14 MAR 2016 by ideonexus
"Dark Matter" and "Dark Energy" are Terms That Hide Ignor...
We can measure the influence of this thing we call dark energy, which is forcing an acceleration of the expanding universe. We don't know what that is, we don't know anything about it, other than what it's doing to the universe.
Then 85 percent of the gravity of the universe has a point of origin about which we know nothing. We account for all the matter and energy that we're familiar with, measure up how much gravity it should have — it's about one-sixth of the gravity that's actually ope...
1 14 MAR 2016 by ideonexus
"Holistic" is a Word That Hides Our Ignorance
We're often told that certain wholes are more than the sum of their parts. We hear this expressed with reverent words like holistic and gestalt, whose academic tones suggest that they refer to clear and definite ideas. But I suspect the actual function of such terms is to anesthetize a sense of ignorance. We say gestalt when things combine to act in ways we can't explain, holistic when we're caught off guard by unexpected happenings and realize we understand less than we thought we did.31 MAY 2015 by ideonexus
Rational Ignorance
Of course, it is a cliché of our times that we suffer from information overload because of the ubiquity of electronic media. And for fifty years, cognitive scientists have been harping on the limitations of the brain in processing information. Some have argued that Grice’s cooperative maxims are a way to manage the flow of information in a conversation, maximizing the rate of transmission of usable knowledge.
But the ultimate reason our speech is so indirect may lie in a different danger ...Folksonomies: information ignorance
Folksonomies: information ignorance
1 
notes
notes11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Ignorance as Friction
Of all the frictional resistances, the one that most retards human movement is ignorance, what Buddha called 'the greatest evil in the world.' The friction which results from ignorance ... can be reduced only by the spread of knowledge and the unification of the heterogeneous elements of humanity. No effort could be better spent. Retarding human progress.
08 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Youth and Chemistry
It is only those who know a little of nature, who fancy they know much. I have heard a young man say, after hearing a few popular chemical lectures, and seeing a few bottle and squirt experiments: Oh, water—water is only oxygen and hydrogen!—as if he knew all about it. While the true chemist would smile sadly enough at the the youth's hasty conceit, and say in his heart: 'Well, he is a lucky fellow.' 1 notes
notesSample of how a little knowledge promotes unwarranted certainty.
18 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
Galileo's Renunciation
I, Galileo Galilei, son of the late Vincenzo Galilei, of Florence, aged seventy years, being brought personally to judgment, and kneeling before your Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lords Cardinals, General Inquisitors of the universal Christian republic against heretical depravity, having before my eyes the Holy Gospels, which I touch with my own hands, swear that I have always believed, and now believe, and with the help of God will in future believe, every article which the Holy Catholic an... 1 notes
notesText of what the church forced him to sign or die.
18 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Dunning–Kruger effect
People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The
authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these
domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make
unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it. Across 4
studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of hum...
2 People who are unskilled in domains grossly overestimate their abilities compared to those who are skilled.
28 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Fire is Perpetual Motion
What is there about fire that's so lovely? ... It's perpetual motion; the thing man wanted to invent but never did. Or almost perpetual motion. ... What is fire? It's a mystery. Scientists give us gobbledegook about friction and molecules. But they don't really know.Folksonomies: ignorance scientific illiteracy
Folksonomies: ignorance scientific illiteracy
1 notes
notesA "Fireman" from Bradbury's book describes the fire he uses to burn books in a most unscientific fashion.
05 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Creationsim VS "I Don't Know"
Where did the primal seed of the big bang come from? How did life begin? How did monarch butterflies evolve the ability to navigate to their winter home? God did it, says the believer. I don't know, says the agnostic. The two statements have exactly the same explanatory value. Zero.
Why then opt for one rather than the other? The first provides an illusion of understanding, and reinforces the ancient belief in a personal divinity who attends to our individual lives. The second is a goad to c...Neither explains any natural phenomena, but the latter leads the door open to curiosity.
12 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
The Most Uneducated Want Control Over Learning
Imagine the people who believe such things and who are not ashamed to ignore, totally, all the patient findings of thinking minds through all the centuries since the Bible was written. And it is these ignorant people, the most uneducated, the most unimaginative, the most unthinking among us, who would make themselves the guides and leaders of us all; who would force their feeble and childish beliefs on us; who would invade our schools and libraries and homes. I personally resent it bitterly.Folksonomies: ignorance creationism
Folksonomies: ignorance creationism
1 notes
notesThose who ignore science and expertise are the ones who most want to interfere with public learning.
