[extropy-chat] Feynman's 1963 Lecture - The Uncertainty of Science

[Eliezer Yudkowsky]

Robin Hanson wrote:
>> 
>> April 1963. ----------- ... So in science we are not interested in
>> where an idea comes from. There is no authority who decides what is a
>> good idea. We have lost the need to go to an authority to find out
>> whether an idea is true or not. We can read an authority and let him
>> suggest something; we can try it out and find out if its true or not.
>> If it is not true, so much the worse - so the "authorities" lose some
>> of their "authority". ... In  physics there are so many accumulated
>> observations that it is almost impossible to think of a new idea which
>> is different from all the ideas that have been thought of before and
>> yet that agrees with all the observations that have already been made.
>> And so if you get anything new from anyone, anywhere, you welcome it,
>> and you do not argue why the other person says it is so. ... Most
>> people find it surprising that in science there is no interest in the 
>> background of the author of an idea or in his motive in expounding it.
>>  You listen, and if it sounds like a thing worth trying, a thing that
>> could be tried, is different, and is not obviously contrary to
>> something observed before, it gets exciting and worthwhile. You do not
>> have to worry about how long he has studied or why he wants you to
>> listen to him. ...
> 
> Dear Richard had to be pretty caught up in his rhetoric to say these 
> whoppers. Scientists most definitely pay attention to the people pushing
> an idea, including how long they have studied.  There are in practice
> more ideas proposed than people have time to evaluate in much detail.
> So most are rejected (regarding publication, funding, jobs) without
> knowing whether those ideas conflict with observations or not.  There
> are definitely authorities who decide to reject or not, and they most
> certainly pay attention to where the advocate comes from when making
> this decision. And dear Richard knew this full well.

Evidently dear Richard was expounding upon the Way, upon Science as 
distinct from academia, and perhaps lost his way and began to speak as if 
the ideal had already become reality.

-- 
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence