4 ms·

If even getting a Nobel Prize isn't enough to protect someone from being accused of deviating from orthodoxy and therefore ipso facto "off the deep end", then t

by jerf 1y ago

If even getting a Nobel Prize isn't enough to protect someone from being accused of deviating from orthodoxy and therefore ipso facto "off the deep end", then the entire claim the science apparatus makes about being all about ideas and not about orthodoxy is falsified, and all subsequent beliefs in a belief net based on that proposition need to be updated accordingly.

hiddencost 1y ago
[flagged]
staunton 1y ago
"Being all about ideas" implies that whether someone has a Nobel prize should play a very small role when evaluating an idea. If the idea sounds implausible, it's OK to say so, no matter whose idea it is. Some people will still look into it.
eej71 1y ago
I think this is a misunderstanding of the underlying issue. It isn't about protection from straying from some level of orthodoxy. It's about people who are incredibly brilliant in one area of their life - and yet be incredibly dumb in another. I've always seen Linus Pauling as an interesting example of this. Brilliant in some ways, but going all in on Vitamin C is just weird. I see the basic claim as - sometimes these prizes - well intentioned as they are - may lift critical guard rails that unintentionally let them drive off into their weeds. They go deeper and harder into the weeds because the prestige that comes with these prizes creates a halo effect that blunts or hides critical criticism that can no longer reach them.
kadoban 1y ago
Someone getting the Nobel Prize and then being assumed correct from then on would be approximately the opposite of science. They can put their ideas out there, and people can evaluate them on their merits just fine, with maybe a bias towards the ideas being interesting due to the source. What's wrong with that?
daedrdev 1y ago
I mean some of these are just easily problematic and wrong, so its better to take their good ideas and not the rest. Like these are just 2 cases of a number of examples 1993 chemistry doesn't believe AIDS is caused by HIV, doesn't believe in Climate Chiange, believes in astrology, thinks he talked to talking alien racoon 2008 medicine founded their own journal and claimed viruses emitted radio waves to arrange water in nanostructure that let you teleport DNA though Homeopathy and also claims vaccines cause autism.

by jerf 1y ago

hiddencost 1y ago

[flagged]

staunton 1y ago

"Being all about ideas" implies that whether someone has a Nobel prize should play a very small role when evaluating an idea. If the idea sounds implausible, it's OK to say so, no matter whose idea it is. Some people will still look into it.

eej71 1y ago

I think this is a misunderstanding of the underlying issue. It isn't about protection from straying from some level of orthodoxy. It's about people who are incredibly brilliant in one area of their life - and yet be incredibly dumb in another. I've always seen Linus Pauling as an interesting example of this. Brilliant in some ways, but going all in on Vitamin C is just weird. I see the basic claim as - sometimes these prizes - well intentioned as they are - may lift critical guard rails that unintentionally let them drive off into their weeds. They go deeper and harder into the weeds because the prestige that comes with these prizes creates a halo effect that blunts or hides critical criticism that can no longer reach them.

kadoban 1y ago

Someone getting the Nobel Prize and then being assumed correct from then on would be approximately the opposite of science. They can put their ideas out there, and people can evaluate them on their merits just fine, with maybe a bias towards the ideas being interesting due to the source. What's wrong with that?

daedrdev 1y ago

I mean some of these are just easily problematic and wrong, so its better to take their good ideas and not the rest. Like these are just 2 cases of a number of examples 1993 chemistry doesn't believe AIDS is caused by HIV, doesn't believe in Climate Chiange, believes in astrology, thinks he talked to talking alien racoon 2008 medicine founded their own journal and claimed viruses emitted radio waves to arrange water in nanostructure that let you teleport DNA though Homeopathy and also claims vaccines cause autism.