On the World
Max Planck isn't a Taiwanese, Why?
NEVATHIR
January 24, 2017
Max Planck is the father of quantum revolution in physics. He is a German, not a Taiwanese. Why ask?
Motivation behind the question is the suspicion that Taiwanese culture drastically lowered the probability of a great scientist being Taiwanese. It's not a fictional problem. There are few great Taiwanese scientists even with a population more than double that of Sweden, which can be verified by properly recording how many great scientific or technological achievements are attributed to Taiwanese. And of course Brazil often raises similar doubts.
At face value, given the estimate Taiwanese on average read about two books per year, it's for every decent being to put forward educated guess that Planck isn't a Taiwanese, even if you know nothing about his life other than the quantum revolution.
To take on objections first, there are actually several scientific Nobel Prizes awarded to Taiwanese or Taiwan-educated scientists. However, they are either Chinese migrants who quickly moved to advanced countries, or Taiwan-born students who capitalized on American scientific prowess to build their main career almost entirely in USA.
Why does the problem matter? It might not be very serious for Vatican not to rival Caltech, but Taiwan's ambition is the Silicon Valley in Asia, with a culture reinforcing crimes against humanity and no scientific-technological armory other than reliable advanced hardware manufacturing. It serves as a case for other equally ambitious countries like China or Germany or aspiring emerging markets to see if Taiwan succeeds without strong scientific support. If Taiwan fails, it's a caution for competitors to aim for science advancements on a par with Bardeen, Knuth, Jack Kilby, Robert Noyce, etc.
Back to the topic, Taiwan is wealthy, Taiwanese love themselves so much, natural disasters are few, international warfare didn't ravage the island, and thus a little deliberation suggests that the problem resides with culture. But which facet?
(To be continued)