Silly Thought Experiment

A phuckall's pendulum one might say.

I ploughed my way through Focault's Pendulum and I thought the author to be sexually frustrated.

As I understand Focault he was saying that experts wield expertese in order to screw the rest of us, like the priests of old wielded Latin, and when you look at the wages of those who maintain essential services and compare them to the wages of experts you can see he might have had a point. And experts are generally descended from the well-to-do to whom they owe it all. And, of course, to the system which resulted in the well-to-do-idness. Which, also of course, is, and has been, in its essence, profoundly religious and an impossiblity in the hands of atheists.

One can play pretend experts by simply pretending to have understood rap's post and restricting one's social circle to those playing the same game. The trick is to make it, much as Stanley Unwin did, nearly comprehensible so that the addressee is left thinking he might be thick if he didn't understand it and as he can't be thick, that's a given, he pretends to understand it and it's pure gibberish as I'm inclined to think it might be intended to be.

What use is a fossil expert, say, for want of a better example, when your house is on fire and most people, sane people, such as myself, would always, and I use that word advisedly, call in the boys from Dynarod when the drains get blocked. Statistics prove that Bernie was rushed to hospital by guys who believed in God.

Theo, in Amarcord, when he climbed the tree, wasn't bellowing with a soul scarifying howl, the later ones when night was coming in, for an expert.

Spend, you've missed Foucault's Pendulum completely on several levels. The reference above had nothing to do with the Umberedo Eco, story or philosophy--it had to do with the pendulum discovered Leon Foucault that physically demonstrates to the incredibly dense, that the orb upon which we stand rotates once every 24 hours.

A reasoned response to your last post might be best to use the Sigmund Freud quote, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." So your spurious rambling, Spend, is for the vast part, meaningless.

As for the ceaseless rant about the curious gene and it's day to day utility, I would recommend that you at least start your road to understanding the applicability by carousing the works of David Macaulay and James Burke like any other moderately intelligent pre adolescent.

Rap

rap-

I don't think you will find many moderately intelligent pre adolescents who see the experts who make the most noise as having it off. Judging by the "off the wood" gratuitious insult it might be suspected that you yourself have not reached that position yet.

And bald assertions such as-



are the epitome of meaninglessness. The vast part of some mountains are just rocks. The diamonds have to be searched for.

I presume the small part had some meaning then for you.

You'll have to explain the ceaseless rant about the curious gene and its day to day utility.

My feeling about the two authors you recommend is that they are both carpetbaggers plugging away on behalf of the wannabee equipment fetishists using the "Whooing" and "aahing" technique.

Science has demonstrated that most mountains are just rocks, but then makes reasons why you would expect selected mountains to be worthy of a search.

As you wrote earlier in a superfluous aside In response I would be more concerned that 'the guys' believed in germ theory.

Rap

What's germ theory?

Is that bogies will come and bite your arse in the night if you don't give experts all your money.

Piss off.

Yup. That's exactly what germ theory is. Good call.

Application of germ theory has been shown to be in many cases a "your money or your life" decision.

Rap

I understood we have immune systyems to deal with germs.

Maybe the many cases are the battered immune systems and looking at those might be fruitful.

One of the first and classic examples of the beneficial application of germ theory was during our civil war (1861-65). During that conflict it was noticed that meatball surgeons performing what was mostly amputations that washed their hands and surgical instruments between operations had significantly higher patient survival. Prior to that it was thought normal that pustules (infection) would form around wounds, and treatment for these pustules were by hit or miss application of homespun poultices.

As a result of this discovery, recovery hospitals went from being germ ridden to septic. Consequently, surgery survival improved dramatically.

War has been shown to be a benefit to the medical sciences. The civil war in particular improved medical science by the use of septic surgical conditions and the use of anesthesia.

However, those pieces of scientific knowledge cost about 500,000 lives in practice. If it had been done using a laboratory application of the scientific method by a bunch of namby researchers it would have been much less costly.

Rap

OK rap.

What is germ theory?

Like all scientific theories is has to explain observations, make predictions and obey Occams Razor. As with most scientific theories it is understandable, and under constant attack for its validity. IOW obey the Tao of Science.

Germ Theory according to wikipedia

Rap

Yes rap, but, you are into the saving lives business because you're a good bloke.

What about the species. Is the application of germ theory so that good blokes proliferate weakening the species and possibly rendering it susceptible to a pathogen which any healthy population would see off or even be in symbiosis with.

I'm only looking at it from the point of view I imagine an evolutionary scientist would.

Do anti-biotics, for example, kill off anything friendly? We know they cause the invaders to think up escape routes. Is it scientific arrogance to think we can manage the invaders over long periods?

Germ theory saved my life.

I'm just being disinterested for a bit seeing as it's a science thread and not a good bloke appreciation society.