Reply #17: I see what you're saying [View All]

[pokerfan]

But I still see the poll as anti-science in the sense that no "true" scientist should have a dog in the fight, so to speak, which is what the poll suggests we do, i.e. choose sides. Yes, the beginning of science is an educated guess but that's just the starting point. It's not science until it's either confirmed by experimental data or not. A hypothesis either agrees with reality or it doesn't. Personal preference doesn't (or shouldn't) enter into it. But scientists are human (with silly little reptile hind-brains, hormones, superstitions, prejudices, et al) and they do tend to get emotionally invested in their own theories. Still, science as a discipline is intended to rise above these impulses and reflexive responses.

In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
--Carl Sagan, 1987 CSICOP keynote address

Look, do I think the standard model, relativity and QM are the end-all and be-all of physics? Clearly not. Do I think there is much more to be discovered? Absolutely. I would file these results under "really interesting" and proceed with more experimentation. But polling? I don't see the point. It's not a horse race. And that is why I think the poll is anti-science.

I really don't think we are so far apart. Either way, confirmed or rejected, we are about to learn something. And that should be celebrated. I would hate to live in an epoch where everything was known. It would be rather boring. I embrace the fact that we don't know everything. If you ask me on any given day how much of the universe we understand my answer will bounce back and forth between 1% and 0.01%. Just don't ask me to choose sides ahead of time. I consider all scientific knowledge to be provisional.

I just want everything answered before I die. Is that really so much to ask? I'm in my fifties, so the clock's ticking, guys... :)