For society, the function of science is the improvement of society. Science analyzes the natural world in order to determine how it works, so that we can develop new ways of doing old things, discover new things to do, and find ways of doing more with less cost.

Art is, at best, the representation of one person’s perception of the world. Where science does its best to eliminate personal bias from its analysis of our universe, art embraces emotion and inspiration, which are neither guaranteed to accurately represent reality. Art is a representation of culture at the time of its creation, and a form of historical record of how we perceive the world. For society, the immediate purpose of a creation of art serves to demonstrate an alternate perception of reality, based on the perception of a third person, but in the long term, it serves as a record of how the world was once perceived.

Belated happy birthday Steve. You make the best birthday presents, you artist you.

How exactly is a movie a scientific enterprise? It employs the use of tools and technology, but at the end of the day, a movie doesn’t yield a theory or a mathematical model of anything. As for using tools and technology, so does practically *every* form of art — a paintbrush is a piece of technology, as are paints. As for the commerce angle… I’m not sure where you’re going there.

Sorry I missed it, I have been down with the flu, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I hope that it was a good one and that there are many more.

Dan

“Science is bones.

Art is flesh.”

Yeah, that’s an *annoyingly* beautiful expression.

Ah — in that case, I think my initial response stands fairly well. Viewed through the lens of (a particular) take on philosophy, I would argue that science represents our best efforts at solving the knowledge project, while the arts, in general, represent something more akin to the pursuit or appreciation of the wisdom project.

However, since all theories must be presented as formal papers and published in accepted scientific journals to be considered relevant, I’d have to say that even the most abstract science still produces an artifact. If they didn’t, then scientific theory would not have the means needed to build and modify theory based on previous work.

Similarly, thanks to the ability we have these days to record motion and sound even performance art can result in some kind of permanent record.

In the information age, virtually everything we do or say results in artifacts in the form of binary data.