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We rely on a million appeals to authority every day of our lives. Try some new food, trusting that it won’t kill you because somebody says it won’t, and nobody
by mikeash 8y ago
We rely on a million appeals to authority every day of our lives. Try some new food, trusting that it won’t kill you because somebody says it won’t, and nobody bats an eye. Say you give more weight to a study performed by an expert, when that has no immediate bearing on your life, and everybody loses their mind.
- arcticbull 8y agoWell said. Myself specifically, I'd like to think science is supposed to be better than that -- neutral, dispassionate. It probably isn't because it's done be humans, but I want it to be.
- mikeash 8y agoThe people studying this stuff definitely need to be better than that. They can maybe take hints from authorities but they need to check facts for themselves. But for the rest of us, we have no choice but to trust authorities in some way when deciding how to interpret some new result.