[FRIAM] on Feynman, again

[Marcus Daniels]

Like upsides to global warming, perhaps there are benefits to the irrationality of scientists, like Robinson's and others'.
It suggests that science is an activity or an algorithm, that can be conducted in parallel with arbitrary if closely-held beliefs.  
But I'm cynical.  I'm inclined to think the scientific method is just a weapon in the hands of a sufficiently wacko person to pummel the world into a form they think they can manage or profit from.   Better have more non-wacko people with the same skills to balance things out.   Sure, there is herd behavior in all kinds of people, even the science-policy elites in Washington.   Is there some harm being done by them other than to direct money in a worthy direction that happens not to be to him?   The contrarian needs to be clever to navigate these things and do more than complain.

Marcus

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity." - Albert Einstein
-----Original Message-----
From: Friam [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of g??? ?
Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2017 4:01 PM
To: FriAM <friam at redfish.com>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] on Feynman, again

Yep.  One of my homunculi does that to his brethren.  This came out today:

  The Grandfather Of Alt-Science
  https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-grandfather-of-alt-science/

Anyone whose spent any time in Oregon knows this whack job.  And my apex predator of the signaling world homunculus yells at me to hate him as the crackpot he clearly is, as well as his neolithic social postions.  But *most* of my other homunculi have immense respect for someone who hacks their own path through the thicket, going to bat for every wannabe crackpot or inventor who spends their spare time breathing solder smoke in the basement or suffers regular chemical burns because they care more about their objective than safety.  Yes, DIY biology is dangerous.  But hey, we can't all work in the belly of some bureaucratic leviathan.


On 10/12/2017 02:44 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
> "Apex predator of the signaling world."  
> 
> Cute, know it well.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Friam [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of g??? ?
> Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2017 3:37 PM
> To: FriAM <friam at redfish.com>
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] on Feynman, again
> 
> I know.  I just thought it was an interesting post.  That we'd recently discussed Feynman was only a segue. I could also have used Russell as the segue, since Marcus quoted him in our thread.
> 
> The 1st part of Aaronson's post re: Gowers is more interesting than the later stuff.
> 
> On 10/12/2017 02:26 PM, Nick Thompson wrote:
>> I took issue not with Feynman as a person ...
> 
>> https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=3488
>>
>>> if you write, for example, that Richard Feynman was a self-aggrandizing chauvinist showboater, then even if your remarks have a nonzero inner product with the truth, you don’t thereby “transcend” Feynman and stand above him, in the same way that set theory transcends and stands above arithmetic by constructing a model for it.  Feynman’s achievements don’t thereby become your achievements.
> 
> 
> --
> ☣ gⅼеɳ
> 
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe 
> at St. John's College to unsubscribe 
> http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove 
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe 
> at St. John's College to unsubscribe 
> http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
> 

--
☣ gⅼеɳ

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove