Science
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For those many reductionists who cleave to the idea that science is a profoundly convergent enterprise: that through relentless experience it converges on truth we offer this page as a gentle challenge. Scientismists[1] are given to invoking Occam’s razor to bat away illogical hypotheses of mystic types; the JC uses it to invite them to practice what they preach.
Falsified science
In the papers you will hear tell of of “great scientific breakthroughs” or “monumental discoveries” of the last decade, as if there are large parts of human discourse that are as yet uncharted, and brave scientists are striking out across alien seas like Columbus in search of the new world.
Modern life to the layperson doesn’t feel quite so incomplete, though, does it? The truth is that scientists making these discoveries are not breaking new ground so much as upend existing ground which other scientists have been been busily tilling, as if their science was the revealed word of God, for decades. Seen this way, breakthroughs are evidence for the frailty of science; for its susceptibility to change.
So, with feeling
- Dinosaurs do not sit on their tails, but use them to balance.
- Saturated fat isn’t bad for you after all
Calling Friar Occam
- Dark matter: Four fifths of the universe is invisible! It is no matter of detail that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate: this undermines the basic principles of physics, unless 85% of all mass in the universe is invisible and, but for its gravitational effect, undetectable.[2]
- String theory: lots of tiny dimensions! Grand unification of physics appears to require string theory which appears to require at least 11 — and maybe more! — spacetime dimensions, though since there is no evidence of matter or energy leaking from or being injected into the four we already know about, we are asked to suppose that the other eight dimensions are curled up so tightly that they can neither be observed, nor can the smallest subatomic particles cross into or out of them. [3] This is a lot of ad hoc hypothesising just to ge thte maths to work, fellas. The alternative — no less ad hoc — is that the dimensions live in other universes altogether. There may even be an infinity of alternative universes!
See also
References
- ↑ Those who practice scientism, as opposed to scientists, being those who practice science.
- ↑ “Dark matter is hypothetical form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe. Its presence is implied in a variety of astrophysical observations, including gravitational effects that cannot be explained by accepted theories of gravity unless more matter is present than can be seen. For this reason, most experts think that dark matter is abundant in the universe and that it has had a strong influence on its structure and evolution.” — Wikipedia
- ↑ In bosonic string theory, spacetime is 26-dimensional, while in superstring theory it is 10-dimensional, and in M-theory it is 11-dimensional. In order to describe real physical phenomena using string theory, one must therefore imagine scenarios in which these extra dimensions would not be observed in experiments. “Compactification” is one way of modifying the number of dimensions in a physical theory so that the extra dimensions are assumed to “close up” on themselves to form circles. In the limit where these curled up dimensions become very small, one obtains a theory in which spacetime has effectively a lower number of dimensions.