4 ms·
Pretty much every great result in Physics had been counter-intuitive: Gravity, relativity, quantum mech, nuclear physics, semi-conductors, super conductors... I
by sytelus 12y ago
Pretty much every great result in Physics had been counter-intuitive: Gravity, relativity, quantum mech, nuclear physics, semi-conductors, super conductors... I'd say every major advance is science destroyed some conventional wisdom and proved previous intuition wrong.
- SideburnsOfDoom 12y ago> every major advance is science destroyed some conventional wisdom and proved previous intuition wrong. true, but not in contradiction to the original statement that counter-intuitive claims are very likely to be wrong. Carl Sagan said it well: "But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown." http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Galileo_gambit http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Galileo_gambit
- davidgerard 12y agoYes, but "counter-intuitive" means "probably wrong." There are many great results that are counter-intuitive, but there are vastly more completely stupid ideas that are counter-intuitive. Ask any academic about their green ink file. Most new ideas are bad. That doesn't mean "give them a serious look", but it does mean "though you probably won't get far with them."
- pluma 12y agoWhat is a "green ink file"? Google isn't helping.
- davidgerard 12y agoA British journalistic term for the frothing of lunatics; may or may not actually be written in green. http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Green_ink http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Green_ink Academics tend to get a lot of correspondence from cranks, often enough to accumulate a collection.