Cargo Cult Science

[Lije]

Cargo Cult Science is a colorful lecture by Richard Feynmen on pseudoscience and irrational beliefs. I've first read it in his book "Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynmen!" when I was a kid and it still sounds just as funny and insightful as it did back then.

[Ajita Kamal]

(24-Apr-2010, 02:09 PM)Lije Wrote: Cargo Cult Science is a colorful lecture by Richard Feynmen on pseudoscience and irrational beliefs. I've first read it in his book "Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynmen!" when I was a kid and it still sounds just as funny and insightful as it did back then.

That must have been an amazing lecture. I almost think this deserves to be in the naturalism section, because much of what Feynman is talking about concerns the scientific method. I loved his stories about the experiments using rat trails, and how they had to control so many different factors. Today's science is mostly pop science and none of Feynman's strict objective approach in science can match up to the dishonest (using Feynman's standards) ways of making a scientific idea popular. Feynman would probably be appalled if he were alive today.

I would recommend Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, to anyone interested in knowing about this great man's mind.

[Sajit]

(24-Apr-2010, 02:09 PM)Lije Wrote: Cargo Cult Science is a colorful lecture by Richard Feynmen on pseudoscience and irrational beliefs. I've first read it in his book "Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynmen!" when I was a kid and it still sounds just as funny and insightful as it did back then.

Thanks for the link its excellent ! Here is an extract ...

"One time I sat down in a bath where there was a beautiful girl
sitting with a guy who didn't seem to know her. Right away I began
thinking, "Gee! How am I gonna get started talking to this
beautiful nude babe?"

I'm trying to figure out what to say, when the guy says to her,
I'm, uh, studying massage. Could I practice on you?"

"Sure," she says. They get out of the bath and she lies down on a
massage table nearby.

I think to myself, "What a nifty line! I can never think of
anything like that!" He starts to rub her big toe. "I think I feel
it, "he says. "I feel a kind of dent--is that the pituitary?"

I blurt out, "You're a helluva long way from the pituitary, man!"

They looked at me, horrified--I had blown my cover--and said, "It's
reflexology!"

I quickly closed my eyes and appeared to be meditating."