5 ms·

I'll wait til Reginald Barclay gets modified and connected to the holodeck before I'll believe science and scientists on nearly... anything. They'll be wrong fo

I'll wait til Reginald Barclay gets modified and connected to the holodeck before I'll believe science and scientists on nearly... anything. They'll be wrong for the next 1000 years. Almost nothing holds. I'll live my life til I'm 95 and they'll say they were wrong about cancer, gravity, speed of light, electricity, etc...

omnicognate 3y ago
That's headline writers, not scientists...
junon 3y ago
If this is the mentality everyone had we'd still be giving lobotomies. Yes, "science" (rather, the vast army of people conducting science, and all of their own respective human inclinations, biases, and faults) has "gotten things wrong" more times than it's gotten them right. That's how science intrinsically works. Meanwhile, sticking your head in the sand and doing nothing, solves nothing.
- throwitaway222 3y ago
  Lobotomies were done by the scientists
  - jcranmer 3y ago
    The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1949 was awarded for the discovery of the therapeutic value of lobotomies, which is the most controversial of all the scientific Nobel Prizes awarded (the Peace Prize and Literature Prizes routinely court controversy for rather obvious reasons).
    - thaumasiotes 3y ago
      Sure, the Peace and Literature Prizes routinely court controversy. But the Prize in Medicine being given to the discovery of the therapeutic value of lobotomies can easily be more controversial than any Peace or Literature Prize, even if those categories are more often controversial than Medicine is.
    - collyw 3y ago
      And now we have transgender surgeries, which many of us look at with similar horror. And we are accused of being transphobic bigots for it.
samus 3y ago
That's the curse of being a scientist: building and validating theories knowing that in the worst case you'll never live long enough to find out how wrong they actually are. Getting disproven is a lucky outcome. Please tell us if you think you have a better process to get answers to complicated questions...
yareal 3y ago
Science: We should act on the best information we have available and seek to improve the quality of that information over time. You: I'm gonna just make up my own information and wing it, I guess. Science being wrong is a good thing, it means we are learning and removing falsified information. At every point in time, science will be invalidating the previous state of the art, and at every point in time the current science will seem naive and simple in the future. Expecting nothing to hold is great, it means we're learning and growing as a species. The alternative is ignorance.
- collyw 3y ago
  Covid showed that is a lie.
  - yareal 3y ago
    Not really? Science on Covid has been continuing and scientists have been making recommendations based on what we know. At the beginning, we knew little, today we know more. Are you thinking of politicians?
    - collyw 3y ago
      They worked hand in hand.
- NemoNobody 3y ago
  Do you believe that scientists act on the best information available? That they really seek to always improve on our understanding of things? If the right company pays them for the research maybe what you say is true.
olddustytrail 3y ago
Here you go: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~dbalmer/eportfolio/Nature%20of%20Science_Asimov.pdf https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~dbalmer/eportfolio/Nature%20of%20...

omnicognate 3y ago

That's headline writers, not scientists...

junon 3y ago

If this is the mentality everyone had we'd still be giving lobotomies. Yes, "science" (rather, the vast army of people conducting science, and all of their own respective human inclinations, biases, and faults) has "gotten things wrong" more times than it's gotten them right. That's how science intrinsically works. Meanwhile, sticking your head in the sand and doing nothing, solves nothing.

throwitaway222 3y ago
Lobotomies were done by the scientists
- jcranmer 3y ago
  The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1949 was awarded for the discovery of the therapeutic value of lobotomies, which is the most controversial of all the scientific Nobel Prizes awarded (the Peace Prize and Literature Prizes routinely court controversy for rather obvious reasons).
  - thaumasiotes 3y ago
    Sure, the Peace and Literature Prizes routinely court controversy. But the Prize in Medicine being given to the discovery of the therapeutic value of lobotomies can easily be more controversial than any Peace or Literature Prize, even if those categories are more often controversial than Medicine is.
  - collyw 3y ago
    And now we have transgender surgeries, which many of us look at with similar horror. And we are accused of being transphobic bigots for it.

samus 3y ago

That's the curse of being a scientist: building and validating theories knowing that in the worst case you'll never live long enough to find out how wrong they actually are. Getting disproven is a lucky outcome. Please tell us if you think you have a better process to get answers to complicated questions...

yareal 3y ago

Science: We should act on the best information we have available and seek to improve the quality of that information over time. You: I'm gonna just make up my own information and wing it, I guess. Science being wrong is a good thing, it means we are learning and removing falsified information. At every point in time, science will be invalidating the previous state of the art, and at every point in time the current science will seem naive and simple in the future. Expecting nothing to hold is great, it means we're learning and growing as a species. The alternative is ignorance.

collyw 3y ago
Covid showed that is a lie.
- yareal 3y ago
  Not really? Science on Covid has been continuing and scientists have been making recommendations based on what we know. At the beginning, we knew little, today we know more. Are you thinking of politicians?
  - collyw 3y ago
    They worked hand in hand.
NemoNobody 3y ago
Do you believe that scientists act on the best information available? That they really seek to always improve on our understanding of things? If the right company pays them for the research maybe what you say is true.

olddustytrail 3y ago

Here you go: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~dbalmer/eportfolio/Nature%20of%20Science_Asimov.pdf https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~dbalmer/eportfolio/Nature%20of%20...