Releasers - Anne Kilmer couldn't possibly be more wrong!

[Xi Wang]

Hi,

>
> If we know so little, how can a claim be made one way or another? It would
> be more accurate to say, "We don't know."
>

Well, I think the point Neil was trying to make is that since we know so
little, we better play it safe.  Numerous past incidents prove that humans are
shortsighted and when we make decisions based on insufficient data, we almost
always end up screwing ourselves.

>
> As far as logic goes, well, it can be used to argue just about anything.
> Since we start with different biases, use of logic does not mean we all
> come to the same conclusions and certainly not one recommended course of
> action.
> How many times have you seen disagreements between scientists over what the
> science means?
>

Not true, logic always argues for what is correct.  If this weren't true, there
would be no consistency, and logic would be useless.  If we start out with
different axioms (biases if you will), this doesn't mean you can use logic to
argue in favour of different results, because before you start making deductive
arguements, you should use logic to determine which set of axioms are correct.
For scientists who argue over what scientists mean, you're assuming that all
scientists are equal.  This is not valid as even amongst scientists there is a
range in logical analytical abilities.

>
> One last thought.... I had a discussion with a scientist who held that
> biology is not a science because it cannot be reduced to numbers and
> analyzed with mathematics. If I held that bias, then my logical conclusion
> would be we should never do anything with the environment because we cannot
> know anything about it to an absolute certainty. :-)

Can we know anything with absolute uncertainty?  And who says biology can't be
reduced to numbers.  Of course it can, in terms of probabilities.  Moreover,
isn't that what chemistry and physics is all about as well?  Even in these
'true sciences', Heisenberg's uncertainty principle says one can only predict
the outcome of an event as a probability for we can never know the exact
position and momentum of any wave-particle.  All knowledge is stochastic in
nature.

Cheers,
Xi Wang


 
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