07-15-2009, 06:45 PM
Hi,
In the past, there was no "magic 8 ball" to predict the future, so people making decisions had to go on what they knew, what they felt, what they expected. Most of them, aware of their ignorance and humbled by their limitations proceeded slowly and cautiously, adopting the minimal measures and only when the need for those measures was truly apparent.
Now we have the "magic 8 ball" -- the computer. By developing models that predict what they want to predict, 'scientists' can sanctify their prejudices by running them through the sacrament of 'computer model'. The outcomes are theories that are taken to be infallible because they are ex cathedra -- emitted from the college of the infallible machine and sanctified by the papacy of pseudo science. The followers of that religion can then preach their gospel of imminent doom. By serving their beliefs as facts, they lead those that are ignorant to become misinformed. Instead of taking reasonable measures at a moderate pace in acknowledgment of their ignorance, the followers of the doom preachers propose extreme measures at a panicked pace from the arrogance of their misinformation.
We would be better served, indeed, if they actually used a magic 8 ball.
--Pete
Quote:And major political and lifestyle choices have traditionally been based on what? A magic 8 ball? However painfully imperfect our knowledge and understanding are now, they certainly weren't any better at any previous juncture.I have often said that I'd rather be ignorant than misinformed; I'm intelligent enough to know when I don't know and need to look it up, but if I think I know and I'm wrong there is nothing I can do.
In the past, there was no "magic 8 ball" to predict the future, so people making decisions had to go on what they knew, what they felt, what they expected. Most of them, aware of their ignorance and humbled by their limitations proceeded slowly and cautiously, adopting the minimal measures and only when the need for those measures was truly apparent.
Now we have the "magic 8 ball" -- the computer. By developing models that predict what they want to predict, 'scientists' can sanctify their prejudices by running them through the sacrament of 'computer model'. The outcomes are theories that are taken to be infallible because they are ex cathedra -- emitted from the college of the infallible machine and sanctified by the papacy of pseudo science. The followers of that religion can then preach their gospel of imminent doom. By serving their beliefs as facts, they lead those that are ignorant to become misinformed. Instead of taking reasonable measures at a moderate pace in acknowledgment of their ignorance, the followers of the doom preachers propose extreme measures at a panicked pace from the arrogance of their misinformation.
We would be better served, indeed, if they actually used a magic 8 ball.
--Pete
How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?