Serendipity: What is "serendipity"? What does it mean? Where does this word come from? Who (and when) was this word created? What did it involve from its origin until a few years ago? Is there something new that has transformed "serendipity"? What does it imply now in times of convergence of cutting-edge technologies and sciences? In which sector of life or industry is it put to use?
The American Heritage ® Dictionary of the English Language (Fourth Edition) of "serendipity" tells us: "… the occurrence and development of fortuitous events in a happy or beneficial way… The power to make lucky discoveries by accident… The fact or the occurrence of such discoveries… A circumstance from which such a discovery is generated… ". The Oxford Dictionary largely matches this description.
The Cambridge Dictionary refers to the following: “… the tendency, which, based on luck, is achieved, to find things that are interesting or invaluable by chance…
The Ramdom House Dictionary states: "… ability to make desirable discoveries by accident…".
"… find something magnificent while looking for something else, discover something valuable by chance, randomly perform an act of sagacity, this is serendipity…" - Unknown Author
VAN ANDEL defines it: "… the art of finding something not wanted… the common experience of observing unexpected, anomalous and strategic data, which become the instance to develop a new theory or to complement an existing theory…".
Background
This word was coined by an English politician and writer named Orase Walpole (1717-97) - therefore "serendipity" has since been an English word - under the inspiration of the short story and / or novel called "The Three Princes of Serendip" (in English, “The Three Princes of Serendip”). The word "Serendip" currently corresponds to "Sri Lanka".
In this work the heroes (the three princes) always made fortunate discoveries. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, is an island country (it is an island) in the Indian Ocean, southeast of India. The capital and its largest city is "Colombo". The country has a population of 19,700,000.
My long definition
"… the deliberate, persistent and shrewd achievement, through fortuitous and repetitive efforts motivated by pre-conditions created in the frame of reference proper to the deliberate or unintentional experiment, of productive and / or lucrative objectives -as well as great discoveries-, trying to obtain the maximum of the chance, from its positive dimension as well as non speculative and never from its adverse facet… ”.
My short definition
"The admirable gift of accidental discovery lucky on purpose."
What do I mean by "chance"? Exactly what follows:
Random (contextualized version for the purposes of this work): “… a source of danger; a possibility of incurring loss or damage. An unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that causes an event in one way rather than another.
Although a hazard can be defined as a contingency that can cause a loss, chance is the condition that causes or increases the probability of loss due to a hazard. Sadly, his "diligent lordships" of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language do not provide this definition, but yes, luckily, it is offered by an important and recognized Spanish Group from the private sector… "(Investigated and developed by the author).
Utilization
To begin with, it is an English word for universal use in all western languages. It does not have a translation in Spanish. All disciplines of the sciences and humanities, as well as the established arts, use it universally.
Until about 1950, as was the case with Fleming's discovery of penicillin, the results of serendipity have been haphazard.
Since that time and with the evolution of the "New Economy", with the concomitant advent of the Internet and with the use of multidimensional mathematics and the respective computational modeling, serendipity has lost, to some great extent, its random quality as regards to "what it generated", to, rather, generate much more and more faster and faster in much more controlled environments.
The latter has achieved that "leaps forward" products of "economic experimentation" and / or "expensive research" registers (n) real, tangible or intangible results, much more marketable, more profitable, more productive and, with an infinitely lower cost of “setting up the experiments and / or investigations”.
When experimentation is "wrong," lessons are drawn that are immediately learned and poured into, as an example, the mathematical formulas of modeling. This means that with a “desired output”, through the “Systems Methodology Transformation Box”, every negative result is the “predecessor” or “preconditioning” of an important positive result.
Being receptive to unintended factors and the ability to appreciate the importance of unexpected observations is a genuine characteristic of great scientists.
In the case of scientists, and due to the rigor that is scrutinized, it would be important "… the freedom to deviate from a proposed research program when a discovery is reached (through serendipity) or seems possible…".
Types of serendipity
There are two types of serendipity. The first is the one in which no discovery is expected in any way. The second is in the one in which it is expected to make a discovery, even if it has infinite faults, BUT not knowing its reason, scientific properties, utility, marketable quality, applications, implementation, etc.
This second I call it the “new serendipity” and it has been very much in vogue since the computer and telematics revolution. In most cases, there are some scientists or key people related to science who seriously make the crucial mistake of confusing "the second" with "the first". The "new serendipity" is applied, in some instances, multidimensional mathematical models, when "computing" on the computer, based on nothing less and nothing more than the genetic algorithm. For me, the "genetic algorithm" is equivalent to the "most fundamental formulas in nature, universally speaking".
Serendipity vs. Epiphany?
The Dictionary "The American Heritage" (Fourth Edition) defines "epiphany": "… A sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something. The understanding or perception of reality through sudden intuitive awareness… ".
Respecting all opinions and, as the genetic algorithm and its complex computational mathematics modeling yields "scenarios" -of those who "plan scenarios", this Author thinks that "epiphany" can only occur, in some cases, of "serendipity".
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1.- “WEBSTER'S NEW WORLD DICTIONARY”, Third College Edition, Prentice Hall General Reference, 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023, ISBN: 0-13-947169-3.
2.- “THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE”, Fourth Edition, and the eagle logo are registered trademarks of Forbes Inc., published by the Houghton Mifflin Company, 222 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA 02116, ISBN: 0-395 -82517-2.
3.- “WEBSTER'S ENCYCLOPAEDIC UNABRIDGED DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE” (2001), Thunder Bay Press, ISBN: 1-57145-691-0.
4.- “OXFORD CONCISE DICTIONARY”. Press of the OXFORD University.
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6.- The CAMBRIDGE Dictionary (online).
7.- P. VAN ANDEL, Anatomy of the unsought finding. Serendipity: Origin, history, domains, traditions, appearances, patterns and programmability, British Journal of Philosophy of Science, 45 (1994).
8.- RK MERTON, in his work “Priorities in Scientific Discovery, American Sociological Review”. 22 (1957) 635-659.
9.- THOMAS S. KUHN, in his work “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” (ISBN: 0226458083), University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1970.
10.- J. BAGGOT in his work “Serendipity and scientific progress, New Scientist ”. 1706 (1990) 67-68.
11.- The Oxford Dictionary of QUOTATIONS, Oxford University Press (New Edition), ISBN: 0-19-866185-1.
12.- SKELETON IN THE DARKROOM: STORIES OF SERENDIPITY IN SCIENCE, by Gilbert Shapiro, ISBN: 0062507788.
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