Whether a stupid person can do good scientific evaluation "if taught the rules" is a badly-formed question, because no one knows what the rules are. They are learned via experience just as much as by explicit teaching
Furthermore, as anyone who has submitted a lot of science papers to journals knows, even smart scientists can be horrendously bad at scientific evaluation. I've had some really good bioscience papers rejected from journals, by presumably intelligent referees, for extremely bad reasons (and these papers were eventually published in good journals). Evaluating research is not much easier than doing it. When is someone's supposed test of statistical validity really the right test? Too many biology referees just look for the magic number of p<.05 rather than understanding what test actually underlies that number, because they don't know the math or don't know how to connect the math to the experiment in a contextually appropriate way. As another example: When should a data point be considered an outlier (meaning: probably due to equipment error or some other quirk) rather than a genuine part of the data? Tricky. I recall Feynman noting that he was held back in making a breakthrough discovery for some time, because of an outlier on someone else's published data table, which turned out to be spurious but had been accepted as valid by the community. In this case, Feyman's exceptional intelligence allowed him to carry out scientific evaluation more effectively than other, intelligent but less-so-than-him, had done... -- Ben G On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 6:00 PM, Mark Waser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Actually, I should have drawn a distinction . . . . there is a major > difference between performing discovery as a scientist and evaluating data > as a scientist. I was referring to the latter (which is similar to > understanding Einstein) as opposed to the former (which is being Einstein). > You clearly are referring to the creative act of discovery (Programming is > also a discovery operation). > > So let me rephrase my statement -- Can a stupid person do good scientific > evaluation if taught the rules and willing to abide by them? Why or why > not? > > ----- Original Message ----- > *From:* Ben Goertzel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > *To:* agi@v2.listbox.com > *Sent:* Sunday, October 19, 2008 5:52 PM > *Subject:* Re: AW: AW: [agi] Re: Defining AGI > > > Mark, > > It is not the case that I have merely lectured rather than taught. I've > lectured (math, CS, psychology and futurology) at university, it's true ... > but I've also done extensive one-on-one math tutoring with students at > various levels ... and I've also taught small groups of kids aged 7-12, > hands-on (math & programming), and I've taught retirees various skills > (mostly computer related). > > Why can't a stupid person do good science? Doing science in reality seems > to require a whole bunch of implicit, hard-to-verbalize knowledge that > stupid people just don't seem to be capable of learning. A stupid person > can possibly be trained to be a good lab assistant, in some areas of science > but not others (it depends on how flaky and how complex the lab technology > involved is in that area). But, being a scientist involves a lot of > judgment, a lot of heuristic, uncertain reasoning drawing on a wide variety > of knowledge. > > Could a stupid person learn to be a good scientist given, say, a thousand > years of training? Maybe. But I doubt it, because by the time they had > moved on to learning the second half of what they need to know, they would > have already forgotten the first half ;-p > > You work in software engineering -- do you think a stupid person could be > trained to be a really good programmer? Again, I very much doubt it ... > though they could be (and increasingly are ;-p) trained to do routine > programming tasks. > > Inevitably, in either of these cases, the person will encounter some > situation not directly covered in their training, and will need to > intelligently analogize to their experience, and will fail at this because > they are not very intelligent... > > -- Ben G > > On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 5:43 PM, Mark Waser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Funny, Ben. >> >> So . . . . could you clearly state why science can't be done by anyone >> willing to simply follow the recipe? >> >> Is it really anything other than the fact that they are stopped by their >> unconscious beliefs and biases? If so, what? >> >> Instead of a snide comment, defend your opinion with facts, explanations, >> and examples of what it really is. >> >> I can give you all sorts of examples where someone is capable of doing >> something "by the numbers" until they are told that they can't. >> >> What do you believe is so difficult about science other than overcoming >> the sub/unconscious? >> >> Your statement is obviously spoken by someone who has lectured as opposed >> to taught. >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> *From:* Ben Goertzel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> *To:* agi@v2.listbox.com >> *Sent:* Sunday, October 19, 2008 5:26 PM >> *Subject:* Re: AW: AW: [agi] Re: Defining AGI >> >> >> >> >>> >>> >>> *Any* human who can understand language beyond a certain point (say, that >>> of >>> >>> a slightly sub-average human IQ) can easily be taught to be a good >>> scientist >>> >>> if they are willing to play along. Science is a rote process that can be >>> learned and executed by anyone -- as long as their beliefs and biases >>> don't >>> get in the way. >>> << >>> >> >> This is obviously spoken by someone who has never been a professional >> teacher ;-p >> >> ben g >> ------------------------------ >> *agi* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> >> <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/> | >> Modify<https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;>Your Subscription >> <http://www.listbox.com> >> >> ------------------------------ >> *agi* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> >> <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/> | >> Modify<https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;>Your Subscription >> <http://www.listbox.com> >> > > > > -- > Ben Goertzel, PhD > CEO, Novamente LLC and Biomind LLC > Director of Research, SIAI > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > "Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first > overcome " - Dr Samuel Johnson > > > ------------------------------ > *agi* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/> | > Modify<https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;>Your Subscription > <http://www.listbox.com> > > ------------------------------ > *agi* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/> | > Modify<https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;>Your Subscription > <http://www.listbox.com> > -- Ben Goertzel, PhD CEO, Novamente LLC and Biomind LLC Director of Research, SIAI [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first overcome " - Dr Samuel Johnson ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=117534816-b15a34 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
