dagblog - Comments for "I'll have what Tiger's having"

Is it working?

Nebton — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 02:41:43 +0000

In reply to Now you're just trying to

Is it working?

Now you're just trying to

acanuck — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 23:08:16 +0000

In reply to Ah, but you don't understand.

Now you're just trying to provoke me.

Ah, but you don't understand.

Nebton — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:23:33 +0000

In reply to I was afraid you'd agree with

Ah, but you don't understand. It's not that spacetime is warped by gravity, it's how spacetime is warped by gravity… (it involves invisible pink unicorns, flying spaghetti monsters, and orbiting teapots*)

*OK, not really. But it does involve replacing an inverse relationship with an exponential relationship such that the solution resulting in event horizons (and hence, black holes) no longer exists.

I was afraid you'd agree with

acanuck — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:35:38 +0000

In reply to I agree completely and even

I was afraid you'd agree with me. But gravity warping spacetime sounds perfectly defensible to me. I wouldn't call you a crackpot because of that.

I agree completely and even

Nebton — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 15:24:41 +0000

In reply to Yeah, that particular theory

I agree completely and even harbor one or two nonconvential theories myself (such as my theory involving how spacetime is actually warped by gravitational fields). In addition to being able to admit when you're wrong, it's important to make sure that your theories are falsifiable, and that you freely acknowledge when you're not in the mainstream. (What really irks me about some of the environemental "skeptics" isn't that they're skeptical, but that they try to pretend that the mainstream opinion isn't what it is.)

Yeah, that particular theory

acanuck — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 09:15:00 +0000

In reply to Are you suggesting that

Yeah, that particular theory didn't do it for me. But Gribbin's sudden notoreity reminded me what I like in him: his fearlessness about being wrong. He's admittedly a science writer, not a working scientist. But he shares Einstein's conviction that intuition and imagination are the driving forces of scientific advance. Being spectacularly wrong on occasion is just an occupational hazard.

Or, as Linus Pauling said, "The way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas, and throw out the bad ones." (After taking them around the block for a few test drives.) Not to disparage those who work in the scientific mainstream, filling in the gaps and incrementally increasing knowledge, but we need more Paulings and Thomas Golds (Siljan Ring, steady state). People who disdain strict academic boundaries, and embarrass everyone on occasion by being right about things they know nothing about.

Sometimes, of course, conventional wisdom is right, and the outside-the-box thinker is flat-out wrong. In fact, some turn out to be total crackpots. But error will out; scientific fact will prevail. Small price to pay for the handful of initially controversial but ultimately brilliant insights that move everything forward.

Are you suggesting that

Nebton — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 23:46:19 +0000

In reply to I was hoping to provoke

Are you suggesting that planetary alignments causing earthquakes isn't real science‽‽‽

I was hoping to provoke

acanuck — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 22:28:22 +0000

In reply to See? There's always a silver

I was hoping to provoke Nebton with my avowed embrace of "junk" or at least "fringe" science. So far, not a nibble.

See? There's always a silver

Orlando — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 12:28:03 +0000

In reply to I'll have what Tiger's having

See? There's always a silver lining.