John Berry <[email protected]> wrote: As for 1) I think this highlight the most important aspect of the problem. > > It should be unquestioned as an obvious truth that experiment ultimately > trumps arguments and theory. > > That anyone with any respect for truth, reality or logic should argue that > theory should cause experimental results to be discounted is almost > inconceivable. >
It seems inconceivable to people who have been trained in the experimental scientific method from a young age. But you should realize this is still a new and fragile idea, and most people have no scientific training. That is why, for example, 60% of Americans think that "lasers work by focusing sound waves" (NSF survey described below). People have been doing science for hundreds of thousands of years, but as a formal, written, organized practice, it only began in 1600. It was first articulated by Francis Bacon in his book Novum Organum (written in Latin). He did a better job describing the scientific method than the working scientists who came a generation later did, such as Newton. Newton's ideas about the scientific method were retrograde in many ways. Many of the ideas in Bacon's books are still alien to most people. We are still far from fulfilling his goals for society, and benefitting from the scientific method. It is a myth that modern society is science-based. Only a small fraction of the people in a first-world country have knowledge of science. Most are opposed to it because it conflicts with traditional beliefs, especially religion. I have often quoted H. G. Wells on this. What he wrote in 1913 is as true today as it was then. In his novel, a person in 1950 is looking back at 1913: "It is wonderful how our fathers bore themselves towards science. They hated it. They feared it. They permitted a few scientific men to exist and work -- a pitiful handful.... 'Don't find out anything about us,' they said to them; 'don't inflict vision upon us, spare our little ways of life from the fearful shaft of understanding. But do tricks for us, little limited tricks. Give us cheap lighting. And cure us of certain disagreeable things, cure us of cancer, cure us of consumption, cure our colds and relieve us after repletion....'" http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1059/1059-h/1059-h.htm Most people also have no training in basic logic. Without that, you cannot proceed to the scientific method. They have no idea they are making logical fallacies, even though these fallacies were compiled thousands of year ago: http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ These fallacies are as common today in newspapers, magazines, or in comments on the Internet as they were the Romans invented names for them. People did not understood logic in the past. It isn't as if there was some golden age when they were educated. Such knowledge does not come naturally, any more that ability to do algebra or calculus does for most people. Science is supported by governments with billions of dollars despite the fact that much of the population despises it. This is because science is needed to make weapons, and to compete economically. No government is actually in favor of science for its own right, although leaders often pay lip service to that concept. The GOP will continue to fund the Pentagon and the CDC even though its base and many GOP elected officials from places like Georgia loath science, saying things like: "All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the Big Bang Theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell." Most people in most countries do not care about facts, or science, or learning. They find it boring. They are interested in their own personal lives and immediate concerns. This has always been the case. It was true 100 years ago and 200 years ago. It is the case in Japan just as much in U.S. Public opinion polls show that ~20% of Americans think the sun revolves around the earth: http://www.gallup.com/poll/3742/new-poll-gauges-americans-general-knowledge-levels.aspx As I mentioned, 60% think that "lasers work by focusing sound waves." People in Japan are just about as ignorant: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind06/append/c7/at07-10.pdf The only major difference between the countries in this public opinion survey is in questions related to religious beliefs, especially evolution: "Human beings are developed from earlier species of animals." Many Americans, Koreans and Russians disagree on religious grounds so ~65% say "no." There happens to be no religious opposition to evolution in Japan, so only only 22% say no. They are merely ignorant, not opposed. Japan has a reputation for being a high-tech, highly educated society. I have not found it so. Based on the mass media, I have the impression that most people in Japan are not interested in science, and they know little about it. Government ministers and corporate muckety-mucks reject cold fusion for the same reasons American authorities do.
