3 ms·
A friend of mine used to work at Carnegie Observatory in Pasadena. Apparently every now and again a lawyer would come by looking for an astronomer to be an expe
by antognini 3y ago
A friend of mine used to work at Carnegie Observatory in Pasadena. Apparently every now and again a lawyer would come by looking for an astronomer to be an expert witness in a trial. Usually it was to testify about the position of the sun at the time of a car accident. (One party might claim that they were blinded by the sun but the other would argue that the sun couldn't have been seen in that location.)
The funny part was that it didn't really require any specialized skills. They'd just look up the position of the sun at the time of the accident in an astronomical almanac like anybody else would. But in the context of a trial it lends some weight if it comes out of the mouth of someone with a PhD in astronomy.
- dogtorwoof 3y ago> it didn't really require any specialized skills Many such cases.
- webdoodle 3y agoI got to be an expert witness as a former university researcher working on databases. It was hoot, but ironically, like you mentioned the questions they asked on both sides anyone could have answered. It felt more like a popularity contest than one of facts.
- devilbunny 3y agoThe PhD astronomer can plausibly be expected to know which sources are reliable, whereas someone asking Google cannot.
- Timwi 3y agoBut someone asking Google can just check multiple sources. If they all agree with one another, the PhD astronomer is not going to come up with a different answer.
- devilbunny 3y agoIf you just want to know the answer, this is fine. If you want twelve random people to believe you know the answer, credentials help.