MManifesto
The Renaissance of Science
A New Science Manifesto
?Science keeps progressing. Why would it need a renaissance?
Topic page 2,303 words · deep read 10,394 words · 90 sources · 32 questions out · 41 in
NETQuestion network · RenaSciencev0.8
The Renaissance of Science
One manifesto and seven further topics. Each topic has a topic page and a deep read, and every screen leaves a few follow-up questions. Follow the questions and you can enter this network anywhere.
- Topics
- 8
- Screens
- 64
- Questions
- 148
- Sources
- 704
- Words (approx.)
- 74k
◇Large squares are topics, small dots are the screens of each topic page, and lines are follow-up questions, running from the screen that asks to the place that answers. Hover to look; click to go in.
04Routes
Four routes through the questions
Not sure where to begin? Follow a chain of questions. Each stop is a screen on one of the topic pages.
What do we revive?
Science keeps progressing. What we revive is not ancient knowledge but the joy of knowing. Where did it come from, and how did it grow up?
What alienated science?
The assembly line, publish or perish, a Ponzi-like academic career: how the pursuit of knowledge turned, step by step, into a way to earn a living.
How does the crisis become a turning point?
The flood of knowledge and AI leave researchers lost, and they are also breaking down the walls built by specialization and paper supremacy.
- MAfter the knowledge explosion, why are researchers more lost than ever?
- E2Are there too many papers?
- E5When proofs arrive faster than anyone can read them, what is mathematics to do?
- E5Once the bottleneck has moved, what should we do?
- MWhy is the crisis also a turning point?
- E5Who gets in?
- E3Has the audience come back?
- MCan everyone be a scientist?
What will the new science look like?
A new body for knowledge, new rules, and research that anyone can get their hands on and watch.
- MIf not in papers, where should knowledge live?
- E6How many layers can a work have?
- E6How can every entrance be a starting point?
- E6As links multiply, who vouches for them?
- MThe bar is lower – so where do standards come from?
- E4Can research be designed like a game?
- MHow can ordinary people get hands-on with research?
- E7Can science turn from a career back into a labour of love?
08Starting points
Eight starting points
The manifesto is the default starting point, but you can begin with any topic. A topic page takes a few minutes to read, and every screen opens with a question; the deep read develops the argument, with all its sources.
E1Media history
The Body of Knowledge
A Short History of Scholarly Media
?Why must knowledge always live in some medium? Is the paper its only body?
Topic page 1,135 words · deep read 8,298 words · 91 sources · 16 questions out · 13 in
E2Publishing crisis
Flood and Dykes
Papers and Journals in the Information Age
?Why are ever more papers ever harder to read and to trust?
Topic page 1,130 words · deep read 8,340 words · 117 sources · 16 questions out · 14 in
E3Public & science
Science’s Audience
Public Participation, Past and Future
?What is there to watch in other people’s research? Why should the public come back to science?
Topic page 1,035 words · deep read 7,405 words · 92 sources · 17 questions out · 19 in
E4Curiosity
For Curiosity
The Play Spirit of Science
?In the age of AI, can research still be fun?
Topic page 1,306 words · deep read 6,190 words · 62 sources · 15 questions out · 18 in
E5Interim assessment
AI Enters the Lab
How the Disciplines Responded (2023–2026)
?Now that AI is in every discipline, where is the real bottleneck?
Topic page 1,430 words · deep read 10,635 words · 131 sources · 19 questions out · 16 in
E6Hypertext
Fractal Curation
Scholarly Works in the Age of Hyperlinks
?If a scholarly work is no longer a paper, what should it look like?
Topic page 876 words · deep read 7,623 words · 85 sources · 14 questions out · 16 in
E7Academic careers
The Academic Assembly Line
Professionalization, Tenure and “Publish or Perish”
?Once research became a job, where did the passion for knowledge go?
Topic page 1,287 words · deep read 5,031 words · 36 sources · 19 questions out · 11 in
◇About
About this network
This is an experiment in curating by questions. We want to move beyond a scholarship built around the paper, and to organize the work around topics and discussion rather than around single articles. The manifesto is the starting point: each of its screens leaves a few follow-up questions that lead into the further topics, and each further topic has questions that lead back to the manifesto or on to other topics. If you want to dig deeper, you can dive from any screen into its deep read, and from there into the sources. Wherever you come in, the network re-centres on that point.
Every fact, figure and quotation has a source, listed after each deep read. The texts will keep being revised, and every version carries a number so that it can be cited. The English pages are translated from the Chinese originals. The full report of the previous manifesto (v0.6) remains available as an archived version.
AI disclosure: the direction and core arguments of this network come from Hu Yilin, including the case for a renaissance of science and his public writings over many years. The texts were drafted by Claude (an AI model made by Anthropic), which also did the research, built the pages and made this English translation from the Chinese; facts and quotations went through several rounds of independent checking, and every source is listed after each deep read. Hu Yilin asked for revisions and decided to publish, but did not rewrite the texts word by word. Views stated in the first person are his, drawn from his published writings and from the outline he gave for this manifesto.