Jay Hanson wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Durant <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > >So how do you decide who's having a grip on reality and the best > >solution without having all the options and reasoning offered > >listened to? > > The scientific method is the ONLY WAY to know the truth from lies and > delusion. The simple version looks something like this: > > 1 Observe some aspect of the universe. > 2 Invent a theory that is consistent with what you have observed. > 3 Use the theory to make predictions. > 4 Test those predictions by experiments or further observations. > 5 Modify the theory in the light of your results. > Go to step 3. [ http://www.xnet.com/~blatura/skep_1.html ] > > It may be that the traditional "scientific method", which evolved and became perfected during the industrial age of increasing production, is no longer appropriate in the new electronic information age of organic interdependence. While current research follows the classical paradigm of studying the past for insight into the future, the new paradigm may require that we study the future for insight into the present. If so, we shall have to forge a new methodology to enable us to anticipate social and technological innovations and their implications. We may then indicate alternative futures to society in order that present decisions may not be incompatible with the chosen future. Our theories will be developed in order to "explain" the future, not the past, and, as the future unfolds, we may find ourselves planning future reality to fit the theory! Bob -- ___________________________________________________________________ http://publish.uwo.ca/~mcdaniel/
