pitenius

By the 1900's, math had already reached a chalk and board pinnacle. An independent thinker or researcher needed ever advancing tools and engineering to prove or disprove his theories.

Not true at all. Physics, maybe. Math? No.

grendelbiter

I get the impression from your article that Science is kind of like a cult. Specifically from this part:

Sociologists have long tried and failed to draw a line between science and pseudoscience. In physics, though, that ‘demarcation problem’ is a non-problem, solved by the pragmatic observation that we can reliably tell an outsider when we see one. During a decade of education, we physicists learn more than the tools of the trade; we also learn the walk and talk of the community, shared through countless seminars and conferences, meetings, lectures and papers. After exchanging a few sentences, we can tell if you’re one of us. You can’t fake our community slang any more than you can fake a local accent in a foreign country. >

Shouldn't the distinction between Science and pseudoscience lie in the proposed theory itself and using the scientific method on it instead of a judgement of the person proposing it?

Sciency

I used to have a profile bio that said "science is a religion, religions are cults, and cults are just fine until someone breaks out the coolaid." Never thought that would be relivent.

Granted, we should evaluate each theory on its merits. I personally think that many explanations for behavior in our universe are rather convenient. Take for example dark energy and dark mater. All our evidence comes in the form of studying light. When we realized that everything in the universe is receding from everything else, we throw out an explanation (dark energy) that we really dont even have evidence for. Such theories seem to be nothing more than place-holders, without which our models would break down. Dark mater at least has some light-based evidence sugesting it has mass, but it still has not been observed.

I guess what Im driving at is this: we use occams razor only when it is convenient. All too often it seems like an exception to the rule is just labeled quantum x, because without allowing for an exception our understanding breaks down completely.

I for one, am of the opinion that our universe is a simulation, only devoting processing power to the most commonly observed things. This pretty much has to break down at certain scales, with the universe recycling its forces past cetrain points. Gravity treats a neutron star just like the stong force treats the nucleus of an atom. Past a certain range, gravity loses out to the expantion of space, where seemingly repulsive forces take over. In short, stelar physics take a striking resemblence to nuclear physics.

psioniq

No worries. Didn't expect you to have all the answers - your post just makes my mind race with questions that need answers.

Interesting take on the PL phenomenon. If what you say about foo fighters is true, it's not a long stretch to apply them to the Phoenix Lights. Thanks for that - I love 'logical' explanations.

Will look into the LHC experiments a bit more (saw the post about dismissal of a found particle earlier).

May the forces be with us..

psioniq

The article was interesting, as I toyed around with 'theories of everything' myself, some years ago. But as you stated, I don't have the mathematical knowledge to actual prove/understand such things (despite being a programmer).

Your OP intrigued me too. I've often wondered why we have not come closer to the 'vision of the future' I imagined as a kid, despite it seeming like we actually could . Admittidley, I've always figured that, what you write in the OP, is how the world works.

Foo Fighters are often a 'goto' when somebody tries to convince others that UFOs are real. Now you're telling me, that they were in fact machines built by people who had mastered the understanding of gravity. How does that work? Where is the knowledge now?

I've also seen a greater strive towards blocking government/independent studies from seeing the light of day (Denmark is struggling with this very issue as we speak). How do you see us breaking this chain? Could large scale scientific endeavours be crowdfunded if they were of significant importance?

As with most things - there are so many questions, when a post like this appears :)

edit: why a conspiracy post? - you'd get better exposure elsewhere I think - this is voat after all

psioniq

Interesting..

Are you the author of the article?