Cargo cult science (1974)
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Cargo cult science (1974)
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Re: Cargo cult science (1974)
#2Humans are innately imaginative outside of the bounds of reality. Most people I know believe in things that aren't real, whether it be crystals, chakras, essential oils, random mythologies about random things.
Most interestingly, these are generally weak beliefs strongly held. You'll never convince these people that they've divorced themselves from reality, and you have nearly nothing to gain from trying.
Psychologists, doctors, lawyers, sitting congresspeople, etc. This isn't something that Facebook moms have a monopoly on.
We are really bad at recognizing our own flights of fancy (and, of course, recognizing what we're really bad at).
Re: Cargo cult science (1974)
#3Humans are innately imaginative outside of the bounds of reality. Most people I know believe in things that aren't real, whether it be crystals, chakras, essential oils, random mythologies about random things. Most interestingly, these are generally weak beliefs strongly held. You'll never convince these people that they've divorced themselves from reality, and you have nearly nothing to gain from trying. Psychologis…
Well said. For me, a person who admittedly has some pretty far-out beliefs/theories, it’s because there is generally no penalty for having these beliefs. Sure, at work where things count, I make sure my theories adhere to reality. But when I’m out chilling in nature? My goal then is to have fun, and entertaining crazy ideas is my idea of a good time. People who have to be correct all the time are kind of missing out and expending a lot of useless energy.
Plus, the universe is so wild that even modern science probably doesn’t cut as deep as we think it does.
Re: Cargo cult science (1974)
#4I find myself thinking of this speech more and more often. It seems to apply to more and more of society, as I see it. The scariest versions I’ve personally come across is Cargo Cult Medicine and Cargo Cult Courts…
Re: Cargo cult science (1974)
#5In my opinion, we have deviated from the true essence of "Science" by using it to determine "what ought to be" instead of focusing on answering the fundamental question of "what is."
I know that this is not particularly in vogue now to say, but social sciences especially did a whole lot to discredit the idea of science being something that is objective. They pretend to "do science" but instead use it to either "Launder Ideas" (https://www.wsj.com/articles/idea-laundering-in-academia-115...) or pure activism (for example, a paper published in Hipatia suggested that male students should be trained to propagate the feminist message, much like the way viruses spread https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315583936_Women's_S....
Not even going to mention the Grievance studies affair.
I have embraced accelerationism and hope that "science" (and academia specifically) fails quickly so that it can rise again with greater resilience and the ability to withstand pressure from activist organizations. Let's hope the hard sciences renaissance is nigh.
Re: Cargo cult science (1974)
#6Humans are innately imaginative outside of the bounds of reality. Most people I know believe in things that aren't real, whether it be crystals, chakras, essential oils, random mythologies about random things. Most interestingly, these are generally weak beliefs strongly held. You'll never convince these people that they've divorced themselves from reality, and you have nearly nothing to gain from trying. Psychologis…
I thought essential oils were just concentrated versions of the original? Eg I use orange essential oil to make my own air freshener spray.
Re: Cargo cult science (1974)
#7Humans are innately imaginative outside of the bounds of reality. Most people I know believe in things that aren't real, whether it be crystals, chakras, essential oils, random mythologies about random things. Most interestingly, these are generally weak beliefs strongly held. You'll never convince these people that they've divorced themselves from reality, and you have nearly nothing to gain from trying. Psychologis…
I thought essential oils were just concentrated versions of the original? Eg I use orange essential oil to make my own air freshener spray.
When people talk about essential oils in contexts like these, they're most likely referring to some people having the belief that they have medicinal properties; can cure autism etc.
Re: Cargo cult science (1974)
#8If you stumble upon a website that makes the stylistic choice that text should take the whole width of your whole screen, you can toggle the "Reader view" feature in Firefox to put it back into a more usual format (F9 on Windows).
If you use Chrome-based browsers, there's bookmarklets (bookmarks with a `javascript:` URI)
javascript:(function(){var bod = document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]; bod.style.margin = "40px auto"; bod.style.maxWidth = "40vw"; bod.style.lineHeight = "1.6"; bod.style.fontSize = "18px"; bod.style.color = "#444"; bod.style.padding = "0 10px"; })();Re: Cargo cult science (1974)
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
I thought essential oils were just concentrated versions of the original? Eg I use orange essential oil to make my own air freshener spray.
When people talk about essential oils in contexts like these, they're most likely referring to some people having the belief that they have medicinal properties; can cure autism etc.
Lots of people believe essential oils can cure cancer. Any big oncology center has stories about people who show up presenting horrible symptoms well beyond what's normally seen. They spent 2 years just doing essential oils or whatever (often encouraged by some a quack) on some readily treatable thing and when they do finally give in and come to the ER it's basically too late.
Re: Cargo cult science (1974)
#10>I say that’s also important in giving certain types of government advice. Supposing a senator asked you for advice about whether drilling a hole should be done in his state; and you decide it would he better in some other state. If you don’t publish such a result, it seems to me you’re not giving scientific advice. You’re being used. If your answer happens to come out in the direction the government or the politicians like, they can use it as an argument in their favor; if it comes out the other way, they don’t publish it at all. That’s not giving scientific advice.
We saw this just recently when the EU tried to hide a study that showed piracy actually increased game sales. I wonder what other studies are being suppressed because they don't fit the narrative.
https://www.ghacks.net/2017/09/22/inconvenient-eu-piracy-stu...