And I agree that I’ve never heard the word ‘science’ used as a curiousity stopper.
Not the word, the concept. If I meant the word, I’d have said “Science!” rather than “Science”—though, come to think of it, no one had any logical way of knowing that… studies show we communicate much more ambiguously than we think we do.
No one is actually walking around pointing to light switches and saying, “Why does it work?” and hearing someone else respond “Science!” Rather, they fail to ask the question at all, because of the concept that it belongs to “science”, the scientific magisterium, and therefore, should be marked as “understood” rather than “mysterious”. Even though, in fact, they don’t know why the light switch works.
If anyone is going to ask for a real-world example of someone who does not know how a light switch works, I can’t provide one off the top of my head, but I’d suggest looking at this, which is even more dreadful.
What I am trying to do—to fulfill HA’s request of coming out and saying everything bluntly—is reawaken the delight in a world full of mysteries, which has been sapped by the notion that they are already understood, and therefore, no longer important. It’s not a verbal belief, but a way of seeing the world, which I am trying to bring into clear focus with parables. If I just said, “Hey, I saw a guy pass a light switch the other day, and he didn’t look at it curiously,” this would be true real-world example but it would not make the point.
There is a tremendous demand for mysteries which are frankly stupid. I wish this demand could be satisfied by scientific mysteries instead. But before we can live in that world, we have to undo the idea that what is scientific is not curiosity-material, that it is already marked as “understood”.
it’s fine for you to say that your purpose here is to focus on writing speed without worrying about quality
I did not say that, as you should be well aware if you are going to debate subtle and fine points. I certainly worry about quality. But there are specific things which take up a lot of time, such as finding a good illustrative real-world example, which I can’t do once a day. I do them whenever I have a good example ready to hand, e.g. as in “Say not ‘Complexity’”, but if not, then I can compose a parable in my head in bounded time because it draws only on internal resources. The Net is infinitely deep—for all practical purposes—and if a Google search fails once, I’ll give up and compose a parable. I will, of course, try to make it as high-quality a parable as possible.
“If anyone is going to ask for a real-world example of someone who does not know how a light switch works, I can’t provide one off the top of my head, but I’d suggest looking at this, which is even more dreadful.”
And I agree that I’ve never heard the word ‘science’ used as a curiousity stopper.
Not the word, the concept. If I meant the word, I’d have said “Science!” rather than “Science”—though, come to think of it, no one had any logical way of knowing that… studies show we communicate much more ambiguously than we think we do.
No one is actually walking around pointing to light switches and saying, “Why does it work?” and hearing someone else respond “Science!” Rather, they fail to ask the question at all, because of the concept that it belongs to “science”, the scientific magisterium, and therefore, should be marked as “understood” rather than “mysterious”. Even though, in fact, they don’t know why the light switch works.
If anyone is going to ask for a real-world example of someone who does not know how a light switch works, I can’t provide one off the top of my head, but I’d suggest looking at this, which is even more dreadful.
What I am trying to do—to fulfill HA’s request of coming out and saying everything bluntly—is reawaken the delight in a world full of mysteries, which has been sapped by the notion that they are already understood, and therefore, no longer important. It’s not a verbal belief, but a way of seeing the world, which I am trying to bring into clear focus with parables. If I just said, “Hey, I saw a guy pass a light switch the other day, and he didn’t look at it curiously,” this would be true real-world example but it would not make the point.
There is a tremendous demand for mysteries which are frankly stupid. I wish this demand could be satisfied by scientific mysteries instead. But before we can live in that world, we have to undo the idea that what is scientific is not curiosity-material, that it is already marked as “understood”.
it’s fine for you to say that your purpose here is to focus on writing speed without worrying about quality
I did not say that, as you should be well aware if you are going to debate subtle and fine points. I certainly worry about quality. But there are specific things which take up a lot of time, such as finding a good illustrative real-world example, which I can’t do once a day. I do them whenever I have a good example ready to hand, e.g. as in “Say not ‘Complexity’”, but if not, then I can compose a parable in my head in bounded time because it draws only on internal resources. The Net is infinitely deep—for all practical purposes—and if a Google search fails once, I’ll give up and compose a parable. I will, of course, try to make it as high-quality a parable as possible.
“If anyone is going to ask for a real-world example of someone who does not know how a light switch works, I can’t provide one off the top of my head, but I’d suggest looking at this, which is even more dreadful.”
--- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV9gRFv5Kgc