The Value Of Science

Excellent essay by Richard P. Feynman

FROM time to time people suggest to me that scientists ought to give more consideration to social problems -- especially that they should be more responsible in considering the impact of science on society. It seems to be generally believed that if the scientists would only look at these very difficult social problems and not spend so much time fooling with less vital scientific ones, great success would come of it.

It seems to me that we do think about these problems from time to time, but we don't put a full-time effort into them -- the reasons being that we know we don't have any magic formula for solving social problems, that social problems are very much harder than scientific ones, and that we usually don't get anywhere when we do think about them.

I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy -- and when he talks about a nonscientific matter, he sounds as naive as anyone untrained in the matter. Since the question of the value of science is not a scientific subject, this talk is dedicated to proving my point -- by example.

The first way in which science is of value is familiar to everyone. It is that scientific knowledge enables us to do all kinds of things and to make all kinds of things. Of course if we make good things, it is not only to the credit of science; it is also to the credit of the moral choice which led us to good work. Scientific knowledge is an enabling power to do either good or bad -- but it does not carry instructions on how to use it. Such power has evident value -- even though the power may be negated by what one does with it.

I learned a way of expressing this common human problem on a trip to Honolulu. In a Buddhist temple there, the man in charge explained a little bit about the Buddhist religion for tourists, and then ended his talk by telling them he had something to say to them that they would never forget -- and I have never forgotten it. It was a proverb of the Buddhist religion:

To every man is given the key to the gates of heaven; the same key opens the gates of hell.

What then, is the value of the key to heaven? It is true that if we lack clear instructions that enable us to determine which is the gate to heaven and which the gate to hell, the key may be a dangerous object to use.

But the key obviously has value: how can we enter heaven without it?

Instructions would be of no value without the key. So it is evident that, in spite of the fact that it could produce enormous horror in the world, science is of value because it can produce something.
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The same thrill, the same awe and mystery, comes again and again when we look at any question deeply enough. With more knowledge comes a deeper, more wonderful mystery, luring one on to penetrate deeper still. Never concerned that the answer may prove disappointing, with pleasure and confidence we turn over each new stone to find unimagined strangeness leading on to more wonderful questions and mysteries -- certainly a grand adventure!

It is true that few unscientific people have this particular type of religious experience. Our poets do not write about it; our artists do not try to portray this remarkable thing. I don't know why. Is no one inspired by our present picture of the universe? This value of science remains unsung by singers: you are reduced to hearing not a song or poem, but an evening lecture about it. This is not yet a scientific age.
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I would now like to turn to a third value that science has. It is a little less direct, but not much. The scientist has a lot of experience with ignorance and doubt and uncertainty, and this experience is of very great importance, I think. When a scientist doesn't know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty darn sure of what the result is going to be, he is still in some doubt. We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty -- some most unsure, some nearly sure, but none absolutely certain.

Now, we scientists are used to this, and we take it for granted that it is perfectly consistent to be unsure, that it is possible to live and not know. But I don't know whether everyone realizes this is true. Our freedom to doubt was born out of a struggle against authority in the early days of science. It was a very deep and strong struggle: permit us to question -- to doubt -- to not be sure. I think that it is important that we do not forget this struggle and thus perhaps lose what we have gained. Herein lies a responsibility to society.
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What, then, is the meaning of it all? What can we say to dispel the mystery of existence?

If we take everything into account -- not only what the ancients knew, but all of what we know today that they didn't know -- then I think we must frankly admit that we do not know.

But, in admitting this, we have probably found the open channel.

Read full essay here.

5 dangerous things you should let your kids do

TED has some amazing lectures, this one is very interesting.



Gever Tulley, founder of the Tinkering School, spells out 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do. From TED University 2007:

• play with fire
• own a pocket knife
• throw a spear
• deconstruct appliances
• (break the DMCA)
• drive a car

Free Language Courses

Very cool. List of free Language Courses on-line.

Amazing Child Prodigies

Alia Sabur is a well known American child prodigy. Born in February of 1989, Alia was one of the youngest people to ever enter college. She attended SUNY Stony Brook at 10 years old, and graduated summa-cum-laude at age 14. She had also received a black belt in Tae Kwon Do at the young age of 9. She was accepted to Drexel University to complete her Ph.D. degree at the age of 14 in the area of Material Science and Engineering. According to her website she had started walking and talking at 8 months old, and was reading full novels by age two. She also began writing around the same time. She had completed the entire elementary school curriculum by the end of kindergarten and completed the New York Stat math regents (grade 9) at eight years old. Alia is also considered a musical prodigy, performing Concerto No. 1 and beginning clarinet studies with Ricardo Morales in 2000 at age 11. In 2004 Alia was named the DDSEG (Department of Defense) Fellow, the youngest ever named.

Michael Kearney began to speak at the age of 4 months and by 6 months had a strong enough grasp on the English language to say to his pediatrician “I have a left ear infection.” Unfortunately, at a young age he was also diagnosed with ADD but of course this did not stop this child prodigy from achieving academic success. He finished high school at age 6, received an Associate of Science degree in geology at age 8, and a Bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of South Alabama at age 10, making him the worlds youngest university graduate. He received his first Master’s degree in biochemistry from Middle Tennessee State University at age 14. His thesis title was “Kinetic Isotope Effects of Thymidine Phosphorylase.” By taking a position at Vanderbilt University at age 16 Michael became the youngest person to teach at a college. To relax, Michael enjoys playing a few hands of Texas Hold’em Poker.

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More on The Wussification of Children

Fear 'stops child development'

Some parents are afraid of letting children play unsupervised Youngsters are missing out on their childhood because we over-protect them, a child play expert claims.

A reluctance to let children take risks could stop them developing vital skills needed to protect themselves, he adds.

Tim Gill's new book says that instead of creating a "nanny state" we should build a society where communities look out for each other and youngsters.

Activities that previous generations of children enjoyed without a second thought - like walking to school on their own - have been re-labelled as troubling or dangerous and the adults who permit them branded as irresponsible, he argues.

Although there is a widely-held view that children grow up faster today, in fact their lives are far more controlled than they were 30 years ago

But through encountering risks, children learn how to overcome challenging situations, nurturing their character and fostering a sense of adventure, entrepreneurialism, resilience and self-reliance, claims Mr Gill.

Restricting children's play limits their freedom of movement, corrodes their relationships with adults and constrains their exploration of physical, social and virtual worlds, he asserts.

He said: "Although there is a widely-held view that children grow up faster today, in fact their lives are far more controlled than they were 30 years ago.
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A recent study suggested 43% of adults felt children should not be allowed to play out unsupervised until they were aged 14 or over, she said.

This was "despite the fact that most respondents had been allowed out without an adult at the much younger age of 10 or under."

More.

American Children are Growing Up to Be Mindless Lemmings

...he often writes to me (...) about the youth of today, anything where I comment on the various nefarious factors shaping their minds and their perspectives and whether or not, say, EMFs and junk food and cell phones are melting their brains and what can be done and just how bad it might all be.

His response: It is not bad at all. It's absolutely horrifying.

My friend often summarizes for me what he sees, firsthand, every day and every month, year in and year out, in his classroom. He speaks not merely of the sad decline in overall intellectual acumen among students over the years, not merely of the astonishing spread of lazy slackerhood, or the fact that cell phones and iPods and excess TV exposure are, absolutely and without reservation, short-circuiting the minds of the upcoming generations. Of this, he says, there is zero doubt.

Nor does he speak merely of the notion that kids these days are overprotected and wussified and don't spend enough time outdoors and don't get any real exercise and therefore can't, say, identify basic plants, or handle a tool, or build, well, anything at all. Again, these things are a given. Widely reported, tragically ignored, nothing new.

No, my friend takes it all a full step — or rather, leap — further. It is not merely a sad slide. It is not just a general dumbing down. It is far uglier than that.

We are, as far as urban public education is concerned, essentially at rock bottom. We are now at a point where we are essentially churning out ignorant teens who are becoming ignorant adults and society as a whole will pay dearly, very soon, and if you think the hordes of easily terrified, mindless fundamentalist evangelical Christian lemmings have been bad for the soul of this country, just wait.

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He cites studies, reports, hard data, from the appalling effects of television on child brain development (i.e.; any TV exposure before 6 years old and your kid's basic cognitive wiring and spatial perceptions are pretty much scrambled for life), to the fact that, because of all the insidious mandatory testing teachers are now forced to incorporate into the curriculum, of the 182 school days in a year, there are 110 when such testing is going on somewhere at Oakland High. As one of his colleagues put it, "It's like weighing a calf twice a day, but never feeding it."

But most of all, he simply observes his students, year to year, noting all the obvious evidence of teens' decreasing abilities when confronted with even the most basic intellectual tasks, from understanding simple history to working through moderately complex ideas to even (in a couple recent examples that particularly distressed him) being able to define the words "agriculture," or even "democracy." Not a single student could do it.

It gets worse. My friend cites the fact that, of the 6,000 high school students he estimates he's taught over the span of his career, only a small fraction now make it to his grade with a functioning understanding of written English. They do not know how to form a sentence. They cannot write an intelligible paragraph. Recently, after giving an assignment that required drawing lines, he realized that not a single student actually knew how to use a ruler.

It is, in short, nothing less than a tidal wave of dumb, with once-passionate, increasingly exasperated teachers like my friend nearly powerless to stop it. The worst part: It's not the kids' fault. They're merely the victims of a horribly failed educational system.
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After all, the dumber the populace, the easier it is to rule and control and launch unwinnable wars and pass laws telling them that sex is bad and TV is good and God knows all, so just pipe down and eat your Taco Bell Double-Supremo Burrito and be glad we don't arrest you for posting dirty pictures on your cute little blog.
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What, too fatalistic? Don't worry. Soon enough, no one will know what the word even means.

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Bill Cosby: We Cannot Blame the White People any Longer

They’re standing on the corner and they can’t speak English. I can’t even talk the way these people talk: Why you ain’t, Where you is, What he drive, Where he stay, Where he work, Who you be… And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk.

Everybody knows it’s important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can’t be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. In fact you will never get any kind of job making a decent living.

People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education, and now we’ve got these knuckleheads walking around. The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal. These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids. $500 sneakers for what? And they won’t spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics.
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What part of Africa did this come from? We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans; they don’t know a thing about Africa. With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail.
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We cannot blame the white people any longer.

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