t know looms ever larger. It is a hopeless loop, a recurring curse, and that’s just fine.
So that’s why we are here, and that’s why we read science. …