A “Victorian Networker”

In an earlier blog entry I posed some questions concerning Mr. Darwin’s use of the Internet (had it existed) and would its use have been a help or a hindrance to his thinking/discovering process. Since that entry I have completed Janet Brown’s first volume about Mr. Darwin (“Voyaging”) and am well into her second (“The Power of Place”). I’m also reading David Quammen’s new publication “The Reluctant Mr. Darwin.”

All of these publications stress how much of a “Victorian Networker” Mr. Darwin was. A “Victorian Networker” is someone who voraciously and copiously corresponds (via handwritten letters) with a wide variety of individuals. Mr. Darwin was apparently a very good letter-writer and didn’t hesitate to use that skill to cajole, beg, ask and demand friends, acquaintances and total strangers to assist him with gathering the factoids, observations and information he needed to fuel and substantiate his thinking and creative processes.

I recently found this 1999 document:

http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/DarwinMiscSep99.html#AnchorTopofPaper

I believe that this document is material for one of Dr. Charles F. Urbanowicz’s (Professor of Anthropology, California State University, Chico) classes. In it I found this very interesting exert:

Darwin made several intuitive leaps based on his background, education, and training and he enlightened us all. I believe the WWW is a powerful tool that Charles R. Darwin would have willingly used! Michael Rose (Professor of EvolutionaryBiology at UC, Irvine) sums up "search engines" on the WWW as follows:

"The real world cares little for academic categories and conventions. The serious movers and shakers of every stripe often meet each other and appropriate each other's ideas. Themes from one area then show up in another, as poetry becomes politics becomes philosophy and then science." Michael R. Rose, 1998, Darwin's Spectre: Evolutionary Biology In The Modern World, page 192.

The WWW is powerful if one knows how to use it. It is not going to go away and Darwin would have loved it! One should read Darwin in the original and form your own opinion and not necessarily accept the opinion of others. In his 1876 Autobiography, Darwin wrote that at the time of Origin he could be viewed as a theist, or one who had the conviction of the existence of God. Perspectives change over time and in 1876 Darwin stated: "The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an Agnostic." (Nora Barlow, Editor, 1958, The Autobiography Of Charles Darwin 1809-1882, page 94). Darwin had his final and fatal heart attack on the 19th of April 1882. He made no deathbed statement as to his faith, but had he been asked the question: "Darwin, have you made peace with God?" perhaps he would have chosen to respond with the words attributed to Thoreau (1817-1862) on his deathbed, who is said to have responded to that question with: "I didn't know we had quarreled."

So, I have to admit, that had the Internet existed, Mr. Darwin would have almost certainly have used it to collect much more information much more quickly. But I’m still unsure whether or not this abundance of “quick” information would have ultimately aided his thinking and creative process.

I’ve also recently become a reader of the “slow leadership” blog which basically advises that the “quick/first answer” may not always be the “best” answer. I think there are connections here, but I don’t have time to think about it right now – I’ve got to go make some “quick” decisions.