James, it sounds like you are having a bad day. harry
On Wed, Dec 31, 2014 at 2:55 PM, John Berry <berry.joh...@gmail.com> wrote: > I think you mean to say science SHOULD BE driven by experiments over > arguments. > > However if science were driven by experiments, this list would not need to > exist. > > John > > On Thu, Jan 1, 2015 at 8:21 AM, James Bowery <jabow...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Idiocy. >> >> Science is driven by experiment over argument. >> >> When you insist on contaminating every human ecology with every other >> human ecology you violate a central tenant of science: controlled >> experimentation. >> >> When failures occur under cirumstances of enforced contamination you are >> left with nothing but confusion. You learn nothing from your failures. >> Indeed, you learn nothing from your successes. >> >> The conceit that "conversation" or "discourse" or "discussion" can be the >> appeal of last resort in testing truth is something only humans who are >> deluded by words could conceive of. >> >> On Wed, Dec 31, 2014 at 11:49 AM, H Veeder <hveeder...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> Why smart people defend bad ideas >>> >>> http://scottberkun.com/essays/40-why-smart-people-defend-bad-ideas/ >>> >>> excerpt: >>> <<The second stop on our tour of commonly defended bad ideas is the >>> seemingly friendly notion of communal thinking. Just because everyone in >>> the room is smart doesn’t mean that collectively they will arrive at smart >>> ideas. The power of peer pressure is that it works on our psychology, not >>> our intellect. As social animals we are heavily influenced by how the >>> people around us behave, and the quality of our own internal decision >>> making varies widely depending on the environment we currently are in. >>> (e.g. Try to write a haiku poem while standing in an elevator with 15 opera >>> singers screaming 15 different operas, in 15 different languages, in >>> falsetto, directly at you vs. sitting on a bench in a quiet stretch of open >>> woods). >>> >>> >>> That said, the more homogeneous a group of people are in their thinking, >>> the narrower the range of ideas that the group will openly consider. The >>> more open minded, creative, and courageous a group is, the wider the pool >>> of ideas they’ll be capable of exploring. >>> >>> Some teams of people look to focus groups, consultancies, and research >>> methods to bring in outside ideas, but this rarely improves the quality of >>> thinking in the group itself. Those outside ideas, however bold or >>> original, are at the mercy of the diversity of thought within the group >>> itself. If the group, as a collective, is only capable of approving B level >>> work, it doesn’t matter how many A level ideas you bring to it. Focus >>> groups or other outside sources of information can not give a team, or its >>> leaders, a soul. A bland homogeneous team of people has no real opinions, >>> because it consists of people with same backgrounds, outlooks, and >>> experiences who will only feel comfortable discussing the safe ideas that >>> fit into those constraints.If you want your smart people to be as smart >>> as possible, seek a diversity of ideas. Find people with different >>> experiences, opinions, backgrounds, weights, heights, races, facial hair >>> styles, colors, past-times, favorite items of clothing, philosophies, and >>> beliefs. Unify them around the results you want, not the means or >>> approaches they are expected to use. It’s the only way to guarantee that >>> the best ideas from your smartest people will be received openly by the >>> people around them. On your own, avoid homogenous books, films, music, >>> food, sex, media and people. Actually experience life by going to places >>> you don’t usually go, spending time with people you don’t usually spend >>> time with. Be in the moment and be open to it. Until recently in human >>> history, life was much less predictable and we were forced to encounter >>> things not always of our own choosing. We are capable of more interesting >>> and creative lives than our modern cultures often provide for us. If you go >>> out of your way to find diverse experiences it will become impossible for >>> you to miss ideas simply because your homogenous outlook filtered them out. >>> >> >>> >>> Harry >>> >>> >> >
