The difference between pseudoscience and science is the lab
After having a rousing discussion with a friendly fellow about Nostradamus, "Catholic" imagery, and aboriginal telepathy, I can't help but think one chapter from "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!" would likely have been an easier recommendation than a whole book, "The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark".
Here is that one chapter. It is the last chapter of "Surely you're joking". Feynman has more of a jovial tone than Sagan, who seems more like he is woefully pulling back the curtain of society. It is from a commencement address he gave at Caltech in 1974. It hits the same sort of subjects as the first few chapters of Demon Haunted World.
books.google.com/books
Just in case the link breaks, here are the first two paragraphs:
"DURING the Middle Ages there were all kinds of crazy ideas, such as that a peice of rhinoceros horn would increase potency. Then a method was discovered for seperating the ideas--which was to try one and see if ti worked, and if ti didn't work, to eliminate it. This method became organized, of course, into science. And it developed very well, so well that we are now in the scientific age. It is such a scientific age, in fact, that we have difficulty in understanding how witch doctors could have ever existed, when nothing that they ever proposed ever really worked--or very little of it did.
But even today I meet lots of people who sooner or later get me into a conversation about UFOs, or astrology, or some form of new mysticism, expanded consciousness, new types of awareness, ESP and so forth. And I've concluded it's not a scientific world"
Then the next two paragraphs talk about hallucinations and hot naked babes. True story.
If that isn't a way to get someone to read something, I don't what is.
What gets me about getting all existential is always the afterlife question. Clearly, we don't have data nor can test (though people have experimented, just very inconclusively). I still feel good about recommending Sagan over Feynman, particularly because of this older post of mine (really Sagan's) that [what I've read of] Feynman doesn't touch on.
arsekaslyx.livejournal.com/8904.html
And while I'm hitting myself up on old posts that cover multiple bases at once, THIS ONE IS FUCKING PERFECT. Its actually a SMBC. "Uncomfortable truthasarus"
www.smbc-comics.com/index.php
Here is that one chapter. It is the last chapter of "Surely you're joking". Feynman has more of a jovial tone than Sagan, who seems more like he is woefully pulling back the curtain of society. It is from a commencement address he gave at Caltech in 1974. It hits the same sort of subjects as the first few chapters of Demon Haunted World.
books.google.com/books
Just in case the link breaks, here are the first two paragraphs:
"DURING the Middle Ages there were all kinds of crazy ideas, such as that a peice of rhinoceros horn would increase potency. Then a method was discovered for seperating the ideas--which was to try one and see if ti worked, and if ti didn't work, to eliminate it. This method became organized, of course, into science. And it developed very well, so well that we are now in the scientific age. It is such a scientific age, in fact, that we have difficulty in understanding how witch doctors could have ever existed, when nothing that they ever proposed ever really worked--or very little of it did.
But even today I meet lots of people who sooner or later get me into a conversation about UFOs, or astrology, or some form of new mysticism, expanded consciousness, new types of awareness, ESP and so forth. And I've concluded it's not a scientific world"
Then the next two paragraphs talk about hallucinations and hot naked babes. True story.
If that isn't a way to get someone to read something, I don't what is.
What gets me about getting all existential is always the afterlife question. Clearly, we don't have data nor can test (though people have experimented, just very inconclusively). I still feel good about recommending Sagan over Feynman, particularly because of this older post of mine (really Sagan's) that [what I've read of] Feynman doesn't touch on.
arsekaslyx.livejournal.com/8904.html
And while I'm hitting myself up on old posts that cover multiple bases at once, THIS ONE IS FUCKING PERFECT. Its actually a SMBC. "Uncomfortable truthasarus"
www.smbc-comics.com/index.php