3 ms·
The blaming of cliques of scientists for rejecting alternate ideas was cliche and kind of a red flag. That does happen, of course. Science is conservative beca
by api 1y ago
The blaming of cliques of scientists for rejecting alternate ideas was cliche and kind of a red flag.
That does happen, of course. Science is conservative because if we have a theory that is a good fit to the data it should take a lot of evidence to unseat that theory and the new one must also fit all the data the old one did. (Unless some data was wrong, but that also takes evidence.)
But this is also something every crank says, and loudly. The more obsessed and loud someone is with a conspiracy against them the more they sound like a crank.
Was Einstein or quantum theory instantly rejected and held down forever by a conspiracy? Not really. There were skeptics but I seem to recall these ideas taking hold pretty fast because they fit a lot of anomalous data very well.
- jshaqaw 1y agoAgreed. People point to the edge cases where orthodoxy and conformity crushed the brilliant innovator but for every one of those there are 1000 cranks or embittered dead end researchers claiming that only a conspiracy prevented their genius from being recognized.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- indigodaddy 1y agoThis sort of argument implies that Riess must have turned into a crank since his Nobel prize winning turn... Seems unlikely though doesn't it?
- api 1y agoHappens so often they call it the Nobel curse. It’s related to why famous celebrities and billionaires often lose their minds. Human success is self limiting. It begets failure by convincing people they are “special.” Pride comes before a fall is not because god punishes people for pride or something. It’s a statement of cause and effect. Pride causes a fall.
- dylan604 1y agoHaving hesitancy of any new theory that directly conflicts with the known/accepted theories is not a bad thing. Telling someone that their theory is so different than what everyone else thinks that they might want to go back and double/triple check just in case someone forgot to carry a one or something else simple/embarrassing is just a CYA bit of advice. Other quotes like "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" would also be apropos.