30 MAY 2016 by ideonexus
Hold Expertise in Esteem
Facts, evidence, reason, logic, an understanding of science -- these are good things. (Applause.) These are qualities you want in people making policy. These are qualities you want to continue to cultivate in yourselves as citizens. (Applause.) That might seem obvious. (Laughter.) That's why we honor Bill Moyers or Dr. Burnell. We traditionally have valued those things. But if you were listening to today's political debate, you might wonder where this strain of anti-intellectualism ca...Folksonomies: expertise
Folksonomies: expertise
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notes04 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
Notes From the Cosmic Perspective
Culture is the things you do that you don’t notice. In Italy they have a pasta aisle. In America we have ready made cereal isle, Soft drink aisle.
Culture of discovery doesn't last forever
Backup mic display
Bad seats people
Periodic table flags
Top countries of element discovery, noble gases
Scientists on currency
Franklin outwitted god - Lightning rod, discharge electrons
9/11 vs a golden age of islam
Alhazen, optics, previously people thought sight was beaming, active
2/3 o... 1 notes
notes19 FEB 2015 by ideonexus
All Art is Plagiarism
Any text is woven entirely with citations, references, echoes, cultural languages, which cut across it through and through in a vast stereophony. The citations that go to make up a text are anonymous, untraceable, and yet already read; they are quotations without inverted commas. The kernel, the soul — let us go further and say the substance, the bulk, the actual and valuable material of all human utterances — is plagiarism. For substantially all ideas are secondhand, consciously and unco... 1 notes
notes03 MAR 2014 by ideonexus
The Danger of Scientific Ignorance in a Science-Based Civ...
I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time — when we're a
service and information economy; when nearly all the key
manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries;
when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few,
and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the
issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own
agendas or knowledgeably question those In authority; when,
clutching our crystals and r... 1 notes
notesWe are more reliant on science than ever before, but we are also most disdainful of it.
19 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Science in the Time of Hordes
The only sciences known to savage hordes, are a slight and crude idea of astronomy,
and the knowledge of certain medicinal plants employed in the cure of wounds and
diseases; and even these are already corrupted by a mixture of superstition.
Meanwhile there is presented to us in this epoch one fact of importance in the history
of the human mind. We can here perceive the beginnings of an institution, that in its
progress has been attended with opposite effects, accelerating the advancement of... 1 notes
notesIn the early days, those with science subdued those who did not.
21 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Superstition is Based on Personal Experience
Almost every major systematic error which has deluded men for thousands of years relied on practical experience. Horoscopes, incantations, oracles, magic, witchcraft, the cures of witch doctors and of medical practitioners before the advent of modern medicine, were all firmly established through the centuries in the eyes of the public by their supposed practical successes. The scientific method was devised precisely for the purpose of elucidating the nature of things under more carefully cont... 1 notes
notesAstrology and other pseudosciences are believed because they appear to work in the real world, it is up to experiment to disprove them.
11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
The Future Belongs to Science
It is science alone that can solve the problems of hunger and poverty, of insanitation and illiteracy, of superstition and deadening custom and tradition, of vast resources running to waste, of a rich country inhabited by starving people... Who indeed could afford to ignore science today? At every turn we have to seek its aid... the future belongs to science and those who make friends with science. Folksonomies: science
Folksonomies: science
1 notes
notesOnly science has the answers to the problems and needs of the world.
29 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Distinguishing Personal Religion from Institutionalized R...
In critically judging of the value of religious phenomena, it is
very important to insist on the distinction between religion as an
individual personal function, and religion as an institutional, corporate,
or tribal product. I drew this distinction, you may remember,
in my second lecture. The word “religion,” as ordinarily used, is
equivocal. A survey of history shows us that, as a rule, religious
geniuses attract disciples, and produce groups of sympathizers. When
these groups get stron...Folksonomies: religion
Folksonomies: religion
1 notes
notesTwo very different things of different merits.
23 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
The One Piece of Dogmatism Allowed the Scientist
It is the business of science to offer rational explanations for all the events in the real world, and any scientist who calls on God to explain something is falling down on his job. This applies as much to the start of the expansion as to any other event. If the explanation is not forthcoming at once, the scientist must suspend judgment: but if he is worth his salt he will always maintain that a rational explanation will eventually be found. This is the one piece of dogmatism that a scientis...
1 That a rational explanation will eventually be found.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Venus is Hell
Venus thus seems to be a place quite different from the Earth, and alarmingly
unappealing: Broiling temperatures, crushing pressures, noxious and corrosive
gases, sulfurous smells, and a landscape immersed in a ruddy gloom.
Curiously enough, there is a place astonishingly like this in the superstition,
folklore and legends of men. We call it Hell. In the older belief – that of the
Greeks, for example – it was the place where all human souls journeyed after
death. In Christian times it ha... 1 notes
notesVery similar to it as Carl Sagan describes the planet.
