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The thing is that for the last five decades I've watched these people come up with bright idea after bright idea, and great discovery after great discovery, every time declaring that everything they say is the absolute truth, and almost every time backing away from the idea later -- after real scientists (i.e. Physicists, not stargazing speculators and con-men seeking acclaim and grants) have proven them wrong.
Exoplanets and photos of black holes are only the latest in a long, long series of claims.
Fool me once, shame on me; try to fool me 700 times, take a hike.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Scientists NEVER say they have the absolute truth, at least not any real ones. You get your facts from popular media which always overplays these things, always. The reason that science is so powerful and basically has given you pretty much everything you have is BECAUSE it doesn't consider anything absolute. It only has degrees of certainty and error bars. Unlike dogmatic systems, there's nothing in the world a young scientist would want to do more than overthrow some long standing theory.
Though of course these days they are never actually overthrown, not the ones that have been well tested. Long years of hard core tests that pass prove that a theory has predictive power. But, it may only have that power within a particular set of conditions that we can currently test. Go beyond that, and you may need something more. But that something more isn't going to suddenly make all those measurements invalid. That theory will just subsume the old one.
For instance, Einstein didn't invalidate Newtonian physics. The vast majority of the world and even space travel still uses Newtonian physics and it works perfectly well. What changed was the mental model of what causes gravity, and that new model works at speeds and gravities that Newtonian physics doesn't.
At some point, there may be a new theory that subsumes general relativity, but it won't make relativity invalid, it will just provide a new mental model that deals with an even broader realm of conditions. But no one can assume it is the ultimate one.
One thing that confuses many people who don't get science is that science has two big branches. One is figure out the ultimate roots of reality type stuff, and the other is get stuff done. The latter (and bigger) branch only requires that the model work very accurately, not that it represent the ultimate explanation of reality. Theories are validated based on how accurately they predict what will happen for the most part, not based on more metaphysical concerns.
The folks who are trying to figure out the ultimate roots of reality are not in the same sort of business. They can't really test their theories in many cases, which means it's not science in the strictest sense. And they can't run tests, they can only examine the one universe we have. It's a very tough row to hoe, since they don't have many of the tools that would normally be available to scientists.
Explorans limites defectum
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Dean Roddey wrote: Scientists NEVER say they have the absolute truth, at least not any real ones.
Exactly.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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You just assume that when a paper is reported by the popular press that this is a claim by the folks involved that it's an absolute truth. But it never is.
Explorans limites defectum
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I'm not the person in this discussion who is making gross assumptions, and I'll thank you to stop making them about other CP members.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Well you clearly didn't get these ideas from reading the actual papers, or you'd not be making such incorrect claims. The only place you get that kind of misinformation is from the popular press, or wingnuts who aren't part of the respectable scientific establishment.
Explorans limites defectum
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So, science being what it is, do share your research papers. I'm sure those who actually do it for a living are anxious to read your alternatives and are standing by to replace their current understanding of the universe with what you've come up with.
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Yeah - been going on since Galileo. The fool claimed that Copernicus was right about the earth going around the sun. Luckily, at the time, the church was able to get him to recant his foolish lies.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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When I'm falling from the sky after all the engines exploded on my plane due to an alien reptilian firing laser beams from it's eyes after hitching a ride on an Earth Killing asteroid (OK, so my nightmares are fairly specific - I'm a programmer, it's who I am) then the thing I'll be cursing at, apart from the indignity of missing the end of "A Star is Born" on that tiny seat-back screen, is that I will have died before they work out what's causing the acceleration of the universal expansion. Or indeed: if it's really expanding (Cue dramatic music)
So yes, that makes me sad that you feel that way too.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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In your dream, why did you, as a programmer have to creater an instance. Better to leave it abstract.
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E.
Comport Computing
Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
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Whereas the bowl of petunias falling beside you will just be thinking, "Not again!" 
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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That would pretty much be me. I don't think I'm the waving-the-tail-around happily type in that situation.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Not several, around one billion years younger. It's a valuable opportunity to claim that science has it wrong and as bible says the universe is 12 thousand years old with a flat earth at the center.
modified 20-Oct-19 21:02pm.
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Urban Cricket wrote: Not several, around one billion years younger.
Oh, is that all? 
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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..going crazy. It's the moment when you sip your morning in the coffee, wondering whether yesterday was real, or just a dream. For every day of the week.
All those people bragging about needing no sleep; if you are deprived of it, you're no longer functional.
Find a touchstone.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Eddy Vluggen wrote: sip your morning in the coffee
Or, it's the moment when you switch words around and speak incoherently. 
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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While being sober.
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Sober-ish...
The Beer Prayer - Our lager, which art in barrels, hallowed be thy drink. Thy will be drunk, I will be drunk, at home as it is in the tavern. Give us this day our foamy head, and forgive us our spillage as we forgive those who spill against us. And lead us not to incarceration, but deliver us from hangovers. For thine is the beer, the bitter and the lager, for ever and ever. Barmen.
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With some people that's all you can hope for.
"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"
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Thank you, I can use the understanding.
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E.
Comport Computing
Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
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Sleep drunk.
For days.
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Be careful. No one knew I drank until I showed up sober one day.
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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I don't drink; enough meds to prevent me from becoming a drunk.
Still, doesn't seem to be much difference. (Confused and happy)
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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It's not incoherently!!
..is it?
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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ZurdoDev wrote:
Or, it's the moment when you switch words around and speak incoherently.
Or, it's the moment when you switch words around and speak coherently?
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