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Scientific method. The great majority don't understand even that fundamental of science, and thus they cannot utilize it themselves, many do not trust it, they

Scientific method. The great majority don't understand even that fundamental of science, and thus they cannot utilize it themselves, many do not trust it, they don't understand the epistemological problems it addresses, and they don't understand what terms like 'study', 'theory', etc. really mean.

pdkl95 10y ago
This is easily the most important topic that needs to be more widely known. It's hard to progress in any other topic if you don't understand the basic methods for filtering good information from the many mistakes, misinterpretations, scams and other bad data. The need for education on the very basics of the scientific method has even made it into the recent popular press as concerns about "fake news". Democracy and modern civilization itself requires at last some understanding of the scientific method. Sagan's warning in "The Demon-Haunted World"[1] was frighteningly prescient: I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness... Until the public "baloney detection kit"[2] (and uses it regularly), trying to teach other topic is probably a waste of time[3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon-Haunted_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon-Haunted_World [2] https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/03/baloney-detection-kit-carl-sagan/ https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/03/baloney-detection-k... [3] http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2007/05/31/more-than-just-resistance-of-s/ http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2007/05/31/more-than-just-resi...
- hackuser 10y ago
  Said one smart person: You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all the time.
Can_Not 10y ago
I think Maddox had a pretty funny or at least "edgy but still informational" video on this.

pdkl95 10y ago

This is easily the most important topic that needs to be more widely known. It's hard to progress in any other topic if you don't understand the basic methods for filtering good information from the many mistakes, misinterpretations, scams and other bad data. The need for education on the very basics of the scientific method has even made it into the recent popular press as concerns about "fake news". Democracy and modern civilization itself requires at last some understanding of the scientific method. Sagan's warning in "The Demon-Haunted World"[1] was frighteningly prescient: I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness... Until the public "baloney detection kit"[2] (and uses it regularly), trying to teach other topic is probably a waste of time[3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon-Haunted_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon-Haunted_World [2] https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/03/baloney-detection-kit-carl-sagan/ https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/03/baloney-detection-k... [3] http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2007/05/31/more-than-just-resistance-of-s/ http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2007/05/31/more-than-just-resi...

hackuser 10y ago
Said one smart person: You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all the time.

Can_Not 10y ago

I think Maddox had a pretty funny or at least "edgy but still informational" video on this.