The main reason that scientists rejected continental drift was that there was no known mechanism which could cause it; plate tectonics wasn’t developed until the late 1950′s.
Continental drift is also commonly invoked by pseudoscientists as a reason not to trust scientists, and if you do so too you’re in very bad company. There’s a reason why pseudoscientists keep using continental drift for this purpose and don’t have dozens of examples: examples are very hard to find. Even if you decide that continental drift is close enough that it counts, it’s a very atypical case. Most of the time scientists reject something out of hand, they’re right, or at worst, wrong about the thing existing, but right about the lack of good evidence so far.
The main reason that scientists rejected continental drift was that there was no known mechanism which could cause it; plate tectonics wasn’t developed until the late 1950′s.
There was also a great deal of institutional backlash against proponents of continental drift, which was my point.
Continental drift is also commonly invoked by pseudoscientists as a reason not to trust scientists, and if you do so too you’re in very bad company.
Guilt by association? Grow up.
There’s a reason why pseudoscientists keep using continental drift for this purpose and don’t have dozens of examples: examples are very hard to find. Even if you decide that continental drift is close enough that it counts, it’s a very atypical case.
There are many, many cases of scientists being oppressed and dismissed because of their race, their religious beliefs, and their politics. That’s the problem, and that’s what’s going on with the CS people who still think AI Winter implies AGI isn’t worth studying.
There was also a great deal of institutional backlash against proponents of continental drift, which was my point.
So? I’m pretty sure that there would be backlash against, say, homeopaths in a medical association. Backlash against deserving targets (which include people who are correct but because of unlucky circumstances, legitimately look wrong) doesn’t count.
I’m reminded of an argument I had with a proponent of psychic power. He asked me what if psychic powers happen to be of such a nature that they can’t be detected by experiments, don’t show up in double-blind tests, etc.. I pointed out that he was postulating that psi is real but looks exactly like a fake. If something looks exactly like a fake, at some point the rational thing to do is treat it as fake. At that point in history, continental drift happened to look like a fake.
Guilt by association? Grow up.
That’s not guilt by association, it’s pointing out that the example is used by pseudoscientists for a reason, and this reason applies to you too.
There are many, many cases of scientists being oppressed and dismissed because of their race, their religious beliefs, and their politics.
If scientists dismissed cryonics because of the supporters’ race, religion, or politics, you might have a point.
I’ll limit my response to the following amusing footnote:
If scientists dismissed cryonics because of the supporters’ race, religion, or politics, you might have a point.
This is, in fact, what happened between early cryonics and cryobiology.
EDIT: Just so people aren’t misled by Jiro’s motivated interpretation of the link:
However, according to the cryobiologist informant who attributes to this episode the formal hardening of the Society for Cryobiology against cryonics, the repercussions from this incident were far-reaching. Rumors about the presentation—often wildly distorted rumors—began to circulate. One particularly pernicious rumor, according to this informant, was that my presentation had included graphic photos of “corpses’ heads being cut off.” This was not the case. Surgical photos which were shown were of thoracic surgery to place cannula and would be suitable for viewing by any audience drawn from the general public.
This informant also indicates that it was his perception that this presentation caused real fear and anger amongst the Officers and Directors of the Society. They felt as if they had been “invaded” and that such a presentation given during the course of, and thus under the aegis of, their meeting could cause them to be publicly associated with cryonics. Comments such as “what if the press got wind of this,” or “what if a reporter had been there” were reported to have circulated.
Also, the presentation may have brought into sharper focus the fact that cryonicists existed, were really freezing people, and that they were using sophisticated procedures borrowed from medicine, and yes, even from cryobiology, which could cause confusion between the “real” science of cryobiology and the “fraud” of cryonics in the public eye. More to the point, it was clear that cryonicists were not operating in some back room and mumbling inarticulately; they were now right there in the midst of the cryobiologists and they were anything but inarticulate, bumbling back-room fools.
You’re equivocating on the term “political”. When the context is “race, religion, or politics”, “political” doesn’t normally mean “related to human status”, it means “related to government”. Besides, they only considered it low status based on their belief that it is scientifically nonsensical.
My reply was steelmanning your post by assuming that the ethical considerations mentioned in the article counted as religious. That was the only thing mentioned in it that could reasonably fall under “race, religion, or politics” as that is normally understood.
Most of the history described in your own link makes it clear that scientists objected because they think cryonics is scientifically nonsense, not because of race, religion, or politics. The article then tacks on a claim that scientists reject it for ethical reasons, but that isn’t supported by its own history, just by a few quotes with no evidence that these beliefs are prevalent among anyone other than the people quoted.
Furthermore, of the quotes it does give, one of them is vague enough that I have no idea if it means in context what the article claims it means. Saying that the “end result” is damaging doesn’t necessarily mean that having unfrozen people walking around is damaging—it may mean that he thinks cryonics doesn’t work and that having a lot of resources wasted on freezing corpses is damaging.
The main reason that scientists rejected continental drift was that there was no known mechanism which could cause it; plate tectonics wasn’t developed until the late 1950′s.
Continental drift is also commonly invoked by pseudoscientists as a reason not to trust scientists, and if you do so too you’re in very bad company. There’s a reason why pseudoscientists keep using continental drift for this purpose and don’t have dozens of examples: examples are very hard to find. Even if you decide that continental drift is close enough that it counts, it’s a very atypical case. Most of the time scientists reject something out of hand, they’re right, or at worst, wrong about the thing existing, but right about the lack of good evidence so far.
There was also a great deal of institutional backlash against proponents of continental drift, which was my point.
Guilt by association? Grow up.
There are many, many cases of scientists being oppressed and dismissed because of their race, their religious beliefs, and their politics. That’s the problem, and that’s what’s going on with the CS people who still think AI Winter implies AGI isn’t worth studying.
So? I’m pretty sure that there would be backlash against, say, homeopaths in a medical association. Backlash against deserving targets (which include people who are correct but because of unlucky circumstances, legitimately look wrong) doesn’t count.
I’m reminded of an argument I had with a proponent of psychic power. He asked me what if psychic powers happen to be of such a nature that they can’t be detected by experiments, don’t show up in double-blind tests, etc.. I pointed out that he was postulating that psi is real but looks exactly like a fake. If something looks exactly like a fake, at some point the rational thing to do is treat it as fake. At that point in history, continental drift happened to look like a fake.
That’s not guilt by association, it’s pointing out that the example is used by pseudoscientists for a reason, and this reason applies to you too.
If scientists dismissed cryonics because of the supporters’ race, religion, or politics, you might have a point.
I’ll limit my response to the following amusing footnote:
This is, in fact, what happened between early cryonics and cryobiology.
EDIT: Just so people aren’t misled by Jiro’s motivated interpretation of the link:
Obviously political.
You’re equivocating on the term “political”. When the context is “race, religion, or politics”, “political” doesn’t normally mean “related to human status”, it means “related to government”. Besides, they only considered it low status based on their belief that it is scientifically nonsensical.
My reply was steelmanning your post by assuming that the ethical considerations mentioned in the article counted as religious. That was the only thing mentioned in it that could reasonably fall under “race, religion, or politics” as that is normally understood.
Most of the history described in your own link makes it clear that scientists objected because they think cryonics is scientifically nonsense, not because of race, religion, or politics. The article then tacks on a claim that scientists reject it for ethical reasons, but that isn’t supported by its own history, just by a few quotes with no evidence that these beliefs are prevalent among anyone other than the people quoted.
Furthermore, of the quotes it does give, one of them is vague enough that I have no idea if it means in context what the article claims it means. Saying that the “end result” is damaging doesn’t necessarily mean that having unfrozen people walking around is damaging—it may mean that he thinks cryonics doesn’t work and that having a lot of resources wasted on freezing corpses is damaging.