Richard_Hollerith2 comments on The Failures of Eld Science - Less Wrong

33 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 12 May 2008 10:32AM

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Comment author: Richard_Hollerith2 12 May 2008 10:21:19PM 1 point [-]

The speculative fiction I have read has the sexual partner helping to protect the scientist's health by pulling the scientist back into a normal, grounded state of mind after the scientist solves the difficult abstract problem -- not serving as an inspiration. In Greg Bear's Eon for example, scientist Patricia Vasques asks mission leader Gregg Lanier for sex after she solves an extremely difficult problem to prevent her from lingering longer than necessary in the state she needed to get into to solve the problem.

I know my Dad, who was not a scientist but was an engineer with a demanding job, used time with his family to pull him back into a healthier, less cerebral state of mind (which was not always the most pleasant experience for his family).