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Popular Science shuts down its Web Comments

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by durvasa, Oct 2, 2013.

  1. Tom Bombadillo

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    Only If you are scientifically illiterate.

    And now, you look like a fool. :)

    Thanks!
     
    #41 Tom Bombadillo, Oct 2, 2013
    Last edited: Oct 2, 2013
  2. bucket

    bucket Member

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    , he typed, and with the push of a button sent his message around the world at the speed of light, by means of processes achieved through centuries of innovation—a vast web of innovations and discoveries that would take a lifetime merely to understand, much less replicate.
     
  3. fchowd0311

    fchowd0311 Member

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    So let's do the alternative and create fake stories to explain the unknown so we can comfort ourselves.
     
  4. Dubious

    Dubious Member

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    Really? I don't Facebook. What happens when one friend or family member says some stupid **** and another friend or family member calls them on it?
    Around the world feuds, atrocities and wars have started that way.
     
  5. Rashmon

    Rashmon Member

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  6. Tom Bombadillo

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    You can clearly see the bias in Bigtexxx in threads like these, involving science. He does not need evidence to continue arguing his political agenda. Reminds me of the words of the late great Carl Sagan.

    "You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe"

    You can't begin to have the conversation until you are privy to the things that science CAN explain, which is quite a bit.
     
    1 person likes this.
  7. Joshfast

    Joshfast "We're all gonna die" - Billy Sole
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    The utter stupidity in D&D is getting to out of hand.
     
  8. bigtexxx

    bigtexxx Member

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    What percentage of "things" (as you put it) can science truly explain? What will people in 500 years look back and think of our science? The science of 500 years ago is laughed at today.
     
  9. Anticope

    Anticope Member

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    In 500 years they will be laughing at people like you. Wait, nevermind, I'm confusing 500 years in the future with today.
     
  10. bongman

    bongman Member

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    We cannot know how much we do know because we don't know how much of the universe there is to discover. In 500 years, they will say that we got the big bang and evolution right.

    If our current Science is flawed, we won't be able to fly, build structures, use WIFI to connect to the internet, make phones do all sorts of wonderful things, etc. The same reason, logic and mathematics used to make all of the above work is the same process used to evaluate the theory of evolution, big bang and abiogenesis.

    If you want to go through the list of scientific claims that we currently laugh at and study how those conclusions were made, you might discover that they used psuedo science - same type of methodology these so called "creationist scientist" use.
     
  11. Qball

    Qball Member

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    Getting rid of comments section is bad for business. It's a necessary evil. Getting rid of it is like cutting off your toe cause the toenail is too long. They're going to lose a lot of hits and it'll bite them in the ass down the road.
     
    1 person likes this.
  12. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Member

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    I am going to point out that one reason why science was considered so bad 500 years ago was that a lot of it was hamstrung by religion. Remember 500 years ago Galileo was forced to recant his views that the Earth wasn't the center of the Universe by the Church.
     
  13. Air Langhi

    Air Langhi Contributing Member

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    Seriously how do computers work? It must be random chance that these electron beams are able to etch silicon gates whose length is 22nm. I mean what is the probability of that happening? Well Gauss was lucky to so we can't really use his finding on probability. We can't see electrons so they probably don't exist. So bigtexxx is right what do we really know?

    EW and Bigtexxx make Rice look like a bad school.
     
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  14. Bandwagoner

    Bandwagoner Member

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    Your attempt at comedy has exceeded your knowledge.
     
  15. Invisible Fan

    Invisible Fan Member

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    Yeah I necro'd a promising thread went to crap, but it's only to comment on how dummies with no time nor status to lose will win any stupid debate through attrition. It's like the Fox-News trope of repeating a lie and figuring out ways to prove dominance rather than presenting substance to their side of argument.

    So no, an expert doesn't need to refute challenges all the time given that the challenger has built his stance purely on opinion and gut-feeling without any preconception of nuance and context from which he's debating upon.

    I assumed that was ground rules in Debate-101, but that class has been mothballed and replaced with Grandstanding-101, which has built the lives of many politicians and news pundits.

    Anonymous and ephemeral internet commenting is its poorer and uglier reflection.

    Nice counterpoint.

    America is the home of the least common denominator.

    Wordsmithery calls it simplicity and convenience, but in that drive to reduce complex things into those two neat and marketable packages, there's a propensity to take complexity for granted, or even as faith.
     

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