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I think we agree but those heuristics… That is the scientific method. That’s all we got.

by jamwil 8mo ago

danudey 8mo ago
99% of climate scientists: human-triggered climate change is real 1% of climate scientists: climate change is probably just something that happens and we can't do anything about it Legacy media: it's important that we give equal time to both sides of this argument. Social media: climate change is a lie and you can tell because 99% of climate scientists all agree that it's real! That's how you know it's a conspiracy! You can't trust the institution! Also buy these supplements, they cure covid and cancer and chemtrails! We're doomed.
direwolf20 8mo ago
One of many, and one of the best. Unless you performed the scientific method yourself or closely watched someone perform it, it's not available to you and you have to use another. A truthful-seeming report of someone else performing it is pretty far up the ladder, until the enemies learn to write false experiment reports indistinguishable from real ones. Not all fields of study are amenable to the scientific method, and lesser scientific methods are the best possible. We can't duplicate earth and flood one with CO2. We have to reach farther down the heuristic ladder, like studying two glass bottles, one filled with CO2. This can be extrapolated to calculate what a planet filled with CO2 would do, but the maths required is much less accessible.
fsckboy 8mo ago
if a man's career and income depends on the science coming out a certain way, you can be sure that's how the science will come out. "scientific method" is not a magic shield
arw0n 8mo ago
That's a bit reductive I think, there's at least deductive reasoning (mathematics, logics, analytics), hermeneutics (understanding meaning in human communication), and phenomenology (understanding human experience through first person accounts). If we want to do a study on the impact of compliments by strangers on self-worth, a combination of all of these techniques of knowledge generation would be needed.

I think we agree but those heuristics… That is the scientific method. That’s all we got.

by jamwil 8mo ago

I think we agree but those heuristics… That is the scientific method. That’s all we got.

99% of climate scientists: human-triggered climate change is real 1% of climate scientists: climate change is probably just something that happens and we can't do anything about it Legacy media: it's important that we give equal time to both sides of this argument. Social media: climate change is a lie and you can tell because 99% of climate scientists all agree that it's real! That's how you know it's a conspiracy! You can't trust the institution! Also buy these supplements, they cure covid and cancer and chemtrails! We're doomed.

direwolf20 8mo ago

One of many, and one of the best. Unless you performed the scientific method yourself or closely watched someone perform it, it's not available to you and you have to use another. A truthful-seeming report of someone else performing it is pretty far up the ladder, until the enemies learn to write false experiment reports indistinguishable from real ones. Not all fields of study are amenable to the scientific method, and lesser scientific methods are the best possible. We can't duplicate earth and flood one with CO2. We have to reach farther down the heuristic ladder, like studying two glass bottles, one filled with CO2. This can be extrapolated to calculate what a planet filled with CO2 would do, but the maths required is much less accessible.

fsckboy 8mo ago

if a man's career and income depends on the science coming out a certain way, you can be sure that's how the science will come out. "scientific method" is not a magic shield

arw0n 8mo ago

That's a bit reductive I think, there's at least deductive reasoning (mathematics, logics, analytics), hermeneutics (understanding meaning in human communication), and phenomenology (understanding human experience through first person accounts). If we want to do a study on the impact of compliments by strangers on self-worth, a combination of all of these techniques of knowledge generation would be needed.