Friam

Re: DIY science

Posted by Russ Abbott on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/DIY-science-tp7582911p7582944.html

Doesn't the need for self-control encourage that one acquire knowledge about how the world works? That knowledge is useful (and reassuring) even if it's never used. Are you (or Glen) deprecating knowledge that's never used?

A fundamental confusion seems to me to involve distinguishing knowledge that one uses from knowledge that one doesn't (happen to) use. That seems like a very arbitrary distinction, and I don't understand the reason for wanting to make it. In both cases one is talking about stuff in one's mind. Whether an opportunity happens to arise in which to operate in the world on the basis of that information doesn't seem to me to have much bearing on how we think about that information in  our minds. For example, I've never applied CPR to anyone (and hope I won't ever get the chance), but I'm glad I have some understanding of how to do it and how it works.

 
-- Russ Abbott
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  Professor, Computer Science
  California State University, Los Angeles

  My paper on how the Fed can fix the economy: ssrn.com/abstract=1977688
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  CS Wiki and the courses I teach
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On Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 10:17 AM, Nicholas Thompson <[hidden email]> wrote:
I think the Village Pragmatist would say that all science ... all cognition,
in fact ... grows out of the need for self control.  Now, we have to be
careful with "self-control" here, because it does not only mean, in this
context, things like "keeping myself from flying off the handle in FRIAM
discussions."  By "self-control" is meant,"I poke the world and I see what
happens to me."   Depending on what happens, I poke the world differently
the next time.  N

-----Original Message-----
From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of glen ropella
Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2013 8:50 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] DIY science

On 04/22/2013 11:37 PM, Russ Abbott wrote:
> But if it's possible what's the difference as far as your perspective
> on what science is?

My point was that you, too, can build a device that might allow you to test
E=mc^2.  It was in response to your statement that:

On 04/22/2013 11:15 AM, Russ Abbott wrote:
> There isn't much in today's science that I personally can use to
> manipulate the world. Much of it provides the foundation for devices
> that other people build through which I manipulate the world.

My claim is that most of today's science can be personally used, by you, to
manipulate the world.  You can build the device.  And you can use it to
formulate a test for these theories.

And I claimed this in order to push home my point that theories are not
scientific unless they are accompanied by the science of a _test_.

--
glen  =><= Hail Eris!

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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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