I posted the following from one of Crichton's lectures on April 4. Looking back it seems right that it was only days after April Fool's Day.
"Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science, consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus."
"So we all tend to give science credence, even when it is not warranted. I will show you many examples of unwarranted credence tonight. But here’s an example to begin. This is the famous Drake equation from the 1960s to estimate the number of advanced civilizations in the galaxy.
N=N*fp ne fl fi fc fL
Where N is the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy; fp is the fraction with planets; ne is the number of planets per star capable of supporting life; fl is the fraction of planets where life evolves; fi is the fraction where intelligent life evolves; and fc is the fraction that communicates; and fL is the fraction of the planet’s life during which the communicating civilizations live.
The problem with this equation is that none of the terms can be known. As a result, the Drake equation can have any value from “billions and billions” to zero. An expression that can mean anything means nothing. The mathematical appearance is deceptive. In scientific terms—by which I mean testable hypotheses—the Drake equation is really meaninglessness."
The pundits say that he could could explain science and make it interesting. Partly true. What he could really do that the others could not was cut to the core of nonsense being tossed around as fact.
For that he wasn't well liked, but he was so good that they couldn't make him go away. At his worst he was a writer of thrillers, not to bad in itself.
At his best he was a recruiter of non-believers who learned to say, "Prove it. Don't claim it."
To someone who has seen the problems that the "isms" have caused that is high praise.
Remember the Drake Formula when, in the not too distant future, the Marxists and other collectivists use the man made global warming hoax to destroy the economy and control your every movement. Study it and demand that the shysters and hooligans who pander to the uneducated tell you exactly why it is wrong.
Link to Website
Link to death article.
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