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Responses to New Planck Results



 
 
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  #1  
Old October 1st 14, 06:45 AM posted to sci.astro.research
Robert L. Oldershaw
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Posts: 617
Default Responses to New Planck Results

On Thursday, September 25, 2014 2:09:57 PM UTC-4, Robert L. Oldershaw wrote:
On Thursday, September 25, 2014 3:41:25 AM UTC-4, Craig Markwardt wrote:
[Mod. note: reformatted. Note that the conclusion of that article is
'science can get it wrong at times but is always self-correcting' --
pretty much what all practising scientists here would say -- mjh]

---------------------------------------------------

Then "all practicing scientists here" should remember that without
mavericks like Galileo, Faraday, Einstein, Mandelbrot, Feigenbaum,
etc. the physics community would have spun its wheels indefinitely by
adding epicycles to the old paradigm, rather than questioning
assumptions, identifying the underlying problem and showing the path
to a new paradigm that offered a better, more unified, understanding
of nature.

The new book on Faraday/Maxwell/EM is an archetypal case in point.
Virtually everyone thought that Faraday was wrong-headed (and/or a
quack) because his ideas conflicted with the dominant Newtonian
paradigm. The book documents this quite clearly. Maxwell was almost
alone in treating Faraday's ideas about a "field" theory for EM
seriously.

On the other side of the equation, after 44 years of string theory
pseudo-science and its failure to deliver anything useful for physics,
Witten this week doubles down on his faith that it will lead somewhere
('maybe in 200 years'?).

"Always self-correcting"? Not by the leaders of the community, nor by
the obedient majority of its members. Kuhn's "normal science" is
notoriously bad at correcting the most fundamental errors in the
foundational assumptions.

RLO
fractal Cosmology
  #2  
Old October 2nd 14, 07:50 AM posted to sci.astro.research
Phillip Helbig---undress to reply
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Posts: 629
Default Responses to New Planck Results

In article , "Robert L.
Oldershaw" writes:

"Always self-correcting"? Not by the leaders of the community, nor by
the obedient majority of its members. Kuhn's "normal science" is
notoriously bad at correcting the most fundamental errors in the
foundational assumptions.


As has been pointed out many times, you seem to blindly assume that
Kuhn's analysis is correct, indeed that it must be correct, almost as if
he were some sort of prophet.

As for the mavericks: Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize (and many
other awards) within a few years of his discoveries. Looks like
acceptance by the community to me. Galileo's problems were not so much
with the scientific community but rather with the Church.

Of course new ideas come along---that is how science progresses. But
the idea that old paradigms are kept on life support until the old
fogeys die or some revolutionary overthrows them is just not supported
by the historical data.

Suppose Kuhn is just waffling nonsense. Then it is a waste of time to
consider his ideas. On the other hand, suppose his ideas are real
science backed up by data. Then, by his own petard, so to speak, his
ideas will be superseded by a new paradigm, so again no reason to waste
time on them.
 




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