Why science is so hard to believe There’s a scene in Stanley Kubrick’s comic masterpiece “Dr. Strangelove” in which Jack D. Ripper, an American general who’s gone rogue and ordered a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, unspools his paranoid worldview — and the explanation for why he drinks “only distilled water, or rainwater, and only pure grain alcohol” — to Lionel Mandrake, a dizzy-with-anxiety group captain in the Royal Air Force. Ripper: “Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation? Fluoridation of water?” Mandrake: “Ah, yes, I have heard of that, Jack. Ripper: “Well, do you know what it is?” Mandrake: “No. Ripper: “Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face?” The movie came out in 1964, by which time the health benefits of fluoridation had been thoroughly established and anti-fluoridation conspiracy theories could be the stuff of comedy. Science doubt has become a pop-culture meme. In a sense this is not surprising. Related:
The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science Illustration: Jonathon Rosen "A MAN WITH A CONVICTION is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Festinger and several of his colleagues had infiltrated the Seekers, a small Chicago-area cult whose members thought they were communicating with aliens—including one, "Sananda," who they believed was the astral incarnation of Jesus Christ. Through her, the aliens had given the precise date of an Earth-rending cataclysm: December 21, 1954. Festinger and his team were with the cult when the prophecy failed. Read also: the truth about Climategate.At first, the group struggled for an explanation. From that day forward, the Seekers, previously shy of the press and indifferent toward evangelizing, began to proselytize. In the annals of denial, it doesn't get much more extreme than the Seekers. We apply fight-or-flight reflexes not only to predators, but to data itself.
10 Greatest Ideas in the History of Science by Big Think Editors While science often moves forward in awkward leaps and bounds, Peter Atkins compiled a list of 10 concepts that are considered "so rock solid, that it is difficult to imagine them ever being replaced with something better." So our friends at RealClearScience's Newton blog write about Atkins's 2003 book, Galileo's Finger: The Ten Great Ideas of Science. The 10 Greatest Ideas in the History of Science: 1. "The power of evolution comes from its ability to explain both the unity and diversity of life; in other words, the theory describes how similarities and differences between species arise by descent from a universal common ancestor." Read more here. 2. "It wasn't until 1952 that scientists determined that DNA was the molecule responsible for transmitting heritable information." Read more here. 3. "All the energy that currently exists in the universe is all that ever has been and all that ever will be." Read more here. 4. Read more here. 5. "What are atoms? Read more here. 6.
Anti-Soviet warrior puts his army on the road to peace: The Saudi businessman who recruited mujahedin now uses them for large-scale building projects in Sudan. Robert Fisk met him in Almatig - World - News With his high cheekbones, narrow eyes and long brown robe, Mr Bin Laden looks every inch the mountain warrior of mujahedin legend. Chadored children danced in front of him, preachers acknowledged his wisdom. 'We have been waiting for this road through all the revolutions in Sudan,' a sheikh said. 'We waited until we had given up on everybody - and then Osama Bin Laden came along.' Outside Sudan, Mr Bin Laden is not regarded with quite such high esteem. The Egyptian press claims he brought hundreds of former Arab fighters back to Sudan from Afghanistan, while the Western embassy circuit in Khartoum has suggested that some of the 'Afghans' whom this Saudi entrepreneur flew to Sudan are now busy training for further jihad wars in Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt. He is a shy man. Within months, however, Mr Bin Laden was sending Arab fighters - Egyptians, Algerians, Lebanese, Kuwaitis, Turks and Tunisians - into Afghanistan; 'not hundreds but thousands,' he said. How many? (Photograph omitted)
Chomsky: Paris attacks show hypocrisy of West's outrage Millions of people demonstrated in condemnation of the atrocities, amplified by a chorus of horror under the banner "I am Charlie." There were eloquent pronouncements of outrage, captured well by the head of Israel's Labor Party and the main challenger for the upcoming elections, Isaac Herzog, who declared that "Terrorism is terrorism. There's no two ways about it," and that "All the nations that seek peace and freedom [face] an enormous challenge" from brutal violence. Noam Chomsky The crimes also elicited a flood of commentary, inquiring into the roots of these shocking assaults in Islamic culture and exploring ways to counter the murderous wave of Islamic terrorism without sacrificing our values. The scene in Paris was described vividly in the New York Times by veteran Europe correspondent Steven Erlanger: "a day of sirens, helicopters in the air, frantic news bulletins; of police cordons and anxious crowds; of young children led away from schools to safety.
Logical Fallacies: The Fallacy Files Monty Python and the Quest for the Perfect Fallacy Summary If you weigh the same as a duck, then, logically, you’re made of wood and must be a witch. Or so goes the reasoning of Monty Python’s Sir Bedevere. Obviously something has gone wrong with the knight’s reasoning – and by the end of this lesson, you’ll know exactly what that is. Key Terms Argument: A conclusion together with the premises that support it.Premise: A reason offered as support for another claim.Conclusion: A claim that is supported by a premise.Valid: An argument whose premises genuinely support its conclusion.Unsound: An argument that has at least one false premise.Fallacy: An argument that relies upon faulty reasoning.Booby-trap: An argument that, while not a fallacy itself, might lead an inattentive reader to commit a fallacy. Examples Example 1: Whichever basketball team scores the most points will win the game. In Example 1, the first two sentences are premises and the third is the conclusion. Example 2 has exactly the same structure as Example 1. Background Dr. 1.
The science of protecting people’s feelings: why we pretend all opinions are equal It’s both the coolest — and also in some ways the most depressing — psychology study ever. Indeed, it’s so cool (and so depressing) that the name of its chief finding — the Dunning-Kruger effect — has at least halfway filtered into public consciousness. In the classic 1999 paper, Cornell researchers David Dunning and Justin Kruger found that the less competent people were in three domains — humor, logic, and grammar — the less likely they were to be able to recognize that. Or as the researchers put it: We propose that those with limited knowledge in a domain suffer from a dual burden: Not only do they reach mistaken conclusions and make regrettable errors, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it. Dunning and Kruger didn’t directly apply this insight to our debates about science. So why do I bring this classic study up now? Yes, that’s right — we’re all right, nobody’s wrong, and nobody gets hurt feelings. But that’s not what happened. So why do we do this?
An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments A reader recently wrote in asking if I could share a bit about the process of putting the book together and talk about how the project started. Certainly. I go on two solitary walks every day. There is a small park off the Embarcadero that is tucked away in a quiet spot. It was on a day in October of last year when, during one of those quiet moments on that bench, I recalled my college years and how outspoken I happened to be during them, an observation only made interesting by the fact that I have since turned into the quietest of beings. A realization that coincided with that nostalgic whiff was that a sizable amount of the discourse nowadays continues to be plagued with bad reasoning. Hence, the idea that finally shook me into soberness was one that had been fermenting for a while. Once I had a draft version of the book ready, I sent it to one of my life-long idols, Marvin Minsky, co-founder of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab and author of The Society of Mind.
Spain’s oldest dictionary under fire for equating ‘gypsy’ with ‘cheat’ Spain’s oldest and most authoritative dictionary has prompted outrage by defining “gypsy” as “one who lies and cheats”. After 13 years spent updating entries, the Royal Spanish Academy unveiled its 23rd edition of the Spanish dictionary at a sombre ceremony presided by King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, earlier this month. The new edition removed a previous definition of “gitano” or “gypsy” as an adjective meaning “defrauding or operating with deception”. But it added a new secondary meaning, saying the word was synonymous with “trapacero” – an adjective meaning dishonest or swindling. Arguing that the definition is obsolete and does little more than feed into prejudices, the Association of Feminist Gypsies for Diversity is taking action. “You can’t label an entire community, an entire culture, a whole population like this,” said member Maria José Jiménez Cortiñas. The group is also organising a protest next week in front of the headquarters of the Academy in Madrid.