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He's just using the dictionary definition of "conservative". A physicist who assumes new developments have little to no merit unless shown otherwise. Contrast w
by gizmo 17y ago
He's just using the dictionary definition of "conservative". A physicist who assumes new developments have little to no merit unless shown otherwise. Contrast with a "progressive" physicist who comes up with a new radical physics theory every month.
By analogy: a conservative programmer is somebody who would generally look at tools like C++ and Java and .NET to solve his problems, because the tools are proven and have well known pros and cons. A progressive programmer would be more tempted to consider the language du jour.
- gjm11 17y agoNo, really, he isn't. He means it in the political sense. (He's a string theorist, and whatever string theory is it really isn't "conservative" in the sense you describe; not until it starts getting experimental evidence.) See, e.g., http://motls.blogspot.com/2010/01/massachusetts-brown-vs-coakley.html http://motls.blogspot.com/2010/01/massachusetts-brown-vs-coa... . (Or, if you share my opinion that what is called with "skepticism" or "denialism" about anthropogenic global warming, depending on which side the caller is on, is generally politically motivated, see about half the posts on his blog.)