Wizer analysis... I'm upset like with an ex-girlfriend, because I like theory... emotionally it is beautiful (bad reason).
I have another good reason as engineer, which I summarize as : "In theory, practice is all you need to make something works, In practice, theory helps much" however what you say remind me some French proverb about money : "Good servant, bad master" It remind me also the non-aristotelian motto that I learned as kid, reading AE Van Vogt... "The map is not the territory" Something so evident that I tooks me 40 years to understand that it was not so natural in fact. Like when abstract finance guys forget about liquidity risk, operational risks, when pretending to hedge risks... I remember the article of Jed on Wright brothers, who did not have huge theories, but who build huge volume of experimental data, building phenomenological theories, which allowed them to compute and optimize... This allowed scientists to develop better theories, that numerical engineers transformed in computer models, that pilots now trust before boarding their plane, because today prototype wings flight longer in the computer than in the air. Maybe that is the way to solve the LENR/LENR+ battle, to accept that theory are there to help engineering, and are fed by experimentalist work... Not ruling the domain, but participating in a teamwork. Anyway, shouting loud like a Shakespearean actor, helps make people understand that it cannot continue as is... I see 3 domain where theory have prevented people to see the reality, where the confused the reality for the model. One is finance and we pay the bill. One is LENR and we get out of hell One is... don't worry if LENR works... forget it... solved. 2013/7/1 Edmund Storms <[email protected]> > Alain, theory is not the trap. Arrogance is the trap. Theory has always > been with us because that is how all observation is related to all other > observations. Even Faraday believed a theory about what he observed. > However, he was not as arrogant as are modern physicist. Modern physicists > are taught they can explain anything and that physics is the highest > science with the ability to judge all other sciences. This arrogance > causes them to reject any idea or approach that was not originated by one > of their kind using the language of physics, which is mathematics. They > believe that mathematics is a mirror of reality and can describe any > behavior, generally without having to go back to Nature for confirmation. > Imagine the hubris a claim to find a theory of everything represents. NO, > theory is not the problem. The belief that a particular approach to > science can explain everything is the problem. > > Ed > > On Jul 1, 2013, at 2:16 PM, Alain Sepeda wrote: > > "If cold fusion had been discovered in 1900 they would have worked on it > like any other new discovery and probably figured it out about as quickly > as they elucidated fission." > > true ! > in 1900 physics was not in "normal science" mode but in "early stage"... > see how Sternglass discovery was accepted by einstein, yet ignored later... > > it would have been even more easy at the faraday time. > > theory is a trap. > > > 2013/7/1 Jed Rothwell <[email protected]> > >> Peter Gluck <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> . . . LENR surprises >>> were and are much too unexpected- see a theory of Surprise >>> on the Web >>> >> >> I think Alain meant there was nothing surprising about the reaction to >> cold fusion. The spiteful rejection, that is. Martin Fleischmann expected >> this. I think Pons was surprised by it, or at least, by the intensity of it. >> >> Technically it was surprising. Perhaps it was the most surprising >> discovery in the history of technology. I guess radium and radioactivity >> were about as surprising, but cold fusion was discovered after people >> thought they understood nuclear reactions in detail. It turns out they >> don't understand them. >> >> If cold fusion had been discovered in 1900 they would have worked on it >> like any other new discovery and probably figured it out about as quickly >> as they elucidated fission. >> >> - Jed >> >> > >
