I get a tremendous sense of just how old the Earth is- Deep Time and how a geologist must become intimately familiar with that history as well as the formation and movement of all the rocks and minerals in the planet, not to mention plate tectonics, earthquake dynamics, volcanism and the formation and shaping of strata. Is there any physical science that requires such a huge knowledge base? I kind of doubt it!
I'm certainly prejudiced. But indeed, to me, to my mind, the blending of chemistry, physics, geometry, history (on a huge scale), and biology, and more, is exactly why I'm a geologist. My mind is not attracted to the absolutes of chemistry, physics, and math, but to the vagaries, the fuzziness, of geology. We use real science, the scientific method in a pure sense, to arrive at the most reasonable conclusions. Not an absolute truth, but a well reasoned conclusion, which has degrees of likelihood, from 1% to 99%. I do in fact believe that the best geologists have a different, specific mindset from other scientists, and from other good thinkers. We must think in a minimum of four dimensions, three space and one time, as well as chemical, physical, and other dimensions, and dimensions measuring things like density, magnetic properties, sound transmission, mineralogy, and more. I say again that I'm prejudiced. But I cannot think in absolutes as most chemists, physicists, and mathematicians, do.
Requires a first class mind. Being the proud owner of a second class mind, I can appreciate that!
I'd call it a different class mind. Not first, not twelfth, It isn't a ranking, but a qualitative difference. Neither good nor bad, simply different.
I get a tremendous sense of just how old the Earth is- Deep Time and how a geologist must become intimately familiar with that history as well as the formation and movement of all the rocks and minerals in the planet, not to mention plate tectonics, earthquake dynamics, volcanism and the formation and shaping of strata. Is there any physical science that requires such a huge knowledge base? I kind of doubt it!
I'm certainly prejudiced. But indeed, to me, to my mind, the blending of chemistry, physics, geometry, history (on a huge scale), and biology, and more, is exactly why I'm a geologist. My mind is not attracted to the absolutes of chemistry, physics, and math, but to the vagaries, the fuzziness, of geology. We use real science, the scientific method in a pure sense, to arrive at the most reasonable conclusions. Not an absolute truth, but a well reasoned conclusion, which has degrees of likelihood, from 1% to 99%. I do in fact believe that the best geologists have a different, specific mindset from other scientists, and from other good thinkers. We must think in a minimum of four dimensions, three space and one time, as well as chemical, physical, and other dimensions, and dimensions measuring things like density, magnetic properties, sound transmission, mineralogy, and more. I say again that I'm prejudiced. But I cannot think in absolutes as most chemists, physicists, and mathematicians, do.